KinoPipe vs api.video

api.video is a hosting and delivery platform: upload, encode for free, then pay per minute stored and per minute watched, with a player, live streaming and analytics. KinoPipe does not host or play anything; it runs a typed edit and hands back a file. They solve different halves of the video problem.

Checked against public product pages on August 26, 2026.

Choose KinoPipe when

you need the edit itself (trim, 9:16 crop, subtitles, compress, GIF) from an API or an agent over MCP, and you deliver the result yourself or through another platform.

Choose api.video when

you need to host, stream and play videos in your product, with live streaming, captions, chapters and viewer analytics included.

Area	KinoPipe	api.video
Core job	Edit a source file and return a finished asset	Upload, encode, host, deliver and play video on demand or live
Editing operations	39 typed tools plus single-pass custom recipes	Watermarks, thumbnails, captions, chapters and summaries endpoints on hosted videos
Agent access	Remote MCP server with OAuth 2.1 plus REST	REST API, SDKs and no-code integrations; no MCP server mentioned in the docs we read
Free tier	100 credits once, full-length outputs, no card	Sandbox: videos limited to 30 seconds, watermarked, deleted after 24 hours (as of 26 August 2026)
Pricing unit	Credits: the greater of worker seconds or 6 MiB output units	Encoding free; hosting from $0.00285 per minute stored and delivery from $0.0017 per minute watched (as of 26 August 2026)
Output retention	Uploads 24 hours, outputs up to 12 months, then gone	Hosted for as long as you pay for storage

Test KinoPipe on your own source

Upload a file on any tool page, run a live job and download the result before choosing an API.

Run resize video Read API docs

Sources

api.video pricing api.video documentation api.video Videos API reference

Before you choose

Can KinoPipe host and stream my videos?

No. Outputs are served from a CDN URL for up to 12 months so you can download or re-upload them, but there is no player, no adaptive streaming and no analytics. api.video, Mux or your own bucket handle that part.

Can I edit with KinoPipe and host on api.video?

Yes. Run the edit on KinoPipe, take the output URL, then upload it to api.video with their API. Agents do this in one workflow over MCP.

Which is cheaper?

They price different things. api.video charges for minutes stored and watched, KinoPipe for the compute and size of each edit. If you only need edits, you do not pay for hosting; if you need hosting, an editing API alone is not enough.