Runway Pricing 2026: Credit Costs Per Model, and What Each Plan Really Buys
Runway's plans look simple until you convert credits into seconds. The per-second credit burn of Gen-4.5, Gen-4 Turbo, Aleph and Act-Two, and how many clips each tier actually holds.
Runway is the closest thing this category has to a professional standard, and its pricing is honest in a way most competitors' is not — the per-model credit rates are published. The work is converting them into clips.
The plans
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | — | 125 one-time |
| Standard | ~$15 | ~$12 | 625/month |
| Pro | ~$35 | ~$28 | 2,250/month |
| Unlimited | ~$95 | ~$76 | 2,250/month + Explore Mode |
Every paid tier includes the full model set: Gen-4.5, Gen-4, Act-Two performance capture, Aleph video editing, Workflows, Veo 3 and 3.1, plus third-party models including Seedance 2.0 and Kling 3.0 Pro. There is no model gating between Standard and Unlimited — you are buying credits and, at the top, an unmetered exploration mode.
Credits to seconds
This is the table that matters:
| Model | Credits/second | 10-second clip |
|---|---|---|
| Gen-4 Turbo | ~5 | ~50 credits |
| Act-Two | ~5 | ~50 credits |
| Gen-4.5 | ~12 | ~120 credits |
| Aleph | ~15 | ~150 credits |
So Standard's 625 credits is about twelve 10-second Gen-4 Turbo clips, or about five on Gen-4.5, or four on Aleph. Pro's 2,250 credits is roughly 45 Turbo clips or 15 on Aleph.
If you plan on the headline credit number rather than the per-model rate, you will run out three times faster than you expected on the good models. That is not a trick — it is just that a 3× quality tier costs 3× the credits.
Where Runway is genuinely ahead
Aleph is the reason to be here. It handles up to 30 seconds at 1080p in a single shot with multi-shot handling and keyframe propagation — aimed at exactly the drift and continuity problems that appear when you stitch short generations together. At roughly $0.28 per second equivalent it is the most expensive option in this space, and for long continuous shots there is not much competing.
Act-Two is performance capture: drive a character with a recorded performance. Distinct from motion transfer, and cheap in credits.
The editor. Runway is a workspace, not an endpoint. If your work involves iteration across many shots, that matters more than any per-second figure.
Where it is not the answer
Runway is not on fal or the other aggregators, so building on it means a separate integration and separate billing. And for the specific job of "put my face into this Reel", the per-second aggregated models are both cheaper and better suited: HappyHorse 1.1 reference-to-video at $0.14/second, or Kling 3.0 Pro Motion Control at $0.168/second, both read live on 2 August 2026.
Honestly
If you are producing video as craft — multiple shots, continuity, an editing timeline — Runway at Pro is a fair price for a serious tool and the credit maths works out once you plan per model.
If you want one vertical clip with your face in it, a full creative suite is the wrong shape of purchase. That is the gap we fill: first video for $0.99, no plan, no credit conversion. Different products, and Runway is not overpriced for what it is.