Google Veo 3.1 Review — Native Audio, YouTube Integration, and the AI Video Model With a Platform Advantage

Google's Veo 3.1 is the AI video generation model with the most powerful distribution advantage in the field: native YouTube integration, Google Workspace embedding, and a latent diffusion transformer architecture that was first to market with joint audio-video generation. Launched in phases from May 2024 to January 2026, Veo 3.1 offers 4K output, native vertical video, reference image consistency, and a per-second API on Vertex AI and the Gemini API. We examine the architecture, version history, pricing, API access, MCP server status, benchmark performance, controversies, and competitive position.