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Arcads alternative

The Arcads alternative built for AI agents.

RiffAds is an Arcads alternative for AI UGC video ads with published prices and credits that never expire. Make ads in the studio, or let your AI agent make them through API, MCP, Agent Skills and CLI, inside spend limits you set.

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The short answer

Is RiffAds a good Arcads alternative?

RiffAds is a good Arcads alternative if you want published prices, credits that never expire and an AI agent you can cap. It bills talking actor video by the second and includes API, MCP, Agent Skills and CLI on every plan. Arcads fits better if you need its 1,000+ actor library, a refund policy or competitor ad tracking.

Choose RiffAds if

  • You want to see prices before you sign up. Plans start at $49 a month.
  • You want credits that never expire while your account exists, even after you cancel.
  • Your AI agent makes the ads, and you want to cap what it spends per job, per day and per API key.
  • You make short ads and want to pay by the second, in any of 74 voice languages.

Choose Arcads if

  • You want the bigger actor library: more than 1,000 AI actors.
  • You want a refund policy. RiffAds gives no refunds.
  • You want to track competitor ads from the Meta Ad Library.
  • You want to translate finished videos, or want a tool that aims to host your data in the EU.

Side by side

RiffAds vs Arcads at a glance.

Each Arcads cell links the Arcads page, or the report, it was read from.

RiffAds and Arcads compared on price, credits, refunds, models, API, MCP and agent limits
FeatureRiffAdsArcads
Prices on the websiteYes. Every plan, and the credit price of the main models, is on the pricing page.No. arcads.ai/pricing returned a 404 when we checked.Arcads
Entry price$49 a month (Launch, 4,500 credits).Not published. eesel reported Starter at $110 a month and Creator at $220 a month, in a report dated June 17, 2026.eesel
Credits a month4,500, 9,500 and 30,500 (Launch, Growth and Scale). 1 credit is $0.01.8,000 on Starter and 16,000 on Creator. Higher tiers are custom.Arcads help center
Unused credits roll overYes, on every plan, with no cap. Credits never expire while your account exists, even after you cancel.Not on Starter or Creator: credits reset each cycle. Pro, Scale and Business roll over while you stay subscribed. If you cancel or downgrade, unused credits are not refunded or carried forward.Arcads help centerArcads
At the monthly limitYour account is not blocked. A job your balance cannot cover is refused before it runs, and you can top up in the app on any plan.Starter and Creator: the account is temporarily blocked. Pro, Scale and Business: not blocked, and extra use is billed per credit.Arcads help center
RefundsNo. All payments are final. A job that fails gives its held credits back.Yes, in set cases: a full refund for a billing period with zero credits used (ask within 30 days), and a one-time refund within 24 hours of your first charge. It may give credits back when a generation fails because of a platform issue. Not for output quality alone.Arcads help center
TrialGrowth for $1 for 3 days, with 500 credits. Then $99 a month unless you cancel.A 3-day trial. If you do not cancel within 72 hours, your card is charged for Starter.Arcads help centerArcads
Languages74 voice languages for text to speech.Translation in more than 30 languages, per its home page.Arcads
AI actorsAn AI actor library (the full library from Growth up), plus your own actors made from a description or a photo.More than 1,000 AI actors, plus custom actors.Arcads
Talking actor modelsMiniMax H3 Max Lip Sync, MiniMax H3 Max Lip Sync 1080p, OmniHuman 1.5 and Seedance 2.5 Actor.Arcads 1.0, Audio-Driven and OmniHuman 1.5.Arcads help center
Video and image modelsVideo: Veo 3.1, Kling 3, Seedance 2.5, Omni Flash and MiniMax H3 Max. Image: Nano Banana Pro, Nano Banana 2, GPT Image 2.5, GPT Image 2, Seedream 5, Seedream 4.5 and Grok Image.Video: Veo 3.1, Kling, Sora 2, Seedance, Grok Video and more. Image: GPT Image, Nano Banana, Seedream and Grok Image.Arcads help center
Custom voicesClone or design a voice in the app, on every plan.Custom voices and ElevenLabs voice import are on Pro only.Arcads help center
REST APIYes, on every plan, at the same credit prices as the studio.Yes. Its docs do not say which plans include it. One reviewer on Trustpilot says it is only on the highest paid tier.Arcads help centerTrustpilot
MCP serverYes, at https://mcp.riffads.com, on every plan.Yes, at mcp.arcads.ai. It needs an active subscription with credits left.Arcads help center
Agent Skills and CLIYes, both, on every plan.A skills plugin on GitHub, with skills to clone a hook, clone a static ad and find competitor ads.GitHub
Agent spend limits a person setsYes: per job (600 credits by default), per day (2,000 by default) and per API key. Every agent call also names the most it may spend.Not documented. Its API reports what MCP spent this period, but we found no spend cap in its MCP guide or API spec.ArcadsArcads help center
Posts ads to social accountsNo. You get a download link to the finished file.Not that we found. Its Terms say its TikTok link is read-only and cannot publish.Arcads

