Google Flow
Google's AI creative studio. Frontend engineers use it for landing-page films, product demos and scene boards, not for writing code.
Entry point: labs.google/fx/tools/flow. Help centre: support.google.com/flow.
What it is
Officially an AI creative studio: plan, generate and refine in natural language, on top of Google's generative models.
The landing page currently lists three model families:
| Model | Official one-liner |
|---|---|
| Gemini Omni | create and edit videos from any input reference — real or generated; world understanding, multimodality, conversational editing |
| Nano Banana | image generation and precise editing; subject consistency, text rendering, reasoning |
| Veo 3.1 | video generation; physics, realism, prompt adherence, native audio and expanded controls |
It is off the coding main line. The counterpart in the Claude family is Claude Design: Design hands off an interface prototype; Flow hands off a piece of film.
Age and language: you must be 18 or older. Prompts to Flow are English only; replies are English. Official note.
When to use it
| I want… | Use | Do not use Flow |
|---|---|---|
| A video for a landing page, launch film or product demo | Flow | Canvas produces a clickable page, not a finished clip |
| A clickable prototype for a PM within half an hour | Canvas | Flow does not emit DOM or interaction |
| The chosen direction committed to the repo | Antigravity | Flow does not edit code or open a PR |
| Songs / music videos / generative score | Flow Music (credits are separate from Flow) | Do not treat Flow video credits as music credits |
A useful combination: try three interaction directions in Canvas → pick one → implement it in the real project with Antigravity; when you need to present the feature, make an 8–10 second clip in Flow.
What it can do
Capabilities listed on the product landing page and the Pro benefits article:
- Generation modes: Text to video, Frames to video, Ingredients to video, Text to image, Image to image
- Refinement: Video Extension, Video-to-video editing, Scenebuilder
- Cast: Characters, Avatars
- Agent: described as a project-level creative partner for exploring and iterating
- Custom Tools: build tools in natural language (type overlays, resize, storyboard, shaders); share and remix. The free tier can use existing Tools; creating them starts at Plus
Create videos and edit / build scenes are the how-to pages. This page does not repeat the steps.
Credits
Figures come from Manage your Google Flow credits and the landing page — not from third-party blogs.
| Tier | Flow credits |
|---|---|
| No subscription | 50 per day (trial; unused daily credits do not roll over) |
| AI Plus | 200 per month |
| AI Pro | 1,000 per month |
| AI Ultra $100 (Ultra 5x in this site) | 10,000 per month |
| AI Ultra $200 (Ultra 20x in this site) | 25,000 per month |
Key points:
- Paid tiers refresh on the billing cycle. Unused monthly credits do not roll over.
- Upgrading to a paid plan forfeits leftover free daily credits immediately; they are replaced by the plan's monthly allocation.
- Free daily credits can be spent only on Veo 3.1 Lite / Fast / Quality.
- After the allocation is exhausted, Plus / Pro / Ultra can buy extra AI credits (except in Japan). The same AI credits also work in Antigravity.
- Cost per generation depends on the model (for example Veo 3.1 Lite is 10 credits for non-Ultra, Quality is 100). Use the table on the credits page; this page does not copy it.
The full four-tier comparison (storage, model multiplier, Cloud credit) lives only in the cheatsheet.
Flow Sessions
Flow Sessions on the landing page is an artist collaboration programme: a small group of creatives is invited to make a passion project in Flow with Google. It is not a daily product. Frontend engineers do not need a separate tutorial for it.
Common pitfalls
- Some older Labs help pages still say you must subscribe to Pro / Ultra. Trust the landing page and the credits article: no subscription still gets 50 credits a day to try Flow.
- A VPN will not unlock unsupported regions. Check Where you can use Flow first.
- Failed generations are not charged. A returned result is charged, even without audio or at a quality you dislike.
- All Veo / Imagen output carries an invisible SynthID.
Official resources
Related pages
- Subscriptions and quota — other coding-relevant Pro entitlements
- Canvas — clickable prototypes
- Cheatsheet — pick a tool by task