Correction, 2026-10-02: this page credited the Free plan with about 10 seconds of Gen-4.5, but Runway's help center lists Gen-4.5 for Standard and higher, and free-plan videos carry a Runway watermark. It put Gen-4 Turbo at "about 6 credits a second in the app"; Runway's help center lists 5 in the app (25 credits for 5 seconds), the same as the API. It said only Max rolls credits over, leaving out the Team plan and the fact that purchased credits never expire. It said there is no Unlimited plan without saying that legacy Unlimited subscribers keep it until November 30, 2026, or that Pro and Max now have an Unlimited Mode. It stated two forecasts as fact (that Standard "will run out in the first week" and that light-usage teams "frequently" pay more per clip), and it put a 60-credit clip at "about $0.60 of a plan's allowance", which is the top-up rate, not the plan rate. Finally, it did not say that Gen-4 Turbo and Act-Two cost fewer credits on Runway than on 8frame. All Runway figures were re-checked on 2026-10-02.
Runway bills a monthly subscription plus per-second credits, and the number that decides everything is 12: Gen-4.5 costs 12 credits per second of generated video, so a 5-second clip is 60 credits and a 10-second one is 120. The plans are Free (125 one-time credits), Standard $12/month billed annually for 625 credits, Pro $28 for 2,250, and Max $76 for 9,500. Extra credits cost $0.01 each, with a 1,000-credit minimum. That makes Standard about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 a month, which is the arithmetic to check before you subscribe.
TL;DR
- Gen-4.5: 12 credits per second, 2 to 10 seconds at 720p, on Standard and higher. Gen-4 Turbo: 5 credits per second in the app and on the API, so 25 credits for 5 seconds
- Plans (annual billing): Free 125 one-time · Standard $12 / 625 · Pro $28 / 2,250 · Max $76 / 9,500. Monthly billing is $15, $35, $95. Top-up credits are $0.01 each, 1,000 minimum, and never expire
- No Unlimited plan for new subscribers. Runway stopped selling it on June 1, 2026, and legacy subscribers move to Max on November 30, 2026. Separately, Pro and Max have an Unlimited Mode that generates without credits on supported models, more slowly
- Monthly credits roll over only on Max and Team, for up to one month. Standard and Pro credits expire on your billing date
- Credits Mode output: 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 on Standard, 187 on Pro, 791 on Max, before the takes that don't work. The Free plan's credits don't reach Gen-4.5
The plans
| Plan | Annual $/mo | Monthly $/mo | Credits/mo | Gen-4.5 seconds | Rollover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 125 one-time | none (Gen-4.5 needs Standard) | one-time credits never expire |
| Standard | $12 | $15 | 625 | ~52 | no |
| Pro | $28 | $35 | 2,250 | ~187 | no |
| Max | $76 | $95 | 9,500 | ~791 | up to 1 month |
Figures from Runway's pricing page and help center, checked 2026-10-02. Free-plan videos carry a Runway watermark, and Free accounts can't buy extra credits; Standard and up list "No watermarks". There is also a Team plan for 2 to 9 people: each seat adds 6,900 credits a month to one shared pool, and up to a month of unused pooled credits rolls over.
Per credit, the plans are not equal. Billed annually, Standard works out to about 1.9 cents a credit, Pro about 1.2 cents and Max 0.8 cents, against 1 cent for top-ups.
The credit rates
| Model | Rate | 5 s | 10 s | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gen-4.5 | 12 credits/s | 60 credits | 120 credits | 2 to 10 s, 720p output, Standard and higher |
| Gen-4 Turbo | 5 credits/s | 25 credits | 50 credits | 5 or 10 s, needs an input image |
| Aleph 2.0 (edits your video) | 140 credits per 5 s in the app; 28/s on the API | 140 credits | 280 on the API | edits clips up to 30 s at 1080p |
| Act-Two (performance capture) | 5 credits/s | 25 credits | 50 credits | 3 s minimum, up to 30 s, Standard and higher |
The API sells credits at $0.01 each, so Gen-4.5 there is $0.12 a second and Gen-4 Turbo $0.05. App credits and API credits are separate balances: Runway's help center says plan credits never appear in your API credits, and vice versa.
