Grok Imagine 1.5 vs Veo 3.1

Each row above is read from the same tables as the Grok Imagine 1.5 and Veo 3.1 pages. The table below sets beside them what xAI and Google document for each model, read on November 1, 2026, and what DreamBench does with it.

A DreamBench video uses one model for every scene, so to compare them on your idea, make it twice, once on each.

xAI presents Grok Imagine 1.5 as an image-to-video model: give it a starting picture and describe the motion. On DreamBench’s Video page it works from your words alone. In Film Studio, DreamBench draws an opening frame for each clip from your reference images, up to 8 a video, or from the characters and places it designs, and Grok Imagine 1.5 sets that frame moving with sound. The reference images themselves never reach the model.

Veo 3.1 works two ways in Film Studio. The full model takes the sheets DreamBench builds from your references, up to 3 in each scene, which Google calls ingredients; Google accepts them only on 8-second clips, so those scenes run 8 seconds. Veo 3.1 Fast and Veo 3.1 Lite take no sheets: DreamBench makes an opening frame from them, as it does for Grok Imagine 1.5, and the model animates it.

Both makers’ own tools also pin the end of a clip. xAI’s docs describe a last frame, a first and last frame, and up to 4 keyframes inside the clip; Google describes first and last frame on all three Veo 3.1 tiers. DreamBench’s composer has no slot for a last frame on either model: where a scene ends is written in its prompt.

On the Video page, a Grok Imagine 1.5 clip runs 4 to 15 seconds and a Veo 3.1 clip 4, 6 or 8. In Film Studio, a new film is cut into clips of 3 to 12 seconds, so a Grok Imagine 1.5 scene can run up to 12, while every Veo 3.1 scene is 4, 6 or 8. Either way a longer video is more scenes, joined: up to 30 seconds on Starter, 2 minutes on Plus and 5 minutes on Ultra and Studio.

Grok Imagine 1.5 renders 720p and 1080p on the same model. Veo 3.1 renders 720p on Veo 3.1 Fast and 1080p or 4K on the full model, and Fast and Lite make 720p and 1080p in their own right. xAI’s API also lists 480p and taller and wider ratios such as 21:9; on DreamBench, Grok Imagine 1.5 frames 1:1, 16:9, 9:16 and 4:3, and Veo 3.1 frames 16:9 and 9:16.

Only Grok Imagine 1.5

• Runs up to 15 seconds in one clip on the Video page.
• Frames 1:1 and 4:3.
• Runs scenes of up to 12 seconds in Film Studio, where every Veo 3.1 scene is 4, 6 or 8.

Only Veo 3.1

• Renders 4K, on the full model.
• Takes your reference sheets in each scene, on the full model.
• Comes in three tiers: Veo 3.1 for finished work, Fast for ads and quick tests, Lite for drafts and volume.
• Carries SynthID, Google’s invisible mark that identifies a video as AI-generated.

Some of each model’s features are its maker’s, not DreamBench’s. xAI’s API can make a silent Grok Imagine 1.5 clip and give up to 3 speakers a preset voice, and xAI’s Video 1.5 Fast runs on grok.com/imagine and in its apps. Google’s tools extend a Veo 3.1 clip and return several takes of one prompt. On DreamBench, both models always generate sound, a clip is one shot, and you change a scene by giving it new direction.

Google says consistent speech in Veo 3.1, especially in short lines, is still an area of active development. xAI says Grok Imagine 1.5’s speech is clearer and better synced than its previous model’s, and publishes no list of the languages it speaks.

For Grok Imagine 1.5, write a short shot brief built around motion: the camera move, the subject and what they do, when in the clip it happens, the setting and the light, then the sound. In Film Studio the clip starts on a frame DreamBench has drawn, so describe what moves from that frame rather than what is in it. Keep spoken lines short and in quotation marks.

For Veo 3.1, follow Google Cloud’s order: cinematography, subject, action, context, then style and ambience, the shot named like a film shot, with a lens and a camera move. Then give sound its own sentences: spoken lines in quotation marks, with a named speaker, “SFX:” for effects and “Ambient noise:” for the place. Google Cloud lists English as Veo 3.1’s prompt language.

• Length: plan a Veo 3.1 line at about 2 words a second, no more than 12 to 14 words in 8 seconds; a 15-second Grok Imagine 1.5 clip holds more.
• Wording: describe what you want, an empty street rather than “no people”, on both models.
• Music: DreamBench’s Veo 3.1 prompt ideas keep to dialogue, effects and ambience; on Grok Imagine 1.5, name any music you want.

On the Video page both get your prompt as written; in Film Studio DreamBench writes each scene’s prompt from your brief. The Veo 3.1 prompt guide has examples to copy.

Read on November 1, 2026: Google Cloud’s Veo 3.1 page on its Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform lists a retirement date of “November 17, 2026 or later” for Veo 3.1 and Veo 3.1 Fast, and none for Veo 3.1 Lite, a Preview there. fal’s Veo 3.1 page, the service DreamBench runs Veo 3.1 on, says the endpoint “will be deprecated on November 17, 2026”. The xAI pages read the same day show no end date for Grok Imagine Video 1.5.