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Snapchat's new 'AI Clips' Lens format turns photos into five-second videos | TechCrunch

2026-03-24 · 00:00 UTC ·Aisha Malik ·1 min read

Brief

Snapchat is expanding its generative AI tooling by adding AI Clips to Lens Studio, a photo-to-video format aimed at creators who want constrained, reusable experiences rather than open-ended text-to-video generation. The product ties creation, distribution, and monetization together inside Snapchat’s Lens ecosystem: developers define the prompt and effect, users supply their own photo, and paid Lens+ access plus Lens+ Payouts create a direct commercial path.

Why it matters

Snapchat launched AI Clips in Lens Studio on March 24, 2026, letting creators turn a single photo into a 5-second video and publish it as a closed-prompt AI Lens directly inside Snapchat.

Key details

  • AI Clips are monetizable through the Lens+ Payouts program and available to paying Lens+ subscribers, which costs $8.99 per month; Snapchat says creators can build and publish these photo-to-video Lenses in minutes without external tools.
  • The launch positions Snapchat against YouTube’s recently announced Reimagine feature, which turns a frame from a YouTube Short into an 8-second clip, and comes as Snapchat reported nearly 2 trillion Snaps created in 2025, or about 63,000 per second.
Source evidence

title: Snapchat's new 'AI Clips' Lens format turns photos into five-second videos | TechCrunch
author: Aisha Malik
contenttype: article
publication: TechCrunch
published: 2026-03-24T00:00:00
sourceurl: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/24/snapchats-new-ai-clips-lens-format-turns-photos-into-five-second-videos/

word_count: 330

Snapchat announced on Tuesday that it’s launching AI Clips in Lens Studio, its platform that lets creators design and publish AR and AI effects called Lenses. The new Clips are an AI-powered Lens format that transforms a single photo into a five-second video.

Unlike open-ended text-to-video tools, AI Clips are designed as a closed-prompt experience, where Lens creators design the Lens, and users can tap it to generate a video from their own photos.

For example, a Lens creator could design a Lens that allows users to generate a video of themselves walking down a red carpet using their own photo.

Snapchat says both experienced and new developers can use the new Lens format to turn a single prompt into a published Lens in minutes without the need for external tools.

AI Clips are available to Snapchat users who are subscribed to that platform’s Lens+ offering, which costs $8.99 per month. As its name suggests, Lens+ gives users access to exclusive Lenses and AR experiences, along with the features available as part of the standard Snapchat+ subscription.

Image Credits:Snapchat

“For the first time, developers can build and publish photo-to-video AI directly to Snapchat from the GenAI Suite in Lens Studio,” Snapchat wrote in a press release. “There’s currently nothing else on the market that combines closed-prompt AI video generation with direct photo input, real distribution, and monetization.”

Lens creators enrolled in Lens+ Payouts, Snapchat’s monetization program that allows developers to earn money from their Lenses, can earn revenue from the AI Clips they create.

Snapchat isn’t the only platform focused on letting users create AI clips from their own photos, as YouTube announced last week that it was rolling out “Reimagine,” a new feature that lets users transform a single frame from an existing YouTube Short into an 8-second clip using their own photo.

The launch of AI Clips comes the same day that Snapchat announced that users created nearly two trillion Snaps, or 63,000 Snaps per second, in 2025.