Most AI video prompt guides cover one model. The problem: Sora 2, Veo 3.1, Kling 3, and Seedance 2 all have different strengths. A prompt that makes Veo 3.1 sing can produce muddy results in Kling 3. This list covers 25 prompts that work across all four — with notes on which model handles each category best.

What Makes an AI Video Prompt Go Viral

Before the list, a quick framework. Viral AI videos share three traits:

Unexpected contrast — something that shouldn't exist looks photorealistic. A cat conducting an orchestra. A businessman running from a wave of rubber ducks.
Instant hook — the most visually interesting moment happens in frames 1–3. If the action takes 2 seconds to start, viewers are already gone.
Clear subject — one focal point. Complex multi-character scenes lose clarity at 1080p in a 6-second clip.

Every prompt below is built around at least two of these three traits.

25 Viral AI Video Prompts (Organised by Category)

Surreal & Unexpected (Best model: Veo 3.1 or Sora 2)

A golden retriever in a tailored suit reads the morning newspaper on a park bench. Cinematic lighting. Medium shot.
A tiny city inside a snow globe, seen from outside through falling snow. The city lights flicker. Macro lens. Bokeh.
A skyscraper made entirely of stacked vintage suitcases, photographed at golden hour. Photorealistic.
An astronaut sits cross-legged in the middle of a supermarket aisle, completely calm, eating cereal. Fluorescent lighting.
A grand piano being played by the ocean waves. Waves press the keys. Cinematic slow motion.

Transformation (Best model: Kling 3 or Seedance 2)

A crumbling concrete wall slowly transforms into a lush vertical garden. Time-lapse. Bright natural light.
A person's shadow detaches and walks away on its own, leaving them frozen. Hard street lighting.
A simple cardboard box unfolds and reassembles itself into a intricate origami crane. Macro. White studio background.
An empty winter forest. Blossoms burst from every branch simultaneously in slow motion. Golden hour.
A drop of ink falls into clear water and blooms into a detailed underwater cityscape. Macro lens. Dark background.

Cinematic Atmosphere (Best model: Sora 2 or Veo 3.1)

An old lighthouse keeper climbs spiral stairs, each step revealing a different ocean storm through the window. Moody. Handheld camera.
A lone figure walks through a neon-lit alley in rain. Reflections multiply in every puddle. Slow shutter.
A field of sunflowers at dusk, each flower turning to face a rising full moon. Wide shot. Warm-to-blue color grade.
An abandoned train station. A single flower pushes through a crack in the platform as the camera slowly tracks forward.
Glaciers calving in slow motion, seen from below the waterline. Blue-teal lighting. No sound cues needed — visuals carry it.

Absurd Humor (Best model: Kling 3)

A serious boardroom meeting. All attendees are rubber ducks. One duck presents a pie chart. Photorealistic office.
A cat in a chef's hat furiously deconstructing a five-star meal and replacing it with dry kibble. Fast cuts. Kitchen setting.
A knight in full armor stands in line at a coffee shop, helmet on. Everyone ignores him. Busy morning rush.
Office workers in business attire play a fully serious game of floor-is-lava. No one acknowledges this is unusual.
A golden retriever referees a human soccer match. Completely authoritative. Slow-motion whistle blow.

"What If" Scenarios (Best model: Sora 2)

What if clouds were made of cotton candy? A child floats up on a balloon and bites one. Soft warm lighting.
What if gravity worked sideways? A city street where people walk along the walls of buildings. Morning commute.
What if libraries were underwater? A diver in a wetsuit browses shelves. Schools of fish swim through the aisles.
What if the moon was close enough to touch? A child on a rooftop reaches up and taps it. The moon ripples like water.
What if rush-hour traffic moved through a coral reef? Cars weave between anemones. Bioluminescent lighting.

How to Use These Prompts on aicut

aicut gives you access to all the models mentioned above — Sora 2, Veo 3.1, Kling 3, Seedance 2 — from a single dashboard. No need to juggle separate subscriptions or tabs.

The workflow:

Open aicut's AI video creator
Pick your model from the dropdown (try Veo 3.1 for the cinematic atmosphere prompts, Kling 3 for transformation and humor)
Paste the prompt from the list above
Adjust duration (6–10s is the sweet spot for TikTok / Reels loops)
Generate, review, download

For the prompt cloning use case — if you found a viral video and want to extract its style — aicut's Viral Prompt Cloning feature analyzes the video and generates a reverse-engineered prompt you can reuse.

Adapting Prompts for Specific Platforms

TikTok

Favor fast hooks (prompt #2, #8, #16–20). TikTok's algorithm rewards re-watches — pick prompts where the end loops naturally back to the beginning.

YouTube Shorts

Cinematic atmosphere prompts (#11–15) perform well here. YouTube Shorts viewers tolerate slightly longer builds than TikTok. Add on-screen text explaining what they're watching.

Instagram Reels

Transformation prompts (#6–10) do well on Reels. The Explore page rewards aesthetic quality — lean into the highest-fidelity model (Veo 3.1 or Sora 2) for your Reels output.

Prompt Engineering Tips

Camera direction matters. Adding "macro lens", "handheld camera", "slow motion", or "wide shot" can shift how a model frames the scene.

Lighting specificity helps. "Golden hour", "neon-lit", "fluorescent lighting" give the model a clearer visual anchor than generic "good lighting".

Length vs. complexity tradeoff. Longer prompts give more control but can confuse some models. If a prompt produces muddy results, strip it back to subject + action + lighting.

Iterate fast. Generate 3–4 variations of each prompt. Models interpret prompts differently across seeds — the best output is rarely the first attempt.

Key Takeaways

The best viral AI video prompts combine unexpected contrast, an immediate visual hook, and a single clear subject.
Organize your prompt library by model strength: Sora 2 and Veo 3.1 for cinematic realism, Kling 3 for dynamic transformation, Seedance 2 for fast iterative generation.
The 5 most flexible categories are: surreal, transformation, cinematic atmosphere, absurd humor, and "what if" scenarios.
You don't need a different platform subscription per model — aicut gives you all of them in one place.

Ready to test these prompts? Create your first AI video on aicut — no separate model subscriptions needed.