RiffAds figures come from the pricing page and the refund policy.

Sources, checked on September 25, 2026

  1. 01
    Arcads: arcads.ai/pricing (returns 404)

    checked September 25, 2026

  2. 02
    eesel: Arcads AI pricing

    published June 17, 2026

  3. 03
  4. 04
    Arcads: Terms and Conditions

    in force September 22, 2026

  5. 05
  6. 06
    Arcads: Home page

    checked September 25, 2026

  7. 07
  8. 08
  9. 09
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
    Arcads help center: Arcads MCP

    updated June 26, 2026

  13. 13
    GitHub: arcads-ai/skills

    created June 9, 2026

  14. 14
    Arcads: External API spec (OpenAPI)

    checked September 25, 2026

Cost per ad

Arcads pricing vs RiffAds: what one ad costs.

RiffAds prices every job in credits worth $0.01 each. A talking actor video bills by the second, and its voice by the length of the script. Arcads bills a talking actor by the minute, and rounds every video up to a whole minute. So which one costs less depends on how long your ad is.

One ad, one actor, on each entry plan

Credits and our dollar estimate for one talking actor ad on RiffAds Launch (OmniHuman 1.5, voice included) and Arcads Starter
Ad lengthRiffAds creditsRiffAds on LaunchArcads creditsArcads on Starter (our estimate)
15 seconds424$4.62800$11.00
30 seconds848$9.23800$11.00
45 seconds1,272$13.85800$11.00

How we did the math: each dollar figure is the ad's credits times the plan's monthly price, divided by the plan's monthly credits. RiffAds Launch is $49 for 4,500 credits, so a credit there costs a little more than $0.01, and the RiffAds rows are priced on OmniHuman 1.5, voice included. For Arcads we use eesel's reported $110 for the 8,000 Starter credits from Arcads' own help center.

In our estimate, RiffAds costs less at 15 seconds, RiffAds costs less at 30 seconds and Arcads costs less at 45 seconds.

The Arcads dollar column is our estimate, not an Arcads price. Arcads does not publish prices, so the price you see after sign-up may differ. A credit is also not the same size on the two sites, which is why we compare dollars, not credits.

Where it wins

Where Arcads is ahead.

A fair comparison says where the other tool is better. These are the places we would pick Arcads.

Other tools

Arcads alternatives: Creatify, HeyGen and more.

Starting prices and agent access, read from each tool's own pages on September 25, 2026.

