How do I install LongCat-Video?
Two steps. The repo ships clean install instructions.
Step 1: Clone the repo
bash
git clone https://github.com/meituan-longcat/LongCat-Video.git
cd LongCat-Video
The official repo is github.com/meituan-longcat/LongCat-Video — released October 25, 2025, MIT licensed.
Step 2: Install dependencies
bash
pip install -r requirements.txt
python download_weights.py
The full 13.6B weights are ~27GB. On a 24GB card you will run with offloading. On a 12GB card, use the Wan2GP integration which adds aggressive layer offloading.
Step 3: Generate your first clip
bash
python generate.py \
--task text2video \
--prompt "A red fox running through a snowy forest at dusk, cinematic lens flare" \
--duration 10 \
--output ./fox.mp4
Step 4: Use video continuation for long clips
This is the LongCat-specific trick. Instead of generating one 5-second clip and praying, you generate, then continue:
bash
python generate.py \
--task continuation \
--input ./fox.mp4 \
--prompt "fox stops, looks at camera, then runs into the trees" \
--duration 15 \
--output ./fox-extended.mp4
The model uses a coarse-to-fine generation strategy along temporal and spatial axes — that is the technical trick that makes minutes-long output stay coherent.
Step 5: Try the Avatar variant
Released December 16, 2025, LongCat-Video-Avatar adds audio-driven avatar animation. Feed an image and an audio file — get a talking head.
bash
python generate.py \
--task avatar \
--image ./headshot.png \
--audio ./narration.mp3 \
--output ./talking-head.mp4
What is LongCat-Video?
LongCat-Video is Meituan's open-weight video model — a 13.6B parameter dense architecture that handles text-to-video, image-to-video, video continuation, long-form generation, interactive video, and audio-driven avatars. The repo crossed 2.4k stars by May 2026.
The maintainers describe it as "a unified architecture for multiple tasks" with "strong performance across each individual task". The trick is the coarse-to-fine generation strategy that keeps long clips coherent instead of degrading after a few seconds.
Is LongCat-Video really free?
Yes. The license is MIT including commercial use. Download the weights, run on your GPU, no metering, no API key.
Compare with Sora 2: ChatGPT Plus at $20/month gets you 1,000 Sora credits capped at 480p. ChatGPT Pro at $200/month gets 10,000 credits up to 1080p. API pricing is $0.10/second for 720p, $0.30/second for Sora 2 Pro 720p, $0.50/second for 1024p. A 30-second clip at 1024p costs $15.
How is LongCat-Video different from Sora 2?
Three concrete differences:
- License: LongCat is MIT — your output is yours, including commercial use. Sora outputs live under OpenAI's terms.
- Long-form: LongCat is built for minutes-long video continuation. Sora 2 default clips are short — to extend you spend more credits.
- Cost per minute: Free on LongCat (electricity). Roughly $18 per minute on Sora 2 Pro 720p.
The Meituan team trained LongCat with multi-reward Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) — that is the RL technique that closed the quality gap with proprietary models despite using fewer activated parameters.
What's the catch?
- Hardware bar is real. The full 13.6B weights want at least 16GB VRAM with offloading, or 24GB native. On a smaller card, run via Wan2GP which adds aggressive layer offloading.
- Setup is technical. Sora 2 is one click from ChatGPT. LongCat is git clone, pip install, and a weights download.
- English-only prompting works best. It is from Meituan, training data weighted toward Chinese. English prompts work fine, but very specific stylistic English prompts sometimes need rephrasing.
Bottom line
If you have a 16GB+ GPU and need long-form video generation, LongCat-Video replaces Sora 2 entirely for free. The minute-long continuation feature is genuinely better than Sora's default short-clip workflow. If you do not have the hardware or you need one quick clip with zero setup, Sora 2 still has a place — but at $200/month, it is not where most creators should land.
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