Runway Pricing: Plans, Credits, Limits and Total Cost

Runway is easy to price on paper and hard to budget in practice. Every plan sells a monthly block of credits, and every model spends those credits at its own rate per second, so two teams on the same plan can end up with very different amounts of finished footage.

This post answers what Runway really costs a marketing team. It shows how far each plan's credits go, what rolls over, what happens when the balance runs out and which plan fits which volume of video. It is written for in-house marketers, content and growth leads and small agency teams who have already shortlisted Runway for AI video generation and now need a budget that holds up in real production. Plan prices sit in the pricing table, and everything else is converted into seconds of video.

These figures hold for credits spent in the Runway app. API credits are a separate balance bought on Runway's developer platform. Seconds generated are not seconds kept, and premium models such as Veo with audio burn credits more than three times faster than Gen-4.5.

How Much Does Runway Cost?

Runway prices its individual plans by monthly credits, with Standard at 625, Pro at 2,250 and Max at 9,500 credits a month, and every paid plan opens all of Runway's video and image models. The monthly fee in the table below buys that credit block, so the right plan depends on how many seconds of video you generate.

Each step up the plan ladder changes four things:

• Credits: Standard gives 625 a month, Pro 2,250 and Max 9,500, which is 7,500, 27,000 and 114,000 a year.
• Rollover: Standard and Pro credits reset within 24 hours of the billing date. Max credits roll over for one month.
• Workspace limits: Standard has 20GB of storage, 3 projects and 5 parallel generations. Pro raises that to 100GB, 5 projects and 15 parallel generations. Max gives 500GB, 10 projects and 20 parallel generations.
• Brand and output tools: Pro adds 1 Brand Kit, 1 custom voice clone, unlimited 4K video upscaling and the Runway MCP. Max adds up to 3 Brand Kits, up to 3 voice clones, early model access and HDR, ProRes and image-sequence output.

The pricing table shows two figures for each paid plan because Runway sells every plan with monthly or yearly billing, and it labels the yearly option as 20% off. The two figures are the same plan on two billing terms. A tracker that reads them as before and after is reading the toggle, not a price rise.

Yearly billing changes what you pay, not how credits behave. Standard and Pro allowances still reset every month, so a yearly plan does not bank unused credits.

The Free plan sits below the ladder with a one-time deposit of 125 credits. Team and Enterprise sit above it, with a pooled per-seat balance and a custom quote, and both are covered in their own section below.

How Do Runway Credits Work?

Runway charges credits per second of generated video, and the model sets the rate, from 5 credits a second on Gen-4 Turbo to 40 on Veo with audio, with Gen-4.5 at 12. Credits are the one unit Runway spends on image, video and audio, and the cost of each job also moves with its duration and resolution.

Runway's help centre gives a worked example. A 5-second Gen-4 clip costs 60 credits. The same 5 seconds cost 25 credits on Gen-4 Turbo and 200 on Veo with audio.

The headline Gen-4.5 rate hides the spread. Veo with audio spends credits more than three times as fast as Gen-4.5, and Aleph 2.0 works out at 28 credits a second. A team that moves its clips from Gen-4.5 to Veo with audio cuts its seconds per plan by more than two-thirds.

That is why model choice sets the bill more than the plan does. Pick a default model for routine clips, keep premium models for the shots that need audio or a specific look, and budget per model rather than per plan.

One more rule matters for teams with developers. Credits in the Runway app and API credits are separate balances, and API credits are bought on Runway's developer platform. A plan's monthly credits do not fund API calls, so an automated workflow needs its own budget line.

How Many Seconds Of Video Does Each Runway Plan Buy?

At Gen-4.5's rate of 12 credits a second, Runway's Standard plan buys about 52 seconds of generated video a month, Pro about three minutes and Max about 13 minutes. On Gen-4 Turbo the same credits stretch more than twice as far, and on Veo with audio they shrink to under a third.

Runway's own pricing table gives a lower figure for the cheapest plan. It shows Standard's 625 credits as 104 seconds of Gen-4 Turbo, against the 125 seconds the per-second rate implies. Plan on the lower count when you budget.

These are generated seconds, not kept seconds. Every retry and every discarded clip spends credits at the same rate, so the footage you publish is a fraction of the totals above. The cost scenarios further down build that retry rate into the budget.

Team works differently, because each seat's credits join one pooled balance. A Team workspace's seconds depend on how many seats it buys, and the Team section below explains how the pool behaves.

The table makes the problem concrete for most marketing teams. Under a minute of Gen-4.5 a month covers prompt testing and the odd social clip. It does not cover a campaign.

What Does The Runway Free Plan Include?

