# How to Use Google Flow: From First Prompt to YouTube (2026) > Step-by-step Google Flow guide: getting in at 18+, projects, Text, Frames and Ingredients to Video, editing with History, Scenebuilder and YouTube upload. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/how-to-use-google-flow — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_ --- Using Google Flow comes down to five moves: get in with an age-verified Google Account in a supported country, open a project, generate clips with Text, Frames or Ingredients to Video, refine them with edits and the History panel, then assemble them in Scenebuilder and download or post to YouTube. The free tier covers the whole loop. Everyone gets **50 Flow credits a day**, which by our arithmetic buys five Veo 3.1 Lite clips or five 10-second 360p Omni Flash 1.2 clips. Work on a desktop in Chrome or Edge. Several key steps are web only. **50** — Flow credits a day for every user, plan or not; unused daily credits do not roll over. - **18+** — Age-verified account in a supported country - **15 s** — Longest single clip (Omni Flash 1.2, paid plans) - **3 turns** — Context kept when refining an edit ## Getting in: age, country and the right screen Flow lives at flow.google and needs a Google Account that is age-verified and at least 18, used from a supported country or region [1]. Google says Flow launched in over 140 countries, yet it is not offered everywhere Google AI Pro is sold, and a VPN does not unlock a blocked region. Two features depend on where you are: editing uploaded videos and creating avatars are unavailable in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Some limits apply everywhere. Flow will not edit videos of identifiable minors, generate prominent people, or change what someone says in an uploaded clip. Google recommends a desktop computer with a Chromium browser such as Chrome or Edge; other browsers and phones are not fully optimized. There are apps too. The Android app comes from Google Labs, which calls it an experimental app in beta, and the iPhone app is rated 18+ and needs iOS 16 or later. The apps sync your library with the desktop, take uploads from the camera roll or live camera, and notify you when a background generation finishes. **Frames to Video with Omni, extension, the agent and Tools are web only**, so the phone suits drafting and the desktop suits finishing. You do not need a subscription to start. The 50 daily credits refresh with your first generation of the day and do not carry over. Without a plan, video generation may pause during peak hours, roughly 2 PM to 5 PM UTC, while images and the agent keep working; our guide to [whether Google Flow is free](/articles/is-google-flow-free) covers that tier in full. Flow is included in Google AI Plus at $4.99 a month and in Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month, and those plans add monthly credits, longer clips and extension. ## Setting up your first project A project is the container for everything you make. Media generated by you, by the agent or by a Tool is saved to the open project, and projects can be organized into folders. Two settings deserve a look before your first prompt. The credit costs for each model and resolution appear in the Settings of the prompt box, and Google says they can change at any time. A project setting called Return silent videos makes every video generation silent, which also affects how Veo clips with poor audio are handled: with it on, you get a silent clip and pay for it. Next comes the model. As of November 2026, Flow's video models are Omni Flash 1.2 and Veo 3.1 Lite [2]. Google retires Veo 3.1 Fast, Veo 3.1 Quality and Omni Flash 1.1 in Flow on December 5, 2026, and Veo Extend was retired on November 5, 2026. Omni Flash 1.2 charges by the second: 1 credit per second at 360p and 3 at 720p for clips up to 10 seconds. Veo 3.1 Lite makes 4, 6 or 8 second clips at 720p for 10 credits each. Credits never roll over, daily or monthly; the [Google Flow credits guide](/articles/google-flow-credits) lays out every rate. > 💡 **Draft cheap, then commit:** Omni Flash 1.2 at 360p costs a third of 720p per second, so test a prompt at 360p before rendering the version you keep. ## Three ways to start a clip ### Text to Video The simplest start is a written prompt. Flow's help pages ask you to describe the scene in detail: the subject, the action, the environment, the lighting and the style. Both models work in landscape 16:9 and vertical 9:16. Without a plan, Omni Flash 1.2 makes clips of 3 to 10 seconds; Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra stretch that to 15 seconds, with seconds 11 to 15 billed at 2 credits per second at 360p or 6 at 720p. English prompts are recommended. Other languages work, but quality varies with the language and the complexity of the request. ### Frames to Video Frames give you control over how a shot opens and closes. You supply a start frame, or a start and an end frame, and the prompt describes the movement between them. The prompt should complement the frames, never contradict them. Veo 3.1 Lite accepts first, or first and last, frames at 4, 6 or 8 seconds, and Omni Flash 1.2 handles frames too, but only on the web. Any frame of a finished video can be saved as an image and reused as a start frame, an end frame or an ingredient. Images from the Nano Banana models spend no Flow credits; they run on daily limits instead. ### Ingredients to Video Ingredients are reference images that keep a character or key object consistent from one clip to the next. Veo 3.1 Lite takes ingredients at 8 seconds only. Characters go further: one or two images plus a voice, called in a prompt with @ and the character's name, while your own avatar answers to @me. A voice reference works only in generations that use ingredients on Omni Flash. For a deeper walk through frames, references and characters, see our [Google Flow image-to-video guide](/articles/google-flow-image-to-video). ## Editing a clip without losing the original Editing runs on Omni Flash 1.2; Veo 3.1 Lite clips cannot be edited or extended. You pick an edit mode, such as insert, remove or camera, and describe the change. Refinement keeps context for up to three conversational turns, so a short back-and-forth works better than one long instruction. **Nothing is overwritten.