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The Stack / Video
Runway
03 CreationYes if generative video is in your content pipeline — Runway aggregating Gen-4.5, Veo 3.1, Kling, and Seedance under one subscription makes it the sane way to buy AI video. Gen-4.5 now runs 12 credits/second (cut from 25), so Standard's 625 monthly credits stretches to about 52 seconds — budget by seconds of finished output, not by month.
The job in the stack
The generative-video seat: text-to-video, performance capture, and AI-assisted editing for footage you don't have.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 125 one-time credits |
| Standard | $12/mo | 625 credits/mo ($15 billed monthly); all models included |
| Pro | $28/mo | 2,250 credits/mo ($35 billed monthly); adds Seedance 2.5, Topaz upscale, Runway MCP |
| Max | $76/mo | 9,500 credits/mo ($95 billed monthly); unused credits roll over 1 month; extra credits $0.01 each |
| Team | $55/seat/mo | $69/seat billed monthly; 2–9 seats; each seat adds 6,900 credits/mo to one shared pool with 1-month rollover; includes everything in Max. Launched early September 2026 |
Pricing verified 2026-10-19. Plans change — the source of truth is Runway's own pricing page.
Models & versions
- Gen-4.5 Current flagship, 12 credits per second of video (60 credits/5s) — cut from 25/sec
- Aleph 2.0 Video-to-video editing model — the successor to Gen-4 Aleph, retired July 30, 2026
- Gen-4 Turbo Speed tier — the upgrade path off the retired Gen-3 Alpha Turbo
- Act-Two Performance capture — drive a character with your own footage
- Third-party models Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Nano Banana Pro and FLUX.2 on paid plans; Seedance 2.5 and Topaz upscaling from Pro up
- Editor plugins Generation inside Premiere Pro and After Effects (Sep 8, 2026) and DaVinci Resolve (Sep 23, 2026)
The honest read
What works
- + One subscription covers Runway's own models plus Veo, Kling, Seedance
- + Act-Two performance capture is genuinely useful for creator content
- + Watermark-free from the first paid tier
What breaks
- − Credit math still adds up fast even after the rate cut: ~52 seconds of Gen-4.5 per 625-credit Standard month
- − Gen-3 Alpha Turbo and Gen-4 Aleph sunset July 30, 2026 — pipelines need migrating
- − Free tier's 125 one-time credits is a demo, not a trial of real workflow
Use it for
- →Creators adding generative b-roll and scenes to real content
- →Teams comparing frontier video models without buying each separately
- →Music videos, concept shots, mood pieces
Skip it if
- ×Your videos are talking-head — that's HeyGen's job, at a fraction of the cost
- ×You edit real footage and just want captions/cuts — that's CapCut or Descript
Questions operators ask
?How much Runway plan do I need for weekly videos?
Count finished generative seconds per week. At 12 credits/second on Gen-4.5, Standard's 625 credits is ~52 seconds a month — enough for accent shots, not full videos. Pro's 2,250 credits (~187 seconds) is the realistic floor for weekly generative content.
?Runway or Veo directly?
Runway includes Veo 3.1 on paid plans, so unless you're API-integrating Veo, Runway's aggregation is the simpler buy.
What changed
- Freshness sweep: we read the rendered runway.com/pricing and /team-plan and found no price change. Standard is $12/$15, Pro $28/$35 and Max $76/$95 (annual/monthly), with 625, 2,250 and 9,500 credits. Team is $55/$69 per seat with 6,900 pooled credits. Gen-4.5 is still 12 credits/sec. Added: Max and Team credits roll over for one month, while Standard and Pro reset. Nano Banana Pro is on every paid plan. Seedance 2.5 and Topaz upscaling start at Pro.
- Freshness sweep: Standard/Pro/Max prices and credits unchanged; Gen-4.5 still 12 credits/sec. Added the new self-serve Team plan ($55/seat annual, $69 monthly, 6,900 pooled credits per seat) and the Adobe + DaVinci Resolve plugins. Site moved from runwayml.com to runway.com (308 redirect); updated website_url.
- Freshness sweep: real drift. Gen-4.5 now costs 12 credits/second (60 credits/5s), down from 25 credits/second — confirmed on the official pricing page. Plan prices and monthly credit allotments (Standard 625, Pro 2,250, Max 9,500) are unchanged, but the cut roughly doubles usable seconds per plan: Standard now stretches to ~52 seconds/mo, Pro to ~187, Max to ~791. Updated verdict, cons, and FAQ math to match.
- NEWS SCAN: Runway announced Solaris (Aug 31, 2026), the first "Interface World Model" — a Gen-4.5-based research system that generates interactive UI frame-by-frame in real time instead of writing code. Research release only: no pricing, no API, no general sign-up, early-access request only. Not a change to Runway's video product or pricing; noted because it signals where Runway is headed, not something to route work to today.
- Freshness sweep — pricing, credit allotments, and the included third-party lineup all hold. The legacy sunset flagged last month has executed: Gen-3 Alpha retired July 8, Gen-3 Alpha Turbo and Gen-4 Aleph retired July 30, and API calls naming those model IDs now fail. Successors added to the model list — Gen-4.5 or Gen-4 Turbo for generation, Aleph 2.0 for video-to-video. A pipeline still pointed at the old IDs is broken today, not later.
- Re-verified — no changes since July 3. Pricing, credit allotments, and included third-party model lineup hold. Gen-3 Alpha Turbo/Gen-4 Aleph sunset (July 30, 2026) is now 15 days out — worth a reminder note for anyone still on those pipelines.
- Verified plans: Free 125 one-time, Standard $12, Pro $28, Max $76 (annual). Gen-4.5 current at 25 credits/sec. Gen-3 Alpha Turbo and Gen-4 Aleph sunset July 30, 2026.
Give Runway a job
The generative-video seat: text-to-video, performance capture, and AI-assisted editing for footage you don't have.
Try Runway →Alternatives with different jobs
HeyGen
03 CreationThe talking-head seat: avatar videos from script, lip-synced translation, and presence at scale without a camera setup.
CapCut
03 CreationThe vertical-edit seat: cutting, captioning, and shipping 9:16 video at the speed shorts demand.