Runway's Free plan gives a one-time 125 credits that never renew, limits video to Gen-4 Turbo image-to-video and adds a Runway watermark to every video it generates. At Gen-4 Turbo's 5 credits a second, those credits cover about 25 seconds of video in total, not per month.

The deposit does not expire, so there is no rush to spend it. The Free plan also allows 3 video editor projects.

Use the Free plan to learn how Runway reads prompts and images, and to try a few image-to-video ideas. Do not treat it as a trial of client work. The watermark, the single model and the fixed balance all differ from a paid account.

A buyer who needs to judge Gen-4.5 output on real briefs learns more from one month of Standard than from the Free plan.

What Does Runway Team And Enterprise Pricing Include?

Runway's Team plan pools every seat's monthly credits into one shared balance for groups of two to nine people, and unused pooled credits roll over for one month. Team is billed per seat, and the pool means one person's allowance never sits idle while a colleague runs out in the middle of a campaign.

Team adds these workspace features:

• Credits per seat, pooled across one workspace
• One month of rollover on the pooled balance
• Up to 100 shared projects and 1TB of workspace storage
• Frame-accurate commenting for review
• A usage view that shows who spends what

Pooling changes where unused credits go. On separate Pro accounts, credits left on a quiet seat reset at its billing date while a busy seat may need top-ups. On Team, a quiet seat's credits stay in the shared pool for a busy seat to use, and unused pooled credits roll over for one month.

Agencies weighing AI video tools for agencies should compare that pooled balance, not the seat price alone.

Enterprise is priced by custom quote through Runway's sales team. It adds custom SSO, admin controls, user roles and permissions, formal security and privacy terms, and no training on customer data. Those are the controls a procurement or security review asks for, so Enterprise is a compliance step as much as a volume step.

Runway's pricing page also runs a time-limited Enterprise promotion of up to two months of usage at no charge. It carries its own sign-up deadline and terms, so read those before counting it in a budget.

What Happens When You Run Out Of Runway Credits?

When a Runway plan runs out of credits, the buyer can top up with at least 1,000 extra credits that never expire, upgrade mid-cycle at a prorated charge, or wait for the monthly reset, since Runway retired its unmetered Explore Mode when Max replaced Unlimited. Each route suits a different kind of shortfall.

The three options work differently:

• Top up: Buy extra credits from the Plans & Billing page in your account, in blocks of at least 1,000. Purchased credits never expire, and Runway lists top-ups on Pro as available at any time.
• Upgrade: A move to a bigger plan takes effect immediately and is prorated, so the larger allowance applies at once.
• Wait: Standard and Pro credits reset within 24 hours of the billing date, and unused credits from the old cycle are lost. Max carries unused credits forward for one month.

Downgrades work the other way round. The current plan stays active until the next cycle, and the unused balance is applied as a credit toward it.

Free accounts have none of these options. Credits cannot be bought on the Free plan, so the only way past the 125-credit deposit is a paid plan.

There is also no slow lane any more. Older articles still describe an Unlimited plan with unmetered generation, but Max took its place and every generation is now metered. When the balance hits zero, the choice is a top-up, an upgrade or the reset.

What Does Runway Really Cost To Run Each Month?

An in-house team that keeps 20 eight-second Gen-4.5 clips a month at two attempts per keeper spends about 3,840 Runway credits, more than the Pro plan's 2,250, so it needs Max or a top-up. The monthly cost is set by the credits behind every attempt, not by the number of clips you publish.

Wyzowl's Video Marketing Statistics 2026 report found that 63% of video marketers have used AI video tools to create or edit marketing videos, up from 51% a year earlier. In the same survey of 266 respondents, 38% said video marketing costs are increasing. With AI video now in most teams' workflow and costs rising, a credit budget belongs in the plan from the start.

Solo marketer: Ten five-second concepts on Gen-4 Turbo at 5 credits a second come to 250 credits. Standard's 625 credits cover that with room for retries, and Pro's extras are not needed at this volume.

In-house social team: Twenty kept clips of eight seconds at two attempts each make 320 generated seconds. At 12 credits a second that is 3,840 credits, about 1,590 more than Pro includes. Top-ups come in blocks of at least 1,000, so Pro needs 2,000 extra credits. Max's 9,500 credits cover the work with room to spare, and its unused credits roll over for a month.

Four-person agency: Sixty kept ten-second clips at two attempts each make 1,200 generated seconds, or 14,400 credits on Gen-4.5. That is more than Max's 9,500, so the work belongs in a pooled Team workspace sized to the volume. Run the same work on Veo with audio and it needs 48,000 credits, more than three times as much.

