How to do the Gangnam Style AI trend for free (the horse dance)

The short answer

Yes, you can do the Gangnam Style trend for free in two ways: film yourself doing the horse dance with your phone on a tripod, or paste a written prompt into the free tier of an AI video tool with your photo attached. Free costs you time and retries, and on most AI tools a watermark and no song. Filming it yourself also means actually doing the dance on camera.

If you’d rather skip all that, the paid route on the Gangnam Style page makes the 10-second video from one photo of you, on a sunset rooftop or in an elevator, with the song already in it.

The free routes compared

What you actually do

There’s no long routine. The trend is the horse dance from PSY’s Gangnam Style, danced in place, head to toe, to a phone that doesn’t move. In plain words:

1. The reins: stand facing the phone and cross your wrists low in front of your belly as if holding a horse’s reins, hands empty.
2. The trot: as the beat kicks in, bounce from foot to foot on every beat, knees up, shoulders loose.
3. The lasso: about four seconds in, one empty hand circles over your head; the other stays on the reins and your feet keep bouncing.
4. To the end: keep lassoing and bouncing to the last beat.

The beat kicks in just under a second in, and that’s where the trot starts. Hold the reins still until then; a trot that starts early or late looks off the whole way through.

Free route 1: film it yourself

1. Put the phone on a tripod at chest height, vertical, about three metres away, so you’re in frame from head to toe.
2. Pick your spot: a balcony or a roof terrace at sunset if you have one, an open lift if you’re allowed to film there, or a clear patch of living room.
3. Play the song so you can dance on the beat. Start with your wrists crossed on the reins.
4. When the beat kicks in, trot from foot to foot.
5. About four seconds in, swing the lasso over your head with one empty hand and keep bouncing to the end.
6. Add the Gangnam Style sound when you post.

Filming in a shared lift or on a building’s roof? Check you’re allowed to be there, keep clear of the edge and the doors, and don’t film other people without asking. Use your own footage, never someone else’s video.

Free route 2: our prompt in an AI tool’s free tier

1. Open an AI video tool’s image-to-video or reference-image mode, such as Kling, Higgsfield, Runway, Veo or CapCut’s AI video tools. Free tiers change, so check what’s on offer.
2. Attach one clear photo of you facing the camera, head to toe if you have one.
3. Copy the prompt from the Gangnam Style AI prompt guide and paste it in.
4. Set vertical 9:16 and 10 seconds, or the longest the free tier allows.
5. Generate, then add the Gangnam Style sound when you post.

Expect a retry or two: a real rope in the lasso hand, a camera that drifts in for a close-up and a body that comes out slimmer or heavier than yours are the usual problems. The fix-it table in the prompt guide covers them.

The trot, the lasso and the place

The trot is the move everyone remembers: wrists crossed low in front of you like you’re holding reins, and a bounce from one foot to the other on every beat. The lasso is the same bounce with one hand circling over your head. There’s no rope and no horse; it’s all mime, which is the joke.

The place is yours to pick. A rooftop at sunset is the version people post most; the other is an elevator with the doors wide open, a nod to the music video’s elevator scene. The moves and the song stay the same either way.

• Grin. The horse dance only works if you look like you’re enjoying it.
• Keep the bounce going through the lasso; the feet never stop.
• Stay in place and face the phone the whole time, so you’re head to toe in every frame.

The paid route: one photo, song included

On the Gangnam Style page you add one photo and pick where you dance. On the sunset rooftop, you stand in the clothes from your photo with towers and string lights behind you, trot with your wrists crossed on the reins, then swing the lasso with one empty hand to the end, feet still bouncing. In the elevator, you do the same dance inside a lit steel car with the doors wide open, filmed from the lobby.

You’re head to toe the whole time and the camera never moves. No prompt, no tripod and no editing.

One Standard video uses 45 credits. The smallest pack that makes one is $9.90 for 90 credits (2 videos), a one-time buy whose credits never expire, and plans start at $19.90 a month for 270 credits. If a video fails, its credits come back.

It’s vertical, with the song and no watermark, ready in a few minutes. We email you when it’s ready and it waits in My videos. Your photo is deleted automatically 7 days after upload. Full prices are on Pricing.

Which one should you pick?

• Film it yourself if you’re happy to do the horse dance on camera. It’s free and it’s really you.
• Use the free prompt if you like tinkering and don’t mind a watermark or a few tries.
• Use one photo if you want the rooftop or the elevator without getting there, or would rather not do the dance on camera, and want it done once with the song in.

New to the trend? Read what the Gangnam Style trend is, and check the photo guide before you upload.

NowStarring is an independent fan tool, not linked to PSY, his labels, the song’s rights holders or the creators who started the trend, and the song belongs to its rights holders.

Sorular

Is the Gangnam Style trend free?

It can be. Film the horse dance yourself with your phone on a tripod, or paste a written prompt into an AI video tool’s free tier with your photo. NowStarring has no free videos; it’s the paid one-photo route.

Do I need to know the dance?

Only to film it yourself, and it’s two moves: the crossed-wrist trot and the lasso. The AI routes make the moves for you, on the beat.

Do I need a rooftop or an elevator?

No. A living room or a backyard works for filming it yourself. The rooftop at sunset and the elevator are the two places people most want to dance it, and the AI routes put you there.

Do I need a suit and sunglasses?

No. Dance in whatever you’re wearing. The AI routes keep the clothes from your photo.

Does a free AI video come with the song?

Usually not. Most AI tools make a silent clip or their own music, so you add the Gangnam Style sound when you post.

Can my dog or cat do it?

Not on NowStarring yet: for now the video is made for a person, and the prompt in our guide is written for a person too.