Koyal is an "agentic AI filmmaking platform" from a five-person Y Combinator startup (Fall 2025) in San Francisco. You upload a script or record a voiceover, or bring a song, and it builds the story, the storyboard and a finished video, with you as a character if you want. It was in free beta at launch; its own pages showed no prices when we read them. ScreenWeaver starts from the screenplay and lets you direct every shot.
The verdict: pick Koyal for a fast, personalised video from audio you already have. Pick ScreenWeaver if you want to write the film and control it shot by shot.
Every Koyal fact below comes from its Y Combinator company and launch pages, its Product Hunt page and NewsBytes, all read on 10 November 2026.
What Koyal is
Koyal was founded in 2025 by a brother and sister, Mehul Agarwal (CEO) and Gauri Agarwal (CTO). Its Y Combinator page describes it as a platform "that allows you to seamlessly convert script or audio into personalized, visually compelling stories". The steps it lists start with "Upload your script or record your voiceover", then "Storyboard and edit visually: adjust lighting, camera angle, or emotion directly with simple directions".
On Product Hunt the pitch is shorter: Koyal "turns any audio into end to end cinematic video in one go, with consistent settings, storylines and characters (including you)". That last part is the unusual one. Most script-to-video tools invent the cast; Koyal puts the user, or the artist, inside the story. Its first public examples are music videos.
The timeline is short. NewsBytes reported the beta opening on 9 September 2025. Koyal launched on Product Hunt on 16 November 2025 and ranked #4 of the day with 320 points. Its Y Combinator launch post has 125 votes.
What the headlines leave out:
- It is small. The YC page lists a team of 5. The VCBacked startup database records a $500K pre-seed round in December 2025, backed by Y Combinator; Koyal's own pages give no amount. For scale, Flick raised $6M and Utopai is valued at $1B.
- The big names are self-reported. Koyal says it has run pilots with Universal Music and T-Series and passed 1.5M views on music videos. We found no statement from those labels.
- Pricing is not public on its own pages. The koyal.ai pages loaded no readable text for us, and neither the YC nor the Product Hunt page lists a price. A third-party review lists paid tiers, but we could not confirm them on an official page, so we do not quote them.
Koyal vs ScreenWeaver, side by side
| Koyal | ScreenWeaver | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Koyal, YC Fall 2025, 5 people, San Francisco | ScreenWeaver |
| Can you use it? | Yes, a public beta (free at its Product Hunt launch) | Yes, open to everyone |
| Price | Not shown on its official pages (10 Nov 2026) | Writing free, Auteur $39.99/mo, Studio $149.99/mo |
| Starts from | A script, a voiceover or a song | A blank page or your script (PDF, Final Draft, text) |
| Screenplay editor | No | Yes, a full script editor, free |
| Storyboard | Yes, edited with plain directions | Yes, generated from the script, scene by scene |
| You as a character | Yes, a core feature | Partly, from your reference images in story elements |
| AI video | Yes, the whole video "in one go" | Yes, shot by shot: Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.5, Veo 3.1 and more |
| Choose the video model | Not stated | Yes, per shot |
| Export | Video | Video, plus scripts to PDF and .fdx |
| Collaboration | Not stated | Studio plan, real-time, unlimited seats |
What ScreenWeaver does that Koyal does not
You write the film first. Koyal reads a script or a voice track you bring. ScreenWeaver includes a full screenplay editor, free forever on the Screenwriter plan, so the rewrite and the boards stay in one project. Our guide on how to make an AI film walks through the whole path.
Control per shot, not per video. Koyal's promise is a finished video in one pass. In ScreenWeaver each shot has its framing, its camera movement, its duration and its own panel, and you pick the video model for that shot. When one shot is wrong, you redo that shot. The AI storyboard generator page shows the steps.
Characters you design. Story elements hold each character's reference sheet, reused in every shot. You can build one with the free character consistency sheet tool first.
A published price. Auteur is $39.99 a month for 6,000 credits; Studio is $149.99 a month for 25,000 credits with real-time collaboration. Both are on the pricing section.
Try it free
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Start FreeWhat Koyal does better
Koyal starts from audio, and ScreenWeaver does not. If you have a finished song or a recorded voiceover and want a video built around it, with your own face in the story, Koyal is built for exactly that, and it asks for far less work: no script, no shot list. For artists who want a clip without directing one, that is a real advantage.
Which one fits you?
- A musician or creator with a track and no time: Koyal, if you accept less control over each shot and prices that are not yet public.
- A director making a music video on purpose: ScreenWeaver. The AI music video generator page shows a clip written against the track, boarded bar by bar, with one artist kept on screen.
- A writer working on a short, a series or a feature: ScreenWeaver, where the screenplay, the storyboard and the video share one project.
FAQ
Is Koyal free? At its Product Hunt launch in November 2025 the makers said you could try it for free at beta.koyal.ai. Its official pages did not show a price list when we read them on 10 November 2026.
Who makes Koyal? A Y Combinator startup (Fall 2025 batch) in San Francisco, founded by siblings Mehul Agarwal and Gauri Agarwal, with a team of five.
Can Koyal make a video from a song? Yes. Koyal turns audio (a song or a voiceover) or a script into a video, and its first examples are music videos.
Does Koyal write the screenplay? It builds the storyline from your audio or script, but it has no screenplay editor. ScreenWeaver has one, free.
Is Koyal better than ScreenWeaver? For a quick, personalised video from audio, Koyal is the shorter path. For writing a film and directing each shot with the video model you choose, ScreenWeaver does more.
Sources: Koyal on Y Combinator, YC launch post, Product Hunt, NewsBytes, 11 September 2025, VCBacked. Read on 10 November 2026.
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