The retry multiplier is a judgement, not a Runway figure. Two attempts per keeper is a working assumption for a team with tested prompts, and the recurring complaints about credits spent on failed generations suggest it is not pessimistic. Teams that learn to write prompts for AI video well need fewer attempts per keeper.

Five things set the monthly bill:

• Model choice: Veo with audio spends 40 credits a second against 12 for Gen-4.5.
• Attempts per keeper: Each extra attempt adds a full clip's credits.
• Clip length: Credits scale with seconds, so a ten-second clip costs twice a five-second one on the same model.
• 4K upscaling: Upscaling costs 2 credits a second on Standard, while Pro includes unlimited 4K video upscaling.
• Voice and audio: Text to speech costs 1 credit per 50 characters, and Veo's audio comes at its premium rate.

How Does Runway Pricing Compare With Kling AI, Luma, Pika And Adobe Firefly?

Runway, Kling AI, Luma, Pika and Adobe Firefly all bill AI video in credits per second or per clip, so the fair comparison is seconds of usable footage per plan, never credit counts or sticker prices. A credit is a different size at every vendor, and each vendor spends it at its own rate.

Runway: Runway spends 12 credits a second on Gen-4.5 and up to 40 on Veo with audio. Only Max and Team roll unused credits over, for one month. Runway's help centre says Runway output can be used commercially without crediting Runway.

Kling AI: Kling AI sells Basic, Standard, Pro, Premier and Ultra memberships, with 660, 3,000, 8,000 and 26,000 monthly credits on the paid tiers and none on Basic. Kling VIDEO 3.0 in 4K mode spends 30 credits a second, so 3,000 credits buy about 100 seconds of 4K footage. The displayed paid prices are a first-subscription discount and the next monthly renewal bills higher, so budget on the renewal price.

Luma Dream Machine: Luma Dream Machine sells Plus, Pro and Ultra plans with 10,000, 40,000 and 150,000 credits. Ray3.14 video at 720p costs 100 credits for 5 seconds or 300 for 10 seconds, so Plus's 10,000 credits cover about 100 five-second clips. Commercial use starts on Plus, and Team and Enterprise are sold by contact.

Pika: Pika meters every generation in credits that vary by model and settings. Plan credits reset monthly and do not carry over, while purchased top-up credits carry over but expire 365 days after purchase. Pika moved its commercial licence down to the Starter plan on 23 October 2026, according to the tracker UsagePricing.

Adobe Firefly: Adobe Firefly meters video in generative credits, at 100 credits a second for 1080p at 24fps and 50 a second at 720p, with partner-model video priced by model. Every Creative Cloud plan includes generative credits that refresh on the billing date. They do not roll over, and when they run out the choice is the reset or add-on credits.

Read the table as meters, not prices. Luma's credit numbers run far larger than Runway's, so raw credit counts say nothing across vendors. A Firefly second at 1080p costs 100 of Adobe's credits and a Gen-4.5 second costs 12 of Runway's, and neither number means anything until it is divided into the plan's allowance and set against the price in each vendor's pricing table.

Rollover splits the field too. Runway's Max and Team keep unused credits for a month, Pika keeps only top-ups, and Firefly keeps none. Teams already set on leaving should read the guide to Runway alternatives.

Which Runway Plan Should You Choose?

Choose Runway Max over Pro when monthly video volume swings, because Max is the only individual Runway plan whose unused credits roll over, for one month. For steady volume, pick the smallest plan whose credits cover your kept seconds at your usual retry rate, then add top-ups for the odd heavy month.

Use these rules to pick a plan:

• Free: Only for testing prompts, since every video is watermarked and credits cannot be topped up.
• Standard: Under a minute of Gen-4.5 a month, with no need for Brand Kits or voice clones.
• Pro: Up to about three minutes of Gen-4.5 a month, plus a Brand Kit, a custom voice clone and unlimited 4K video upscaling.
• Max: Volume that swings month to month or outgrows Pro, or a need for HDR, ProRes or image-sequence output.
• Team: Two to nine people sharing one budget, with pooled credits, shared projects and frame-accurate review.
• Enterprise: A security review that requires custom SSO, user roles and permissions or a no-training commitment.

Credits are not the only cost. Animoto's 2026 State of Video Report found that 36% of consumers say an AI-generated video would lower their perception of a brand, in a survey of over 450 US consumers and marketers. Budget review time for every clip alongside the credits, because a cheap second that hurts the brand is not cheap.

For what Gen-4.5 and Aleph can do once the plan is chosen, read the full Runway review.

Runway Pricing FAQ

Runway's help centre says videos made in Runway can be used commercially without crediting Runway, and the Free plan's watermark is the main limit on using free output. The answers below cover the other questions buyers ask before they commit to a plan.

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