Kling 4.0 Prompt Library

Kling 4.0 prompts we wrote and ran on Kling4, each printed in full under the clip it produced, with a note on where the result followed the prompt and where it drifted.

Every clip here is a single text-to-video run on Kling4: Kling 4.0 at 720p, sound on, no reference images. Use this prompt carries only the words into the generator, so set the length and aspect ratio to match the card.

Ten of the prompts fit the free no-login run (5 seconds, 720p, 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1, once every 24 hours). The 21:9 glacier shot and the 10-second station scene need a signed-in run, which costs 15 and 30 credits at 720p. To start from a blank box instead, try Kling 4.0 with a scene of your own.

Cinematic and action prompts

  • Courier in a rain-soaked alley

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Night in a narrow Osaka alley after heavy rain. Low tracking shot following a courier in a yellow raincoat who pushes a bicycle through puddles that mirror pink and teal neon signs. Steam drifts from a ramen shop vent. The camera slowly rises to reveal the tangle of overhead cables. Sound: rain dripping from awnings, a distant train, the bicycle chain ticking. Anamorphic look, shallow depth of field.

    Close to the brief: the courier walks away through neon puddles, steam rolls past the ramen sign, and the camera rises into the cables at the end. Naming Osaka also brought readable Japanese shop signs, though the prompt never asked for text.

    Use this prompt
  • Goodbye at the station

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 10 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Two shots. Shot 1 (0-5s): close-up through a train window, a woman in a camel coat presses her palm to the glass, eyes wet. Shot 2 (5-10s): reverse angle from inside the carriage, a man on the snowy platform walks alongside as the train starts moving, then stops and raises his hand. Sound: a train horn, wheels starting to turn, a muffled station announcement.

    The timestamps held: the window close-up runs to the five-second mark and the reverse angle starts right there. In shot 2 the man walks toward the window instead of alongside it, then stops and raises his hand as the train pulls away.

    Use this prompt
  • Rooftop parkour leap

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Handheld follow shot at golden hour. A parkour runner in a grey hoodie sprints across a concrete rooftop, vaults a ventilation duct and leaps the gap to the next building. The camera follows over the edge as the street drops away below; he lands in a roll and dust kicks up. Sound: fast footsteps, heavy breathing, a rush of wind.

    Sprint, vault and leap was one beat too many for five seconds: the runner skips the duct and springs straight off the parapet. The over-the-edge camera and the dusty landing roll arrive as written, so drop the vault or give the clip more time.

    Use this prompt

Dialogue and social prompts

  • Barista's first-day mix-up

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Medium shot in a small, busy café. A nervous young barista with a short bob looks toward a customer just off-screen left and says in English: "Sorry, was that oat milk or almond?" The customer laughs off-screen: "Surprise me." She smiles with relief and reaches for a carton. Sound: espresso machine hiss and café chatter. Natural window light, lips in sync with the speech.

    Her question lands in the first two seconds with her lips moving on it, and the relieved smile follows on cue. One slip: she holds a cup throughout and only sets it down at the end, beside an oat-milk carton that sat on the counter from the first frame.

    Use this prompt
  • Flaming wok, vertical

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 9:16 · 720p

    Prompt
    Vertical handheld shot for a social feed. A street-food cook tosses noodles in a flaming wok at a night market; flames leap up, he slides the noodles onto a banana leaf, looks into the camera with a grin and asks: "Spicy?" Sound: sizzling oil, crackling flames, market noise.

    The flare-up, the noodles sliding onto the banana leaf and the grin to camera all happen in order, with the one-word question at the end. Kling 4.0 added its own cut to a close-up for the plating, and the framing is steadier than "handheld" suggests.

    Use this prompt

Product and food prompts

  • Coffee pour product shot

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 1:1 · 720p

    Prompt
    Studio product shot. A matte sage-green ceramic mug on a walnut table, soft window light from the left. Hot coffee pours in from above in a smooth arc, a wisp of steam curls up, and the camera slowly orbits 45 degrees around the mug. Sound: liquid pouring, a soft ceramic clink. Clean, warm, commercial look, no text on screen.

    The pour, the steam and the clean, text-free frame match the brief, though the coffee falls straight down rather than in an arc. The 45-degree orbit mostly did not happen: the camera drifts and rises a little. For a real turn, try the orbit on its own with the coffee already poured.

    Use this prompt
  • Dumplings into the steamer

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Macro close-up of hands pleating a dumpling on a floured wooden board, then placing it in a bamboo steamer beside five others. The lid closes and steam bursts out around its edges. Sound: soft dough being pressed, then a hiss of steam. Warm tungsten light, shallow focus.

    Hands, pleats, flour and the bamboo weave all read clearly at macro distance. Two departures: a cut between the pleating and the steamer, and only a thin wisp of steam once the lid is on, so ask for a cloud of steam if the burst is the point.

    Use this prompt

Landscape and interior prompts

  • Glacier lagoon at dawn

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 21:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Aerial drone shot at dawn over a glacier lagoon. Blue icebergs drift on still, dark water that reflects a pink sky. The drone glides forward low over the water, then tilts up as the sun breaks over the mountains. Sound: steady wind and the faint crack of ice.