** Flow keeps the original and stores earlier versions in a History panel with the prompt behind each one, which makes it safe to try a bolder change [3]. Edits cost the same credits per second as a generation. You can also edit your own footage, outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Uploads can run up to 60 seconds and 1 GB as .mov, .mp4, .avi or .wmv files, but anything longer than 30 seconds must first be trimmed to 30. The edit then applies to a selected segment of up to 10 seconds, or 15 seconds on Plus, Pro and Ultra. Plan the cut first. Pick the moment that matters before you upload, rather than hoping Flow treats the whole file. Extension adds new footage to the end of a clip and needs a paid plan, Omni Flash 1.2 and the web app. Each extension adds 3 to 10 seconds and can be guided by up to three image references. Order matters here. Insert, remove and camera edits cannot be applied to a clip once it has been extended. If a generation fails or a safety filter blocks it, Flow returns the credits within an hour, but a retry that succeeds is charged normally. > ⚠ **Edit before you extend:** Insert, remove and camera edits cannot be applied to a clip after it has been extended, and extension itself needs a paid Google AI plan and the web app. ## Assembling a sequence in Scenebuilder One generation tops out at 15 seconds on Omni Flash 1.2 with a paid plan and 8 seconds on Veo 3.1 Lite. Longer stories are built, not generated. Scenebuilder is where that happens: it arranges, reorders and trims your clips into a sequence, previews it, and downloads the whole scene. It is available without a plan, so a free account can still cut a short multi-shot piece from daily clips. The Flow agent helps with the busywork around a sequence. It can create several variations of a shot from one request, batch-edit clips, sort assets into collections and rename them. Questions to the agent cost no credits, though each plan has a daily query limit, and any media it generates spends credits. By default it asks before spending them. The agent runs on the web and PC only. Google-made Tools such as Storyboard Studio, Type Overlays and Video Resizer also save their output to the open project, and media a Tool generates spends credits too. > 💡 **Let the agent do batch work:** On the web, the Flow agent can create variations, batch-edit clips and sort them into collections; questions cost no credits, and it asks before spending credits by default. ## Downloading, posting to YouTube and keeping your work Generated clips download as video files or GIFs, and a whole project can be downloaded at once. Before you download, paid plans can upscale Omni clips to 720p or 1080p at no credit cost for the first 10 seconds and 1 credit per second beyond that. Upscaling to 4K is reserved for Ultra and costs 50 credits for a clip of up to 10 seconds. Without a plan, you download at the resolution you generated. Flow can publish straight to YouTube if you have a channel and upload permissions, using the highest resolution the selected model produced [4]. The catch: **direct upload works for single clips only**. A finished Scenebuilder sequence has to be downloaded and uploaded through YouTube Studio. Google's Terms forbid passing AI content off as human-made, so label it as AI where YouTube asks. Every Flow output carries an invisible SynthID watermark. A visible watermark is an optional toggle, applied automatically in India, South Korea and Vietnam unless you are on Google AI Ultra 20x. Google's Terms say Google does not claim ownership of what you generate; commercial use falls under those Terms and the Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy. Share links are visible to anyone who has them, and sharing stops only when you delete the original. For a backup, Google Takeout exports your media, prompts, generation settings, characters, scenes and edit stacks, with download links active for 7 days. ## FAQ **Can I use Google Flow with a work account?** Users on qualifying Google Workspace plans (Business, Enterprise and some Education plans) get Flow at no extra charge with 50 daily credits, but Workspace customers cannot buy Google AI plans, which are for personal accounts only. **Can I get my Flow projects out if I stop using it?** Yes. Google Takeout exports your Flow media, prompts, generation settings, folders, characters, scenes and edit stacks, and each export's download links stay active for 7 days. **Does Google use my Flow videos to improve its models?** Only with the Help improve Google Flow setting on; then Google may use interactions, uploads, outputs and feedback, reviewed by trained reviewers and kept up to 18 months. You can turn it off and delete projects. **Does a family plan give each member their own Flow credits?** No. On a Google One family plan, Flow usage limits and AI credits are shared by the whole family group, and only the plan manager can buy credits or change the plan. ## The bottom line Learning Flow costs nothing but time: the free 50 daily credits cover projects, all three ways to start a clip, editing with History, Scenebuilder and single-clip YouTube uploads. The friction sits at the edges. Frames with Omni, extension, the agent and Tools need the desktop web app; extension, 15-second clips and upscaling need a paid plan; uploaded-video editing stops at the EEA, UK and Swiss borders. Draft at 360p, edit before you extend, and stitch in Scenebuilder. Upgrade only when the 10-second ceiling or the daily credit count is what actually stops you. ## Sources [1] Get started with Google Flow - Computer - Google Flow Help — https://support.google.com/flow/answer/16353333?hl=en (2026-11) [2] Learn about Google Flow models & supported features - Google Flow Help — https://support.google.com/flow/answer/16352836?hl=en (2026-11) [3] Edit videos & build scenes in Google Flow - Computer - Google Flow Help — https://support.google.com/flow/answer/16935718?hl=en (2026-11) [4] Manage your Google Flow projects, assets & collections - Computer - Google Flow Help — https://support.google.com/flow/answer/16935308?hl=en (2026-11) [5] Google AI plans (Google One) — https://one.google.com/intl/en_us/about/google-ai-plans/ [6] Google Flow Help: credits — https://support.google.com/flow/answer/16526234?hl=en [7] Google Terms of Service — https://policies.google.com/terms?hl=en