Arcads for UGC ads

What does Arcads make for ads?

Arcads turns a script into a video read by an AI actor. Its homepage lists “1,000+ Captivating AI Actors” and lets you build your own avatar. The stock actors are licensed likenesses of real people, whom the terms call Creators (8.1). Three models animate them, each at 800 credits a minute per actor (credits article):

• Arcads 1.0 works from a text script, with an actor that follows “a predefined movement”; the help centre suggests it for longer videos (models article).
• Audio-Driven animates a still image from an audio track, and the help centre pitches it for lip sync.
• OmniHuman 1.5, a ByteDance model that Arcads resells (project page), animates a still image into a talking face.

On both image models the help centre says the actor “remains static (no body or camera movement)”.

Arcads also resells seven video models, priced per generation (credits article). Kling 3.0 costs 176 to 560 credits, Veo 3.1 costs 800 and Seedance 2.0 costs 96 to 1,620 across three resolutions.

What Arcads costs, and what is public

Arcads publishes no price list: its pricing URL returned a 404 on 24 September 2026. Clause 7.1 of the terms says a standard offer’s details “will be shown directly on the Platform”, and clause 2 defines the Platform as the Arcads app. On our reading, the price appears only after sign-up.

Starter’s 8,000 credits a month cover 10 talking-actor minutes at 800 a minute, and Creator’s 16,000 cover 20 (plan credits, credit rate).

A Starter or Creator account stays blocked until renewal or an upgrade. On Pro, Scale and Business, credits roll over while you stay subscribed.

Marketer Milk’s review of 27 March 2025, updated 17 April 2025, read two prices from the Arcads onboarding paywall. It reported Starter at $110 a month for “up to 10 videos per month”. Creator was $220 a month.

The credits article says “Length is always rounded up” and bills 1 minute 45 seconds as 2 minutes, but never names the step. Billing by the second, or in any step of 15 seconds or less, would bill those 105 seconds under 2 minutes. So the step is longer.

If it is the whole minute, as the example suggests, a 5-second hook uses 160 credits per second of footage. A 60-second ad uses about 13. If one step applies at every length, a 5-second hook bills more than 200 credits, so Starter covers fewer than 40.

Method: credits per ad = length rounded up to whole minutes × actors × 800; ads = 8,000 ÷ credits per ad. Shortest-step case: the step is over 15 seconds, so a 5-second hook bills more than 15 ÷ 60 × 800 = 200 credits.

The models article, dated 2 July 2026, says “Cost is 1 credit per minute” for all three actor models. The credits article’s worked example applies 800: 3,200 credits for 2 minutes with two actors. So do we.

If the step is the whole minute, one actor video under a minute that reads several hooks bills 800 credits once. But cutting that video into separate ads is an edit.

The closed list in terms 13.3.1 names “cropping” without saying whether that covers trimming. If it does not, on our reading an unapproved trim makes the licence no longer valid (13.3.1). Whether the 500,000-euro sum applies too is unclear (what a breach costs).

How other tools bill a finished ad: AI UGC price per ad, and Arcads’ row in the price tracker.

Once the app shows you a Starter price, the cost per AI ad calculator takes it under “Use your own plan”. Enter 8,000 credits and 800 credits per 60-second block, the whole-minute case.

What do Arcads’ terms allow in paid ads?

In the AI commercial use matrix, paid ads read allowed with conditions on every Arcads plan, while client work and resale read unclear.

Edits allowed without approval

Arcads grants a “non-exclusive, personal and non-transferable license” on each video, worldwide, for the legal life of the rights (13.3.1). Edits are a closed list: “cropping, add music, text and subtitle, emoji, B-rolls, Gifs, sound effect, changing the format of the Video, affixing the Client’s name, brand and logo”.

Anything else needs written approval, so colour grading or recutting the actor’s line falls outside the list on our reading. Using the video as “input data for other AI or software allowing to modify the image, the voice, the speech” is barred outright.

Three bars on ad use

Clause 13.3.1 also bars three uses that bear on paid ads: “misleading or deceptive advertising”, content that “infringes the rules of ads platforms”, and content that “infringes the rules of influence or requires the addition of compulsory information (e.g. sponsored content)”.

Which ad platforms ask for an AI label, and when: AI disclosure in advertising, platform by platform.

New York’s synthetic performer disclosure

New York’s bill S8420-A (chapter 617 of 2025) was signed on 11 December 2025. On our count it took effect on 9 June 2026, the 180th day after (section 3).

A business that “for any commercial purpose produces or creates an advertisement” must, where it has “actual knowledge”, “conspicuously disclose in such advertisement that a synthetic performer is in such advertisement”.

Civil penalties are $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each one after.

The law defines a synthetic performer as one “not recognizable as any identifiable natural performer”, so whether a licensed replica of a real Creator falls under it is unclear.

Nor do Arcads’ terms say whether an AI disclosure counts as compulsory information. If both hold, on our reading the 13.3.1 bar on content needing compulsory information rules out the ads New York requires to carry one.

