Your first creative conversation

Sign in, write a brief, add references, check the cost, follow progress, then review, revise and download your first result.

Updated 2026-10-29

Make your first piece

1. Sign in with Continue with Google, Email me a sign-in code, or your email and password. New to Wavemaker? Choose Create an account.
2. Select New chat at the top of the sidebar.
3. Want a starting point? Choose an idea under the composer, such as UGC ad for my product or Lyric video. It fills the brief with a starter that says the format and length in words; replace each part in brackets. Choosing another idea swaps it in while you haven't edited the brief, and the shuffle button shows other ideas. Once you've changed a word, the ideas step aside and your brief stays.
4. Write your brief: what you are making, who it is for, where it will run and in what shape (for example a vertical 9:16 Reel or a widescreen film), how long it runs, and any words that must appear exactly.
5. Add references: select the tilted Add card beside the brief and choose Upload files (or drop files onto the brief) for a product photo, logo or song, or Add from Library for something you already have.
6. Check the settings button beside Send, which shows Balanced unless you changed your defaults.
7. Optional: open the settings, choose Limits, set a Planning budget, and select Check what this message costs.
8. Select Send.

Make a 20-second vertical UGC ad for our refillable water bottle. A creator in her 20s talks to camera on her commute about why she stopped buying plastic bottles. Use the attached product photo. Captions on every line. End with Refill, don't rebuy.

See Write a useful creative brief for more examples.

Check that it worked

• Your message appears in the conversation, and the status reads Starting, then Working.
• The conversation gets its own entry in the sidebar, marked Making now while work runs.
• A progress strip shows each stage as it starts.

Add references

The tilted Add card beside the brief opens a menu with two ways to add files to a message:

• Upload files: files from your device. You can also drop files onto the brief. Attached files show as thumbnails above the brief; point at one and select × to remove it. The card stays where it is, so select it again to add more.
• Add from Library: files, references and collections you already have. Each one gets a purpose, such as product or voice, so the agent knows what it is for.

Say in your brief what each file is for. If your workspace has brand kits, Brand kit in the composer's settings chooses which one the agent reads for this message. See References and Brand kits.

Your unsent draft, with its references and settings, is kept in this browser for 24 hours after you last change it. Selecting New chat clears it, and the notice offers Undo to bring it back.

Choose format and quality

• Format. Say it in your brief: the frame or where it will run (vertical 9:16 for Reels, Shorts and TikTok, 4:5 for a feed post, 1:1, 16:9 widescreen or 2.39:1 cinema), the length, and the resolution if it matters. The ideas under New chat show the wording. Review the result to confirm it.
• Settings. The button beside Send opens a short menu: Quality (Draft, Balanced or High) and Step by step, then rows that open Brand kit, Agent & models (the agent, presets and a model for each kind of media) and Limits. Left on their defaults, the agent chooses models for you.

See Choose quality, models and presets.

Check the cost before you send

In the composer's settings, choose Limits, then open Planning budget.

• Total planning limit (credits) is the most this message may spend, the agent's work and generated media included. Sending reserves it, the reply stops when it is spent, and unused credits come back. A step already running when a limit is reached finishes; you're never charged past the limit. Left empty, it shows Automatic: no limit for this message, though your balance still applies.
• Check what this message costs gives an estimate, such as "About 12 credits for this message, up to 30 credits." Checking spends nothing, and the estimate is not a limit.

You can also write a limit in your brief, for the next reply or for the whole conversation. The agent records it and the service stops spending past it. See Credits.

Follow progress

After you send, the message moves through preparing steps, such as Request saved · preparing… and Starting your agent's machine…. Each one ends with "You can leave this page."

While the agent works, a progress strip follows the production through its stages. The stages come from what the message asked for and what the agent ran. A video shows Brief and plan, Look and casting, Filming, Score and voice, and Edit and finish. A still shows Brief and plan, Making the image and Checks and finish, and an edit shows Editing in place of making. Until that's known, only the stages the agent has reached show. The strip's headline is the current stage, with the agent's latest update under it. Each stage shows what it made, such as a count of shots or files, and how long it took, including the time spent waiting on its renders. When a reply ends, the strip shows how long it worked.

When the agent asks you something

The agent may ask a question as a card with options, such as which take to keep or which direction to follow. It may mark one option My pick. Choose an option, or select Or reply in your own words and type an answer. While a card waits, the brief's placeholder reads "Answer above, or tell me something else…".

