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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. Credits burn fast at 25/second on Gen-4.5, so 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; all models included |
| Pro | $28/mo | 2,250 credits/mo |
| Max | $76/mo | 9,500 credits/mo; extra credits $0.01 each |
Pricing verified 2026-08-06. Plans change — the source of truth is Runway's own pricing page.
Models & versions
- Gen-4.5Current flagship, 25 credits per second of video
- Aleph 2.0Video-to-video editing model — the successor to Gen-4 Aleph, retired July 30, 2026
- Gen-4 TurboSpeed tier — the upgrade path off the retired Gen-3 Alpha Turbo
- Act-TwoPerformance capture — drive a character with your own footage
- Third-party modelsVeo 3/3.1, Kling 3.0 Pro, Seedance 2.0, FLUX.2 included on paid plans
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 is brutal: ~25 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 25 credits/second on Gen-4.5, Standard's 625 credits is ~25 seconds a month — enough for accent shots, not full videos. Pro 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 — 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.