What Is CogStudio? The CogVideoX Web UI Explained
CogStudio is a free, open-source Gradio web UI for the CogVideoX model, with one-click Pinokio install. Learn what it does, its VRAM needs, and how it compares to running CogVideo online.
CogStudio is a free, open-source web interface for generating video with the CogVideoX model on your own computer. It wraps CogVideoX in a friendly browser UI and adds a one-click installer, so you can run text-to-video and image-to-video locally without setting up Python by hand. This page explains what it is, what it needs, and when to use it instead of the hosted CogVideo tools.
No GPU or setup?
CogStudio runs CogVideoX on your own hardware. If you would rather generate without installing anything, open Text to Video or Image to Video and run it in your browser.
What is CogStudio?
CogStudio is a Gradio web UI for CogVideoX, maintained by the Pinokio Factory community and published on GitHub. It is built to be easy to install and use: instead of running commands, you get a local web page with input fields, settings, and a preview, much like the hosted CogVideo tools, but running on your own machine.
It is open source and free to use. The generation itself is done by the underlying CogVideoX model, which CogStudio downloads and runs for you.
What CogStudio can do
CogStudio exposes the full range of CogVideoX tasks in one interface:
- Text to Video: generate a clip from a written prompt.
- Image to Video: animate a still image into motion.
- Video to Video: transform an existing clip.
- Extend video: continue a clip to make it longer.
By default it runs the lighter CogVideoX-2B model, and it is tuned to work on consumer hardware, generating video on under 10GB of VRAM.
How CogStudio relates to CogVideo and CogVideoX
CogStudio is not a separate model. It is a front end. The actual video generation is performed by the CogVideoX models from THUDM and Zhipu AI, the same family described in What Is CogVideo. CogStudio simply gives those models a convenient local interface and an easy installer.
So the relationship is: CogVideoX is the model, CogStudio is one way to run it on your own machine, and CogVideo Online here is a way to run it without any setup.
Installing CogStudio with Pinokio
CogStudio is designed to install through Pinokio, a one-click app installer:
Install Pinokio
Download and install the Pinokio app for your operating system from the official site.
Install CogStudio
Find CogStudio in Pinokio and click install. Pinokio sets up the environment, dependencies, and model download for you.
Launch and generate
Start CogStudio from Pinokio and it opens in your browser. Pick a tab (text, image, or video), enter your input, and generate.
For exact, up-to-date steps, follow the official CogStudio repository. Because CogStudio runs CogVideoX locally, you still need a capable NVIDIA GPU. See the system requirements guide for the VRAM each model variant needs.
Prefer not to install anything?
Local generation needs a GPU, a working environment, and disk space for the model. If you just want to make a video, the hosted CogVideo tools run CogVideoX for you in the browser with nothing to install.
Text to Video
Generate a clip from a written description, no setup.
Image to Video
Animate a still image in your browser.
System Requirements
VRAM and GPU needed to run CogVideoX locally.
What Is CogVideo
Background on the CogVideo and CogVideoX models.
Frequently asked questions
What is CogStudio?
CogStudio is a free, open-source Gradio web UI for the CogVideoX video model, maintained by the Pinokio Factory community. It lets you run text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video generation locally through a simple browser interface, with a one-click Pinokio installer.
Is CogStudio free?
Yes. CogStudio is open source and free to use. You run it on your own hardware, so there are no per-generation charges, though you do need a suitable NVIDIA GPU.
What are CogStudio's VRAM requirements?
CogStudio runs the CogVideoX-2B model by default and is tuned to generate video on under 10GB of VRAM. Larger CogVideoX models need more. See the system requirements guide for the exact figures per model.
Does CogStudio support image to video?
Yes. CogStudio exposes CogVideoX's image-to-video task, so you can animate a still image. You can also try image to video here with no install on the Image to Video tool.
How do I install CogStudio?
The easiest way is through Pinokio, a one-click installer. Install the Pinokio app, find CogStudio, and click install. It handles the environment and model download, then opens CogStudio in your browser. See the official repository for current steps.
What is the difference between CogStudio and CogVideo?
CogVideo (and the CogVideoX models) is the AI that generates the video. CogStudio is a third-party interface for running those models locally. Using CogVideo Online here runs the same CogVideoX models without any local setup.