Captions AI for ads

What Captions makes for ads, and how Mirage fits in

Captions is the video app of Mirage US LLC, the party named in both its terms documents. The company renamed itself from Captions to Mirage in September 2025 (Wikipedia, citing TechCrunch).

For ads, the tool is Prompt to Video. “A Mirage-generated actor addresses the camera directly”, with generated B-roll and edits around it, in 39 languages (Prompt to Video article, 17 August 2026).

The avatar library lists “200+ ready-made avatars”. You can also describe a new actor in a prompt, or make an AI twin of yourself. AI Edit turns your own clip into an edited video with captions, B-roll and music. Credits also buy clips from hosted models, Veo 3.1, Kling and Seedance 2.0 among them (credits article).

What a 30-second Captions ad costs

On Captions’ Max plan at $24.99 a month, a 30-second Prompt to Video ad costs $4.00 if every credit is used (pricing page, 2 October 2026).

The credits article (21 September 2026) bills Prompt to Video at “16 credits every 6 seconds”. It lists that rate under “Costs Based On Average Use” and gives no rule for a part block. Thirty seconds is five whole blocks: 80 of Max’s 500 credits, or six such ads a month if nothing else spends them.

Every paid plan with a published price sells a credit at about $0.05. A bigger plan buys more videos at the same rate per video (credits article). Only Enterprise lists “Bulk credit discounts”.

Credits cannot be bought one at a time: the help centre’s answer is to “upgrade to the next plan level”. Top-ups exist only for Frontier 4x users and existing Teams and Business customers; the pricing page prices neither Teams nor Business.

Unused credits roll over on Basic and above, up to three times the monthly allowance, and are forfeited when a subscription ends (credits article).

Which Captions terms cover your ads: app or web

The plans Captions prices are app plans, and the app terms do not name advertising as a use. The web product’s terms do, and its prices are not on the pricing page.

The pricing page says: “Features and prices reflect iOS plans only.” The Captions on Web Terms cover a business product at captions.ai that “cannot be accessed via the Captions mobile app”.

The web terms say they “are not applicable to your use of Captions”, the app. The reverse does not hold: web use stays subject to “the terms set forth in the Terms of Service as well as these Captions on Web Terms” (1.2).

The app’s own licence is personal: 18.1 grants use of the Mobile Applications on one device “for your personal use”. The terms do not say whether that reaches Output exported for ads.

An ad with a Mirage actor uses Mirage Content. Clause 1.3 lists “use avatars we make available” among the features, and 2.1 makes the Services’ materials Mirage Content.

Terms 1.4 let you use Output you are permitted to download “outside the Services”, in line with the AUP. Clause 3.1(xiv) bars commercial use of the Services, Mirage Content included, “except as authorized hereunder” without Mirage’s prior written consent.

The terms do not say whether 1.4 is that authorisation for an ad with a Mirage actor. Nor do they say whether 3.1(xiv) reaches an ad cut from your own footage, which you own (2.2).

Captions’ Prompt to Video article answers commercial use with no word on Mirage’s consent: “You retain full rights to all videos created. The AI-generated actors are completely virtual and free from licensing restrictions.”

On web, 1.2 also asks for “all other disclosures as required by law”, endorsement disclosures under the FTC Act included. The AI commercial use matrix rates every app and web plan it lists “Allowed with conditions” for paid ads.

What Captions bars in ad scripts and categories

Mirage’s Acceptable Use Policy (4 September 2025) bars input that “contains or depicts any statements, remarks, or claims that do not reflect your honest views and experiences”. A testimonial script for an actor to read falls under it unless the claims are your own.

The same policy bars claiming generated content “was created solely by a human” and making “deceptive comments or reviews”. Output may not contain “regulated or not age-appropriate goods or services”, among them “alcohol, tobacco, nicotine (including vaping products)”, firearms, gambling, contraceptives and dating services.

Are AI UGC ads legal? sets these bans beside the FTC’s endorsement rules.

Is Captions legit? What its documents, Trustpilot and the App Store show

Captions’ maker, Mirage, is a New York company founded in 2021 (Wikipedia). On 2 October 2026, Trustpilot showed a TrustScore of 4.4 from 476 reviews, and the App Store showed 4.7 from 38K ratings.

Of those Trustpilot reviews, 68 per cent are five-star and 20 per cent one-star, and the page notes the company “hasn’t invited customers recently”. In the reviews read on 28 September 2026, most recent five-star reviews praise one support exchange, and several name the same agent.

The terms make payments “NONREFUNDABLE” except as they state or the law requires (5.3), and keep refunds “at our sole discretion”. Plans renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before renewal, and deleting the app does not cancel (5.2). Personal users go to individual arbitration unless they opt out in writing within 30 days (Schedule A, 8).

Captions (Mirage) pros and cons

Few of the 36 user sources discuss the Mirage actors; most cover captions and editing, or billing and support.

One creator’s video adds to the reports of edits that cut too much.

I Tried Captions AI… Then Canceled My Subscription 💀BrenJos

How HeyGen, Arcads and Creatify differ from Captions

At list price, if every credit is used, a 30-second avatar video costs less on HeyGen’s Creator plan than on Captions’ Max. It costs about the same on Creatify’s Starter. Arcads publishes no plan price.

HeyGen bills avatar video by the minute, at a rate set by the avatar model (credits article). On Creator at $29 a month, a 30-second Avatar III video with a Video Look costs $0.10 if every credit is used (2 October 2026).

On Avatar V, at 48 credits a minute, the same Creator video costs $1.16, or $2.32 billed as a whole minute, if every credit is used. HeyGen publishes no rounding rule for part minutes.

HeyGen’s terms do not restrict paid-plan output used “for commercial purposes”, except after a termination (s.3), and bar Free output from “advertising” (s.4).

Creatify bills avatar video at “5 credits per 15 seconds of video (rounded up)” (help centre). On Starter at $39 a month, 30 seconds costs $3.90 if every credit is used (pricing page, 2 October 2026).

Arcads bills “800 credits per minute, per actor”, and “Length is always rounded up” (help centre).

• 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 2 Oct 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.

• 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 2 Oct 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

  Arcads

  Script-to-video ads read by 1,000+ AI actors, plus Kling, Veo and Seedance clips in the same app.

  No price list published

  Best for Talking-actor ads close to a whole minute long, if billing rounds up to the minute as the help centre’s one example suggests.

AI UGC video generators for ads lists every avatar tool in the database, and the price tracker sets each Captions plan beside theirs.

The plans and the cost of a 30-second ad sit on the Captions AI pricing page.