Wan 2.2 is Alibaba Tongyi Lab's free, Apache-2.0 open-weight video model family: T2V/I2V-A14B (27B total, 14B active, MoE, 480P/720P), a dense TI2V-5B for 720P at 24fps, plus speech-to-video and character-animation variants. Pick a specific variant based on your GPU: the 14B models need 80GB VRAM for single-GPU inference, while the 5B model runs on a consumer GPU like an RTX 4090 with optimization flags.
Other good fits
Projects needing Apache-2.0 licensing and full rights to generated content, without a cloud vendor's terms.
+ Pros
Read pros
Wan 2.2 is a family of open video generation models from Alibaba's Tongyi Lab, not one single model. Variants include T2V-A14B (text-to-video, mixture-of-experts, 27B total/14B active parameters, 480P/720P), I2V-A14B (image-to-video, same architecture), TI2V-5B (a smaller dense model unified for text or image input, optimized for 720P at 24fps), S2V-14B (speech-to-video) and Animate-14B (character animation and replacement). All are Apache-2.0 licensed, and you retain full rights to generated content, subject to agreeing not to create harmful, illegal or privacy-violating material.
Pick it when…
You want to self-host open video generation and can match a variant to your actual GPU's VRAM.
You need a specific capability (speech-driven video, character animation) that a general text-to-video model doesn't offer.
Apache-2.0 licensing and full rights to your generated content matter more than a polished managed-cloud workflow.
− Cons
Read cons
The gap between the 5B and 14B models is large: the 14B line needs genuinely serious hardware (80GB VRAM single-GPU, or a real multi-GPU setup), which is well beyond typical consumer hardware. Picking the wrong variant for your task (for example, a general text-to-video model when you actually need speech-to-video) means redoing setup work, so identify the specific variant you need before downloading anything.
Pick something else when…
You want a managed cloud video platform instead of self-hosting.Kling or Runway remove the hardware requirement entirely, at their own cost and terms.
You need a different open-weight model to compare quality and licensing against.LTX-Video or HunyuanVideo are worth checking against Wan's variants.
The task is lip-syncing existing footage, not generating new video.LatentSync is built specifically for that different task.
Avoid if
You need one simple "the model" answer; Wan 2.2 is a family with genuinely different variants for text-to-video, image-to-video, speech-to-video and character animation.
Context
"Wan" isn't one model: pick the specific variant (T2V-A14B, I2V-A14B, TI2V-5B, S2V-14B, Animate-14B) that matches your actual task and hardware before downloading anything. The 5B and 14B lines have very different resource needs, so don't assume a tutorial for one applies to the other.
Requirements
The 14B models (T2V-A14B, I2V-A14B, S2V-14B, Animate-14B) need a minimum of 80GB VRAM for single-GPU inference; multi-GPU setups (FSDP, DeepSpeed Ulysses across up to 8 GPUs) are the documented route to run them without that much VRAM on one card. The TI2V-5B model is the accessible option: it can run on a consumer GPU like an RTX 4090 with roughly 24GB VRAM using optimization flags (--offload_model, --convert_model_dtype, --t5_cpu).
Licence & cost
The weights and code are free under Apache-2.0. Real cost is hardware: a consumer GPU (~24GB VRAM) covers the TI2V-5B model, while the 14B models need either an 80GB-VRAM GPU or a multi-GPU setup, both a significant hardware investment or rented cloud GPU cost. If you'd rather not self-host at all, Alibaba also runs a hosted version at wan.video with its own account-based access, separate from the open-weight self-hosted route this review focuses on. Running effort includes managing the optimization flags for lower-VRAM setups and, for multi-GPU work, configuring distributed inference (FSDP/DeepSpeed Ulysses) correctly.
First task
Documentation-based suggestion — not run here.
Run the 5B model on consumer hardware first.
Confirm your GPU has at least ~24GB VRAM (an RTX 4090-class card or better).
Download the TI2V-5B checkpoint.
Run text-to-video generation with the offload and optimization flags enabled, using a short, specific prompt.
Check the output resolution, frame rate (targeting 720P/24fps) and generation time on your hardware.
Done when you've generated one clip on your actual consumer GPU and know realistically how long generation takes, before considering whether the larger 14B models are worth the additional hardware investment.
Links & evidence
Documentation-based · not hands-on · Sep 23, 2026
Rests on the Wan 2.2 GitHub repository, checked 23 September 2026. No model was downloaded, installed or run for this review.
Wan-AI on Hugging Face · Sep 23, 2026 — Published checkpoints including Diffusers-format variants and newer additions like Wan2.2-Animate and Wan-Dancer.
Wan hosted platform · Sep 23, 2026 — Alibaba's hosted, account-based access to Wan video/image generation, separate from the open-weight self-hosted route.
Further review notes & alternatives
Alternatives and trade-offs
LTX-Video wins when you want a different open-weight video model to compare on hardware needs and quality.
Kling wins when you'd rather use a managed cloud service than assemble the hardware for self-hosting.
Runway wins as another managed cloud option, especially if you also want production-oriented editing tools around generation.
Generate short video clips from text or animate an existing image.
Download the open model and run it through a ComfyUI workflow.
Choose self-hosting when learning the pipeline or producing many clips.