Runway

Runway (formerly RunwayML) is an AI creative platform centered on Runway Creative, a cloud tool for generating and editing video and images from text or existing footage, alongside Runway Dev, an API for developers building on Runway’s own models. Its current flagship generation model, Gen-4.5, launched in December 2025 and powers text-to-video and image-to-video generation on the platform.

Who It’s Best For

Runway suits individual creatives producing short-form AI video and image content, as well as development teams who want API access to build their own applications on top of Runway’s models. Its invite-based Creative Partners Program also indicates a focus on working artists, while Runway Robotics, a separate simulation toolkit for training robotics policies, extends the company’s reach beyond content creation.

How It Can Be Used

Generating short video clips from text prompts or existing images
Editing and upscaling AI-generated video and images
Building applications on Runway’s models via its developer API
Cloning voices and generating text-to-speech audio
Applying consistent Brand Kits across generated content

FAQ

What is Runway?

Runway is an AI platform for generating and editing video and images, offering both a creative web app (Runway Creative) and a developer API (Runway Dev).

What is Runway used for?

People use it to generate and edit video and image content from text or existing footage, and developers use its API to build on Runway’s models.

Does Runway have a free plan?

Yes. The Free plan includes 125 one-time credits and 5GB of storage, though with a limited model selection.

Who should use Runway?

Individual creatives making short-form AI video and image content, and development teams needing API access to AI video/image models.

What are alternatives to Runway?

Pika, Luma AI (Dream Machine), Kling AI, and OpenAI Sora are commonly cited as direct alternatives for AI video generation.

Key Features

Pros and Cons

Screenshots

Pricing

Credit-based subscription, billed monthly or annually (about 20% cheaper annually); a separate custom-priced Enterprise tier is also available.

Free: $0, 125 one-time credits, 5GB storage, limited model selection. Standard: $15/month or $12/month billed annually, 625 credits/month, all video and image models, no watermarks, 20GB storage. Pro: $35/month or $28/month billed annually, 2,250 credits/month, 1 Brand Kit, 1 voice clone, 100GB storage, unlimited 4K upscaling. Max: $95/month or $76/month billed annually, 9,500 credits/month, 3 Brand Kits, 3 voice clones, 500GB storage. Enterprise: custom pricing, not publicly listed. On the Gen-4.5 model, generating one second of video costs 12 credits, so the cost of a finished video scales with its length and resolution rather than being a flat per-video price.

Alternatives

Runway's closest alternatives are other general AI video generation platforms such as Pika, Luma AI, and Kling AI, rather than avatar-based tools like Synthesia, which serves a different presenter-video use case.

Overview