One inconsistency to know about: Runway's pricing page describes Standard's 625 credits as "104s of Gen-4 Turbo", which works out nearer 6 credits a second than the 5 its help center lists. If you budget on Turbo, use the pricing page's lower count.
Paid plans also run third-party models from the same credits, each at its own rate. The pricing page lists Kling and Nano Banana Pro under Standard and adds Seedance 2.5 under Pro and Max, and Runway's Standard-plan help article budgets 320 credits for 8 seconds of Veo 3.1 with audio. On the API, generations routed through Runway's Model Router are billed at the standard rate of whichever model the router selects, so if you budget an automated pipeline, budget against the most expensive model it can pick.
What that means in practice
Standard is an evaluation tier, not a working one. Runway's own help center describes Standard as "best suited for light, exploratory usage rather than high-volume production". 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 a month is ten 5-second clips if every clip works first time. If a usable shot takes three tries (an assumption: track your own rate), that is three or four finished shots a month.
Pro is the first tier sized for regular work. 187 seconds of Gen-4.5 is about 37 five-second clips, or roughly twelve usable shots at three tries each. Pro and Max also get Unlimited Mode: generations there "don't use credits, but may take longer to start during busy periods", and fewer run at once. Runway says the models it covers "may vary based on promotional periods and plan type", so check the list in the app before you count on it.
Max is where the rollover matters. It is the only individual tier where unused monthly credits carry forward, and only by one month. For bursty work, that means a quiet month can partly fund a heavy one.
Gen-4 Turbo stretches the same credits further. At 5 credits a second against 12, Turbo goes about 2.4 times as far as Gen-4.5 (the pricing page's own plan line says 2x: 104 seconds against 52 on Standard). Runway's help article for Gen-4 recommends testing in Turbo and switching up when you need to; the same draft-then-finish habit works with Gen-4.5.
Where the money actually goes
The trap in every credit system, Runway's included, is that you pay per generation and not per usable clip. Runway's help center says credits come back automatically only when a generation ends in an error; a finished generation that "doesn't match your prompt" still uses its credits. A 5-second Gen-4.5 clip is 60 credits; a 5-second clip you actually ship is 60 credits times however many takes it took. Budget on the second number.
The second trap is expiry. On Standard and Pro, monthly credits expire on your billing date, and plan credits are always spent before purchased ones, so a light month is credits lost rather than banked. Purchased credits don't expire. If your usage swings from month to month, compare a smaller plan plus top-ups against a bigger plan you may not use up.
How this compares to a multi-model canvas
For calibration rather than a pitch. On 8frame, a credit is also $0.01 in a top-up pack, credits roll over while you are subscribed, and one pool covers every model. A 5-second Kling v3 Standard clip with audio (from a start image) is 86 credits, a 5-second Wan 3.0 clip runs 24 to 95 depending on resolution, and an 8-second Veo 3.1 Lite clip with audio is 54. The canvas hosts Runway Gen-4 Turbo (image to video, 2 to 10 seconds) at 8 credits a second, 40 for 5 seconds, and Act Two at 8 credits per second of the reference performance (3 to 30 seconds). Both cost fewer credits on Runway itself: 25 for 5 seconds of Gen-4 Turbo, and Act-Two at 5 a second. At either side's top-up rate of $0.01 a credit, that is $0.25 against $0.40 for 5 seconds of Gen-4 Turbo. 8frame does not host Gen-4.5 or Aleph.
Which is the honest limit of the comparison: if Aleph 2.0 editing or Act-Two performance capture is your core workflow, Runway is the product for that, and it is also the cheaper place to run Gen-4 Turbo. See is Runway worth it in 2026 for the judgment by use case and Runway alternatives for the wider field.
