Higgsfield Model Selection Guide

Choosing the right model is the single biggest factor in output quality after the prompt. This file handles most selection questions. For deep per-model documentation (prompting specifics, parameters, edge cases, API details) → read MODELS-DEEP-REFERENCE.md.

Quick Decision Flowchart

Fast lookup — for detailed comparisons see the full tables below.

Pricing tiers: Free (Soul 2.0, DoP Lite) · Low (0.1–2 credits) · Mid (2–10 credits) · Premium (10+ credits). See the Credit Cost Reference below for exact per-model costs.

Video Models — Comparison

Decision Flowchart

Is this image or video?
├── IMAGE
│   ├── Person / portrait? → Soul 2.0
│   ├── Cinematic keyframe for I2V pipeline? → Soul Cinema Preview
│   ├── Native 4K / image series / storyboarding? → Kling Image 3.0
│   ├── Maximum sharpness / 4K? → Nano Banana Pro
│   ├── Fast pro-quality / text rendering? → Nano Banana 2
│   ├── Reference consistency or dense text? → Seedream 4.5
│   ├── Complex layout / multi-panel? → Seedream 5.0 Lite
│   ├── Text/logo in image? → GPT Image 1.5
│   └── Edit an existing image? → Flux Kontext
│
└── VIDEO
    ├── EDIT existing footage?
    │   ├── Relight, restyle, swap, remove → Kling O1 Video Edit
    │   └── Higher quality 3.0 edit → Kling 3.0 Omni Edit
    │
    ├── Is a human character the focus?
    │   ├── Need audio, long clip (15s), multi-shot → Kling 3.0
    │   ├── Need to clone from reference video → Kling 3.0 Omni
    │   ├── Best lip-sync + multilingual → Seedance 1.5 Pro
    │   ├── Legacy-tier great character (audio togglable via `sound`) → Kling 2.6
    │   └── Fast iteration → Kling 2.5 Turbo
    │
    ├── Need motion transfer from reference video?
    │   └── → Kling 3.0 Motion Control
    │
    ├── Animate a still image with cinematic camera?
    │   └── → Higgsfield DoP (Lite/Standard/Turbo)
    │
    ├── Is the environment/phenomenon the hero?
    │   ├── Nature, documentary, stable → Veo 3
    │   ├── Need ref image consistency → Veo 3.1
    │   ├── Budget Veo 3.1 quality / volume → Veo 3.1 Lite
    │   ├── 60fps, first+last frame, ref images → Wan 2.7
    │   └── Artistic, painterly, fantasy → Wan 2.5/2.6
    │
    ├── Is it action/spectacle?
    │   ├── Epic scale, crowds, physics → Sora 2
    │   ├── VFX, anime, fluid motion → Minimax Hailuo 2.3
    │   └── Dance, sports, budget motion → Minimax Hailuo 02
    │
    ├── Need maximum reference control?
    │   ├── Up to 12 assets (images+video+audio) → Seedance 2.0
    │   ├── Up to 7 image refs → Kling O1 Video
    │   ├── Image + video refs with native audio (4–10s, 720p) → Gemini Omni Flash
    │   └── Up to 3 asset refs → Veo 3.1
    │
    └── Speed/cost priority?
        ├── Fastest Kling → Kling 2.5 Turbo
        ├── Fastest Seedance → Seedance Pro
        └── Fastest Veo → Veo 3.1 Fast or Veo 3 Fast

Image Models — Quick Selection

Full image model specs + UI controls → ../../image-models.md Full Photodump preset library (29 named styles) → ../../photodump-presets.md

Budget Tiers

Image models — by credit cost:

• Free / near-free: Soul 2.0 (5K gens) · Z-Image (0.15) · Face Swap (2 free)
• Budget (0.5–1): Higgsfield Soul · Kling O1 · Seedream family · Nano Banana · Wan 2.2 · Reve
• Mid (1.5–2): Nano Banana 2 · Multi Reference · FLUX.2 Pro · Flux Kontext Max · GPT Image · NB Pro · Character Swap
• Premium (5–6): FLUX.2 Flex · FLUX.2 Max

General pricing tiers (video + image, approximate):

• Free: Soul 2.0 · DoP Lite (limited)
• Low: 0.1–2 credits per generation
• Mid: 2–10 credits per generation
• Premium: 10+ credits per generation

For exact per-model video costs see the Credit Cost Reference in ../../model-guide.md.

