Runway pricing

What one Runway clip costs

On yearly Max, a 5-second Gen-4.5 clip costs a third of what it costs on monthly Standard (pricing page). That is $0.48 on Max at $76 a month billed yearly against $1.44 on Standard at $15 a month, if every credit is used.

Pro’s 2,250 credits cover 187 seconds of Gen-4.5 a month and Max’s 9,500 cover 791 (pricing page). At 200 seconds a month you need 2,400 credits, 150 more than Pro gives. The choice is then Max, or Pro plus a top-up, sold 1,000 credits at a minimum and unpriced on the web pages we read.

At 800 seconds you need 9,600, 100 more than Max gives. Past Max, the routes are a top-up, two Team seats (13,800 credits) or the API below.

Runway’s API sells credits at $0.01 each in its developer portal (API pricing). That matches monthly Max and monthly Team and beats Standard and Pro on either billing. Yearly Max and yearly Team beat it if every plan credit is used. The API has no monthly allowance to use up.

API credits are spent through API calls, from your own code or an app built on it. Runway’s help centre says credits bought in Runway “will never appear in your API credits, and vice versa” (help article, edited 11 September 2026).

Runway’s Terms of Use name its APIs among the services they govern. On our reading, s.4.4’s commercial use line and its training licence cover API clips too.

Not yet known: how many generations a usable Runway ad clip takes. Only a bench test can show that, and none has run on Runway.

What Runway charges for Kling, Seedance and Veo

Runway sells other makers’ models from the same credits, each at its own rate. Its compare table lists 24 video models at 5 to 40 credits a second (compare models table). Grok Imagine at 720p is the cheapest from another maker, at 8.

Veo 3.1 with audio and Seedance 2.0 Pro at 1080p take 40 credits a second, 3.3 times Gen-4.5’s 12. One 8-second Veo 3.1 clip, the length Runway’s table quotes, uses 320 of Standard’s 625 monthly credits (compare models table). That is $7.68 on Standard at $15 a month and $3.20 on Max at $95 a month, if every credit is used.

Runway’s table quotes Seedance per 4 seconds, Veo per 8 and the rest per 5; the rates above divide each by its length. Each cost is that rate times the plan’s list price over its credits a month (pricing page).

Runway’s other Kling rows take 15 to 17 credits a second, and Veo 3 with audio takes 40. Seedance 2.5, named on the Pro and Max cards, has no rate in the table.

The Google Veo pricing page sets that Veo clip beside Google’s own routes, and the Kling for ads profile prices Kling on Kling’s own plans.

Runway’s terms name none of the third-party models it sells. Whether those makers’ terms also apply to their clips in ads is unclear (rights matrix).

Is Runway free?

Yes, once: Runway Free gives “a one-time deposit of 125 credits that doesn’t expire” (pricing FAQ). The pricing page lists no free trial. But section 8.4 of Runway’s Terms of Use (last updated 15 September 2026) leaves room for one: “From time to time, we may offer trial, discounted, or other promotional subscription fees”.

The Free card converts the credits to “25s of Gen-4 Turbo, or 25 image generations” and lists only “A selection of generative creative models to test concepts” (pricing page). Standard lists “Access to all AI video & image models”, so the Free card leaves open whether Gen-4.5 is included.

Free videos carry a watermark: Runway’s help centre says “All videos generated on a Free plan feature a Runway watermark”, and that you can generate without one “by signing up for the Standard plan or above” (Free plan details, edited 30 July 2026).

Section 4.4 of the terms names no plan: “Subject to your compliance with the Agreement, the Company does not restrict your commercial use of your Outputs.” On our reading, Free clips can run in ads, watermark included.

Removing the mark yourself may run into s.4.1 of the terms: “You will not remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Services”. Whether a watermark counts as such a notice is unclear; the rights matrix sets out Runway’s clauses by plan.

Costs the plan card leaves out

Unused monthly Runway credits lapse on Standard and Pro. The FAQ says monthly credits “reset within 24 hours of your billing date each cycle”, while on Max “up to one month of unused credits rolls over” (pricing FAQ). On Team, unused credits roll over for one month (Team plan page).

The compare table shows yearly Standard as “7,500 credits/year”, yet on our reading yearly credits still arrive monthly. Runway’s help centre says “A monthly credit allotment is included with Standard, Pro, Unlimited, and Max plans every month” (help article, archived 14 August 2026). For annual subscribers, it adds, “the billing date is the same date each month”.

Past a plan’s credits, Runway’s FAQ offers a prorated upgrade or extra credits in the dashboard. Those come 1,000 at a minimum and “never expire” (pricing FAQ).

Of the individual plan cards, only Pro lists “Top-up credits anytime”. Runway’s help centre says users on Standard, Pro, Unlimited, Max and Team “can purchase additional credits”, and Free users cannot (help article, edited 11 September 2026).

Neither the pricing page nor that article prices top-ups. Runway’s iOS app sells 1,000 credits for $10.00 (App Store listing), a price we could not confirm for the web.

Each plan caps parallel work: Standard runs 5 videos and images at once, Pro 15 and Max 20 (pricing page). Team runs 24 (Team plan page). That limits how many hook variants render together.

Collaborators need the Team plan: Runway’s help centre says “adding collaborators requires a Team plan or higher” (help article, edited 2 September 2026).

Team is sold per seat, for two to nine seats, and every seat’s credits go into one shared pool (Team plan page). A 5-second Gen-4.5 clip then costs $0.60 monthly or $0.48 yearly, as on Max, if every credit is used.

Runway can train on what you upload and generate. Section 4.4 of the terms reads: “You acknowledge that Inputs and Outputs may be used by the Company to train and improve its AI models, algorithms and related technology, products and services (including for labeling, classification, content moderation and model training purposes)”.

The licence is “non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid, transferable, sublicensable”. The clause names no plan, so on our reading it covers Free, Standard, Pro, Max and Team. The terms’ one opt-out (s.16.9) covers arbitration; none covers training.

Runway’s Enterprise terms (last updated 1 June 2026) say the reverse: “Runway may not use Customer Content as training data for the Services.”

Runway’s terms make fees non-refundable by default: “Except as stated in these Terms of Use or as required by applicable law, all fees for the Services are non-refundable, and if you cancel your subscription, you are not entitled to receive any refund or credits for the time remaining in your subscription period” (s.8.5).

The same clause adds: “In our discretion, we may provide a refund upon request.” A refund granted ends the plan: “your subscription to the Services will be terminated as soon as the refund is initiated”.

Price history

No change recorded for Runway since the database’s first check. Runway’s prices were last read on 24 September 2026.

Runway’s old Unlimited plan is off its pricing page. Runway’s help centre says “Max will be offered to all new subscribers starting May 29, 2026” and tells Unlimited subscribers “you’ll automatically be switched to Max on November 30th, 2026” (help article, edited 2 September 2026).

Work out your own cost

A 15-second Runway ad stitched from three 5-second Gen-4.5 clips uses 180 credits: $4.32 on Standard at $15 a month, if every credit is used (pricing page). The cost per AI ad calculator opens with that ad; set your hook variants and the share of takes you would keep.

Where to compare Runway’s cost

The Runway for ads profile covers its models and terms beyond price. Its row in the price tracker and the AI video generators hub set Runway beside the other tools.