    The low glide over the icebergs and the sun breaking over the ridge in the last second both landed, and 21:9 gives the ice room to spread. The sky came out peach rather than pink, and the tilt-up never comes: the horizon stays level throughout.

    Use this prompt
  • Concrete library reading hall

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Slow dolly-in through the doors of a brutalist concrete library: a tall reading hall where skylights cut sharp beams of light across rows of oak desks, and a single reader turns a page. The camera keeps pushing toward the far window. Sound: echoing footsteps, a page turning, a quiet ventilation hum.

    One unbroken push through the doors toward the far window, with skylight beams falling across rows of desks: among the closest matches on this page. The lone reader sits too far away for the page turn to register, so bring them nearer the camera if that moment matters.

    Use this prompt

Fantasy, sci-fi and animation prompts

  • Paper-cut fox in the snow

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Paper-cut stop-motion style. A small orange paper fox trots through layered paper pine trees under a cut-paper moon. The layers shift with parallax as the camera trucks sideways. Snowflakes made of white paper confetti fall slowly. Sound: soft paper rustling and a gentle music-box melody.

    The layered paper pines, the cut-paper moon and the sideways truck with parallax all came through, and the fox ends up close to the lens. The motion is smooth rather than the stepped look of real stop-motion, and the confetti snow is sparse.

    Use this prompt
  • Lantern whale over the harbour

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Wide shot at dusk over a fishing village. An enormous whale made of glowing paper lanterns swims slowly through the clouds above the rooftops while villagers look up from the harbour. The camera tilts up from the boats to follow the whale's tail. Sound: low whale song, lapping waves, a child gasping.

    The tilt from the boats up to the whale’s tail is exactly what the prompt asked for. The lanterns read more like strings of round bulbs than paper, so describe the lantern itself (ribbed paper, candlelight) if that texture matters.

    Use this prompt
  • Greenhouse dome on Mars

    Made on Kling4 · Kling 4.0 · 5 s · 16:9 · 720p

    Prompt
    Inside a dome greenhouse on Mars, a red dust storm visible through the curved glass. An astronaut in a white suit, helmet off, checks a tomato plant and taps a tablet; the grow lights shift from white to magenta. Slow push-in. Sound: storm wind against the glass, soft electronic beeps.

    The dust storm behind the glass, the tablet tap and the white-to-magenta light shift all happen during the push-in. The white suit became a lab jacket with no helmet in sight; write "pressure suit" and put the helmet in her hands if she should read as an astronaut.

    Use this prompt

Rules for writing Kling 4.0 prompts

What the prompts above have in common, and what their clips taught us. Starting from a photo rather than a blank frame? Motion writing for a still is covered on Kling 4.0 image to video.

Name the shot before the subject

Nine of the twelve prompts open with the framing: "Macro close-up", "Wide shot at dusk", "Handheld follow shot". That phrase sets distance and scale before anything else gets invented. Then come the subject and what it does, one camera move, the light and look, and sound last. Keeping that order pays off when a clip goes wrong, because you know which sentence to rewrite. The paper fox opens with its style instead, since there the style matters more than the framing.

Write sound as sources, not a mood

Kling 4.0 makes audio for each clip whether you describe it or not, so finish with a "Sound:" sentence naming two or three things a microphone would pick up: "espresso machine hiss and café chatter", "the bicycle chain ticking". A word like "atmospheric" or "cozy" hands the choice back to the model.

Quote dialogue, name the speaker and the language

Put each line in double quotes, tie it to someone in frame and name the language, the way the barista prompt puts "says in English" right before her question. A voice that should stay off camera gets "off-screen", like her customer. Budget about a dozen spoken words for five seconds, fewer when there is action too; the wok cook gets one. Kling’s guide lists nine speech languages for Kling 4.0, with German, French and Hindi the newest (full Kling 4.0 specs).

Time multi-shot clips yourself

Number the shots, give each a time range and its own framing, and set the clip length to the total. The station prompt marks "Shot 1 (0-5s)" and "Shot 2 (5-10s)" and runs 10 seconds; its cut lands right at five. It works the other way too: the dumpling and wok clips each cut to a new angle without being asked, so write "one continuous shot" when you need a single take.

Let the aspect ratio shape the words

The ratio is a generator setting, not part of the prompt, but the description should suit the frame you pick. The 21:9 glacier prompt describes a wide sweep of water, ice and mountains. The 9:16 wok prompt stacks one cook and one wok in a tall frame and even says "vertical". The 1:1 mug prompt gives the square a single object to centre. Kling4 offers 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 and 21:9.

Leave out what the camera cannot see

Feelings and backstory only reach the screen through something visible, which is why the station prompt asks for wet eyes and a palm on the glass rather than "heartbroken". Treat exact numbers as hints: the mug’s 45-degree orbit came out as a small drift. And keep exclusions to the one that would spoil the shot, such as "no text on screen" for a product clip, instead of a long list of things to avoid.