Other Arcads alternatives with their starting price, REST API and MCP server
ToolStarting priceREST APIMCP serverSource
RiffAds$49 a month (Launch, 4,500 credits)Yes, on every plan, same creditsYes, on every planRiffAds pricing
MakeUGC$59 a month (Startup, 500 credits), with a start for $1 offerSeparate API plans from $99 a monthNone listedPricing
CreatifyFree plan (10 credits, watermark). Starter $39 a monthAPI plans from $99 a monthYes, on Pro ($99 a month)PricingAPI billing
HeyGenFree plan (up to 3 videos a month). Creator $29 a monthYes, billed on separate API plansYes, on all plans, uses plan creditsPricingMCP overviewDeveloper llms.txt
TopviewPro $29 a month, or $16 a month billed yearlyYes, on Pro and BusinessYesPricing
HedraFree plan. Basic $20 a month (2,000 credits)Yes (API v3)Yes, plus a CLIPricingllms.txt
SynthesiaAPI access starts on Creator: $89 a month, or $64 a month billed yearlyYes, from CreatorYes, in public betaPricingMCP docs

Switching

How to switch from Arcads.

Three steps. Your scripts come with you, and your actors are made again.

MCP server URL

https://mcp.riffads.com
  1. 01

    Bring your scripts

    Paste each script, up to 1,500 characters, and pick a voice in any of 74 languages. Have a voice-over already? Upload it, and an audio-driven actor lip-syncs to it.

  2. 02

    Recreate your actor

    There is no import from Arcads, so make the actor again: describe the person in words, or start from a photo. Only use a photo of a real person with their written consent. The actor stays in your library for every ad.

  3. 03

    Connect your agent or API key

    Add the RiffAds MCP server URL to Claude or ChatGPT as a custom connector, or to Cursor or VS Code as an MCP server. Or create an API key in the app. Then set how much your agent may spend.

FAQ

Arcads alternative, answered.

Still unsure? Book a call

For short ads, yes. Arcads does not publish prices, and eesel reported its Starter plan at $110 a month. RiffAds starts at $49 a month and bills talking actor video by the second, so short ads cost less in our estimate. Arcads bills each started minute, so ads close to a minute long can cost less there. HeyGen and Topview have $29 plans, and Hedra Basic is $20.

Yes. Arcads' refund policy, updated September 16, 2026, describes a 3-day trial, and its home page says "Free trial available". If you do not cancel within 72 hours, your card is charged for the Starter plan. RiffAds offers Growth for $1 for 3 days, with 500 credits. Then $99 a month unless you cancel.

Arcads does not publish prices, and arcads.ai/pricing returned a 404 when we checked. In a report dated June 17, 2026, eesel put Starter at $110 a month and Creator at $220 a month, read from the in-app paywall. Arcads' help center lists 8,000 credits a month on Starter and 16,000 on Creator, and a talking actor uses 800 credits per started minute.

Yes, both. Arcads has a public REST API, a hosted MCP server at mcp.arcads.ai and a skills plugin on GitHub. Its docs do not say which plans include the API. RiffAds includes API, MCP, Agent Skills and CLI on every plan, at the same credit prices as the studio.

Not on Starter or Creator. Arcads' help center says those credits reset each cycle, and usage pauses at the monthly limit. On Pro, Scale and Business, unused credits roll over while you stay subscribed. Its Terms say unused credits are not refunded or carried forward if you cancel or downgrade. RiffAds credits roll over on every plan and never expire while your account exists.

No. All RiffAds payments are final, including the $1 offer and every renewal. Credits never expire while your account exists, even after you cancel, and a job that fails gives its held credits back. Arcads does have a written refund policy, so weigh that if refunds matter to you.

Both make AI UGC video ads with talking actors, and both have an API and an MCP server. RiffAds publishes its prices, bills talking actor video by the second, has credits that never expire, and lets a person cap what an AI agent spends. Arcads has a bigger actor library, a refund policy and competitor ad tracking, and aims to host data in the EU.

Your scripts, yes: paste each one, up to 1,500 characters, or upload a voice-over you already have. There is no import from Arcads for actors, so make yours again from a description or a photo. Only use a photo of a real person with their written consent.

About this comparison

Arcads is a trademark of its owner. RiffAds is not affiliated with Arcads. This page compares public information checked on September 25, 2026. If something here has changed, write to hello@riffads.com and we will check it.

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