Yes, there is a free way, but it depends which part you want free. CapCut's Raindance templates are genuinely free and unlimited — they edit your own photos and footage to the beat, but they do not generate an AI video of you on the pier. For a real AI clip, the free routes are limited trials: our own free 5-second teaser, or the free credits some generators hand out. Everything beyond that is paid.
Can I do the Raindance trend without paying?
It helps to separate two things people both call "the Raindance trend":
- The edit. Your own photos or clips, cut to the track so the "I love you" bridge lands on a beat. This is free, forever, with no watermark, using a CapCut template or any editor.
- The AI clip. Footage of you standing on a pier at sunset singing, generated from one still photo. This costs real compute on someone's GPUs, so nobody gives it away without limits.
If what you actually want is to post something to the sound today and you already have good footage, the edit route is free and finished. If you want the pier shot — and that is what most people mean — read on.
What are the free options, really?
At the time of writing (October 2026):
| Option | Cost | Generates an AI video of you? | Watermark | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapCut "i love you" / "Raindance" templates | Free | No — edits your own media | Usually removable in-app | You need footage or photos that already look good |
| Free credits on AI video apps (e.g. Summrs offers 50 free credits) | Free until credits run out | Yes | Varies by app | One-off; a single 8s render can eat most of a starter grant |
| Our free 5-second teaser | Free, one per account | Yes | Yes, and 480p, view online | Preview quality; full clip is a paid unlock |
| Film it yourself at a pier | Free | No AI needed | None | Needs a pier, the right light, and a sunset |
| Paid clip on raindance-ai.org | $4.99 for one, less in packs | Yes | No watermark | Paid |
A few honest notes on that table. Free-credit grants are the least predictable row: the amounts, what a render costs and whether a watermark is attached all change from month to month, so check the app's own page before you plan around it. Summrs advertised 50 free credits at the time of writing; Kavel and Nsketch run their own Raindance pages with their own terms. None of these are affiliated with us and we're not ranking them — they're alternatives worth knowing about.
What does the free teaser on this site actually include?
One free 5-second teaser per account. It renders at 480p, carries a watermark, and plays in your browser rather than downloading. You get it after signing in with Google and uploading a photo, and it takes the same two to five minutes as a paid render.
What it is good for is the thing that actually matters before you spend money: does the face look like you? That is the single biggest failure point of this trend. Low-resolution photos, sunglasses, heavy filters, group shots and sharp side angles all produce a stranger on the pier, and no amount of paying fixes a bad input. The teaser tells you that for free.
What it is not is a postable video. At 480p with a watermark it will look soft in a feed next to clips shot on a phone. If you like what you see, unlocking that same teaser into the full HD clip is $3.99.
Is there a Raindance AI free trial with no watermark?
Not here, and you should be sceptical of anyone promising it. Watermarks on free tiers exist for a simple reason — the render costs the operator money whether you pay or not — so "free, unlimited, no watermark, AI-generated" is usually one of three things: a template-based editor rather than a generator, a trial that asks for a card, or a service that will change its terms shortly.
On this site: free teasers are watermarked, and every paid video is watermark-free. There is no separate "remove watermark" fee on a paid clip.
When is paying $4.99 worth it?
Reasonably often, and for unglamorous reasons.
- You're posting it. A 720p, 8-second, watermark-free 9:16 MP4 holds up in a feed. A 480p watermarked teaser doesn't.
- You want more than one try. Faces, scenes and crops all vary between renders. Packs make iteration cheap: 5 videos for $14.99, 15 for $34.99, 40 for $79.99. Credits never expire, and a failed render refunds itself automatically, so a bad generation isn't money gone. Pricing has the monthly plans.
- You want the variants. Duet mode with two photos, Pets mode for a cat or dog, the rain pier, the sunset beach, the string-lit reception. Each is another render.
- You want length or resolution. The default is 8 seconds at 720p; the higher models go to 15 seconds and 1080p, which costs more credits per clip.
- Your time is worth something. Chaining free trials across three apps, each with a different prompt syntax and its own watermark, is an afternoon. Comparing the apps is faster than testing them.
Where paying is not worth it: if your only photo is a sunglasses-and-crowd group shot, fix the photo first. The photo guide is free and will do more for the result than a bigger model will.
What are the limits either way?
These apply to every tool in this category, free or paid, and it's better to know them now:
- The clip is silent. No song, no AI vocals. You add the official Raindance sound in TikTok, Reels or CapCut afterwards — see adding the sound. Pull it from TikTok's in-app library rather than an external download, or the platform may mute your video.
- It is not exact lip-sync. The model never hears the track, so it produces a soft singing performance. Landing the cut on the "I love you" bridge is what makes it read.
- You need rights to the face. Your own photo, or someone who agreed. No minors, and no celebrities — including Dave and Tems. We're a fan-made tool with no affiliation to them, their labels, TikTok or CapCut.
- Label it as AI. TikTok requires realistic AI-generated content to be labelled; the toggle is under More options before you post.
If you'd rather see the whole process end to end before deciding, how to make the video covers it in order, and the free landing page starts you on the teaser.