Our guide on whether AI UGC ads are legal sets New York’s text beside California’s and the EU’s.

The FTC testimonial rule

Scripted testimonials are where Arcads’ ban on “misleading or deceptive advertising” and US law overlap. The FTC rule (16 CFR 465.2(a)) bars creating a testimonial that materially misrepresents, expressly or by implication, “That the reviewer or testimonialist exists” or that they “used or otherwise had experience with the product”.

On our reading, an actor presenting the product falls outside that rule, and one claiming weeks of use falls inside it and Arcads’ ban.

Banned products and pages

Arcads’ banned list in its help centre adds verticals: political content, dating services “encouraging transactional relationships” and products “enhancing sexual performance, pleasure, or bodily appearance” (prohibited content).

The same list names “Missing terms and conditions or privacy policy pages”, which on our reading puts the landing page behind the ad in scope.

Your scripts and uploads

Clause 13.4 gives FRESHR, the company behind Arcads, a free, worldwide licence to your scripts, prompts and uploaded videos. It includes “The right to train FRESHR’s artificial intelligence models” and the right to promote its services.

What a breach or a withdrawn actor costs

Whether Arcads’ lump sum also covers the 13.3.1 edit list and advertising bans is unclear. Clause 13.3.2 applies “in addition to the general provisions”, and its penalty covers “the conditions and/or Restrictions of the applicable license”: 13.3.1 calls its own list “Restrictions”. If it does, ten live ads with the same unapproved edit could count as ten breaches.

A breach of the 13.3.1 Restrictions at least makes the licence “no longer valid”. The sum does cover the conditions 13.3.2 adds, such as using an actor outside the fields its Creator restricts (shown in the app). Clause 13.2 sets the same sum for misuse of the actor models themselves.

An actor’s Creator can withdraw. Arcads “may ask the Client to delete any Videos from all supports where they are used”, by a deadline it sets, and each day late costs 100 euros (13.3.2). For a media buyer, that means taking down every live ad that uses the actor, with no minimum notice in the terms.

Is Arcads legit?

Arcads is a venture-funded French company; its trial bills unless cancelled, and Trustpilot shows a TrustScore of 2.7.

FRESHR SAS, a company in the Rouen trade register (number 832 905 327), develops Arcads (terms, clauses 1 and 2). FashionNetwork reported on 18 December 2025 that it raised $16,000,000 in a round with Eurazeo and Alpha Intelligence Capital. The same article says Arcads claims over 6,000 client companies.

Arcads’ homepage says “Free trial available”, and its refund policy describes a 3-day trial that charges the Starter plan unless you cancel within 72 hours. There is no free plan: free AI UGC generators lists tools with one.

The same policy refunds a billing period with zero credits used in full if you ask within 30 days of the charge. Failed generations may get credits back; “poor output quality alone” does not qualify.

On 26 September 2026 Trustpilot showed 175 reviews and a TrustScore of 2.7 for arcads.ai, on a profile it marks “Unclaimed”. On 24 September we read the latest 20, dated 1 July to 17 September 2026, and counted each once by its main point. Praise for the product comes up most, in 6.

Three of the six reviews praising the product praise the support too, and three of the four about unanswered support concern a charge.

The credits review (23 Aug) says an unusable 39-second “street interview style ad” in several clips, re-prompted, took “almost 50% of my MONTHLY credits” on the 8,000-credit plan. It names no model. The price review calls the results “pretty solid” and notes credits lost at renewal.

Reddit threads were not read for this edition.

Pros and cons on paper

How Creatify and HeyGen bill a short hook

Creatify and HeyGen both publish their plan prices. Creatify bills avatar video in 15-second blocks of 5 credits (help centre). A 5-second hook there uses 5 of Starter’s 100 monthly credits. A 30-second ad on Starter at $39 a month works out at $3.90 per video if every credit is used, read on 24 September 2026.

HeyGen lists avatar rates of 4 to 48 credits a minute with no rounding rule, so a 5-second hook’s cost there is unclear (help centre). Even billed as a whole minute, it would use 4 to 48 of the 600 monthly credits on Creator at $29 a month (pricing page).

HeyGen’s free plan is no shortcut for hook tests: section 4 of its terms bars free-plan output from use “in connection with” advertising.

Every documented replacement, by job: Arcads alternatives. The full field: best AI UGC generators.

• AI UGC and avatars

  Creatify

  Avatar and product video ads from a URL or script, with batch variants, an ad launcher and a competitor ad tracker.

  From $39 a month · checked 24 Sep 2026

  Best for E-commerce teams making URL-to-video ads in volume who want an ad launcher for Meta, TikTok and AppLovin in the same tool.

• AI UGC and avatars

  HeyGen

  Talking-avatar videos from text, photos or your own digital twin, with translation into 175+ languages.

  From $29 a month · checked 24 Sep 2026

  Best for Localising one ad script into many languages, cheap avatar minutes for talking-head ads, and founder or spokesperson clones on a paid plan.