With Step by step on, the agent asks before each consequential step and the status shows Needs you. Each step shows a card with Approve and Decline, or you can type a reply, which declines the step and tells the agent what to do instead. A step nobody answers doesn't run after 15 minutes, and the conversation says so. See Step by step.

Steer or stop

• Steer. While a reply runs, the footer says "Messages sent now will steer this request." Send a short direction, such as "Make the music quieter," and the agent takes it into the current work.
• Stop. The Send button becomes Stop while a reply runs. Stopping keeps what is already made: "Stopped. Your work is saved." Select Continue from saved work to pick up again.

Review and revise

Each result has its own actions:

• Download image, Download video or Download audio, and Open original;
• Refine, to aim your next message at this exact result;
• More options, for Compare with version N, See the other takes, Make a variation, Share and more.

Under the reply, Good result and Not right send feedback, and Remake sends the same request again as a new, charged request.

To change something, select Refine on the result and describe the change and what to keep: "Keep the lighting, but make the opening two seconds tighter." Earlier versions and other takes are kept. See Choose, compare and revise a result.

Download or share

• Download saves the file to your device. See Downloads.
• Share, under a result, in its More options menu or at the top of the conversation, opens the Share dialog: it shows what people will see, and Copy link creates the link. Check who the link reaches and when it expires before you send it. To give the exact file to another workspace, choose More options › Send the original to a workspace…. See Share or export.

Publishing to Discover is a separate step. See Publishing.

Where your work is saved

• Conversations. The sidebar lists recent conversations, grouped Pinned, Today, Yesterday, Earlier and Older. Conversations opens the full list, with Active, Archived and Trash tabs and search. Each row's menu offers Rename, Keep at top, Archive and Trash.
• My library. Everything you make and upload lands in My library, organized by conversation. Moving a conversation to Trash leaves its media in My library.
• The conversation panel. Files lists a conversation's files (Latest, Shots, Stills, Sound, Documents, Your references), Log lists what was done, and Versions holds its history.

Archiving or trashing a conversation doesn't stop work that is running; it continues and may still use credits.

If you close the tab

Work runs on Wavemaker's servers, not in your browser. You can close the tab while the agent works. When you come back, open the conversation from the sidebar to see where it is.

When a production finishes or fails, a notice arrives in your Wavemaker Inbox, if Creation completed or failed is on under Settings › Notifications (it is on by default). Wavemaker doesn't send email or push notifications for this.

If your connection drops, the conversation shows "Reconnecting… your production keeps running". If the agent restarts, it picks up from saved progress.

Credits while you work

Credits are charged as the work runs. When your balance gets low, the composer shows Running low and "Work in progress always finishes." When you run out, you see Out of credits: "Your plan and drafts are saved; nothing new will start until you add more."

If a message can't start for lack of credits, it shows Waiting for credits and sends automatically once your balance covers it, or you can select Cancel. If a reply runs out partway, it stops and keeps what it made, with Continue and Stop here. See Credits.

On the free plan

A new account currently starts with 300 free starter credits. They expire 14 days after sign-up, and if any are left, one email reminds you about 10 days in. The notice you see at sign-up shows the amount and the date they expire. Wavemaker sets these amounts and can change them. See Plans.

• Video badge. Until the workspace has paid for credits or a plan, every video Wavemaker generates has the Wavemaker icon and "created with wavemaker.io" burned in, at the bottom right, or near the top left on vertical and 4:5 video. No clean copy is kept, and paying later doesn't remove the badge from earlier videos. Stills are not badged.
• Starter credits work in the web app and in agents you connect with sign-in, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. They can't be spent through an API key until the workspace has made a payment. See Choose CLI, SDK, MCP, or HTTP.
• Adult (18+) work doesn't need a plan. The agent judges from your brief whether it asks for adult work; you don't declare your age. A paid plan is needed only to turn on Show 18+ material, which shows 18+ items in Discover. See How 18+ material works.

The composer doesn't limit models, quality levels, formats or resolutions by plan.

If something goes wrong

See Recover interrupted work and Troubleshooting.

Write a useful creative brief · Choose quality, models and presets · Credits

Related guidance

• Write a useful creative brief
• Understand credits, reservations and charges
• Choose quality, models and presets
• Plans, pricing and what each includes
• Recover interrupted or uncertain work
• Choose, compare and revise a result