A note on sourcing
We had the Gen-4.5 rate wrong on this blog until a reader wrote in with Runway's first-party documentation. The old figure of roughly 25 credits per second had no source behind it and had propagated across several posts from one original. Every Runway number on this page comes from Runway's pricing page, its help center or its developer pricing docs, fetched and read directly on 2026-10-02, and all of them are linked below so you can check them rather than trust us.
FAQ
How much does Runway cost per video? At 12 credits per second for Gen-4.5, a 5-second clip is 60 credits and a 10-second clip 120. At the top-up rate of $0.01 a credit, 60 credits is $0.60; inside an annual plan it works out to about $1.15 on Standard, $0.75 on Pro and $0.48 on Max.
Does Runway have an unlimited plan? Not for new subscribers. Runway stopped offering the Unlimited plan on June 1, 2026, and legacy Unlimited subscribers move to Max on November 30, 2026. Separately, Pro and Max include an Unlimited Mode that generates without credits on supported models, with slower starts and fewer generations at once; Runway says the supported models vary.
Do Runway credits roll over? Monthly plan credits roll over only on Max and Team, for up to one month. Standard and Pro credits expire on your billing date. Purchased credits and the Free plan's one-time 125 never expire.
Can I use Gen-4.5 on Runway's free plan? No. Runway's help center lists Gen-4.5 for Standard and higher. The 125 free credits work on "a limited set of generative AI tools" that Runway says changes often, every free-plan video carries a Runway watermark, and Free accounts can't buy more credits.
Where do these numbers come from? Runway's pricing page for plans and allowances, Runway's help center for expiry, rollover and the in-app model rates, and Runway's developer pricing docs for the API rates. All read 2026-10-02. If they have moved since, trust them over us and tell us.
Sources
- Plans, prices, credits per plan, seconds per plan, "No watermarks", rollover FAQ, 1,000-credit minimum top-up, Aleph 2.0 at 140 credits per 5 s, models listed per plan: runway.com/pricing (runwayml.com/pricing redirects there), checked 2026-10-02
- API rates (gen4.5 12, gen4_turbo 5, act_two 5, aleph2 28 credits per second), $0.01 per credit, Model Router billing: docs.dev.runwayml.com/guides/pricing, checked 2026-10-02
- Gen-4 Turbo in the app, 5 credits per second, 5 or 10 s, image required: Runway help, Creating with Gen-4 Video, checked 2026-10-02
- Gen-4.5 plan requirement, 2 to 10 s, 720p: Runway help, Creating with Gen-4.5, checked 2026-10-02
- Expiry, rollover on Max and Team, purchased credits, spending order, app and API credits kept apart: Runway help, How do credits work?, checked 2026-10-02
- Free plan, watermark, no credit purchases: Runway help, Free plan details, checked 2026-10-02
- Standard positioning and the Veo 3.1 example: Runway help, Standard plan details, checked 2026-10-02
- Unlimited plan withdrawn June 1, 2026, legacy subscribers to Max on November 30, 2026: Runway help, Unlimited plan is switching to Max, checked 2026-10-02
- Unlimited Mode on Pro and Max: Runway help, Generating in Unlimited Mode, checked 2026-10-02
- Team plan, 6,900 credits per seat, rollover: Runway help, Team plan details, checked 2026-10-02
- Credits returned only on a generation error: Runway help, Can I have credits refunded?, checked 2026-10-02
- Act-Two, 5 credits per second, 3 s minimum, up to 30 s, Standard or higher: Runway help, Performance Capture with Act-Two, checked 2026-10-02
- Aleph 2.0, edits up to 30 s at 1080p: runway.com/product/aleph-2, checked 2026-10-02
- 8frame prices: 8frame tool registry, read 2026-10-02; Runway Gen-4 Turbo per-second billing on 8frame confirmed in production on 2026-10-02 (40 credits for 5 s, 80 for 10 s)
The rate that decides your Runway bill is 12 credits a second, and the rule that decides whether the plan fits is whether your credits survive a quiet month. Weigh the wider field in best AI video generator 2026.
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