Unique Feature Matrix

Key Model Notes

Kling 3.0 vs 2.6: 3.0 is the current top model — longer clips (15s vs 10s), native audio, multi-shot AI direction, physics engine, 4K HDR, stylized output engine. 2.6 is now legacy — use 3.0 for all new work unless cost is the primary constraint.

Kling V3 vs O3: Use V3 for prompt-driven cinematic work (text-to-video, image-to-video). Use O3 when you have reference media (video or image+audio) to anchor character identity — O3's reference-based consistency is its defining advantage.

Kling 3.0 Motion Control: Upload a 3–30s reference clip to transfer full-body motion, hand gestures, facial expressions. Image Orientation for camera/talking head; Video Orientation for complex motions (dancing, action, full-body movement).

Seedance 2.0: Rule of 12 (up to 12 assets per generation). Real person face uploads blocked — use synthetic character references. Best practices for Seedance 2.0 prompting are integrated into the sub-skills (see higgsfield-prompt, higgsfield-camera, higgsfield-motion).

Veo 3.1 vs 3.1 Lite vs 3: 3.1 adds reference images (up to 3), first/last frame, video extension, 4K. 3.1 Lite is budget-priced 3.1 quality at 1080p — supports T2V and I2V, costs less than half of 3.1 Fast. 3 is stable and proven. Use 3.1 for subject consistency, 3.1 Lite for volume, 3 for pure environment/nature.

Wan 2.7: Major upgrade — native 60fps (vs 24fps in 2.6), up to 15s duration, first+last frame anchoring, up to 5 reference images, 4-model suite (T2V/I2V/R2V/video edit), Flow-Matching architecture. 40% better physics consistency over 2.6.

Wan 2.5: First Wan version with native audio — joint text/audio/video generation. Supports audio-driven video (upload audio to drive visuals). 1080p, 5–10s.

Minimax Hailuo 2.3 vs 02: 2.3 is a major upgrade — improved physics, anime/illustration styles, facial micro-expressions, better prompt adherence. Fast variant now at 1080p (02 Fast was 512p). 02 remains available for budget motion work.

Grok Imagine: Aurora architecture (autoregressive, not diffusion) — excels at text/logo rendering and multi-image compositing. Image editing supports multi-turn iterative chains.

Gemini Omni Flash: Google's reference-driven video model — accepts both image and video references, generates native audio, 4–10s at 720p (16:9 or 9:16). Use it when you want reference-anchored clips with sound at a fast/light tier rather than flagship fidelity.

For deep documentation on any specific model → read MODELS-DEEP-REFERENCE.md

Cinema Studio 3.0 (Business/Team Plan)

Cinema Studio 3.0 is a separate generation engine available on Business and Team plans. Version toggle in the upper-right corner of the Cinema Studio UI switches between 2.5 and 3.0.

For full Cinema Studio 3.0 documentation → see higgsfield-cinema

Cinema Studio 3.5 sits alongside 2.5 and 3.0 in the model selector — all three coexist on the platform, version is user-selected, and there is no auto-routing between them. 3.5 reframes the surface: the main UI collapses creative control into three pills (Genre / Style / Camera), each defaulting to Auto with manual override available. Optical physics is restored via a four-axis Camera Settings panel (Camera Body / Lens / Focal Length / Aperture, with 75mm added as a new focal length vs 2.5's 8/14/35/50mm set — vocabulary differs from 2.5; do not mix). The Style Settings panel exposes three preset axes (Color Palette / Lighting / Camera Moveset Style) plus a free-form Manual Style mode for natural-language style direction. An AI director toggle is visible in the bottom toolbar; function not yet documented. 3.5 supports both video and image generation; the image-mode picker exposes four Cinematic models (Soul Cinema default, plus Cinematic Characters, Cinematic Locations, and Cinematic Cameras with 2.5 vocabulary) — see higgsfield-cinema for the image-mode surface.

For full Cinema Studio 3.5 documentation → see higgsfield-cinema

Related skills

• higgsfield-prompt — MCSLA formula, prompt structure
• higgsfield-cinema — Cinema Studio model selection
• higgsfield-assist — Credit optimization and plan selection
• higgsfield-audio — Audio-capable model details
• templates/ — Annotated templates with per-genre model recommendations