TL;DR / Key Takeaways
- No video model was usable on our free Runway account.
- The agent planned the video, then asked us to upgrade.
- 495 free credits left, none usable for video.
- Standard: $15 a month, about 52 s of Gen-4.5.
Verdict: on our free Runway account, no video model could be used. The agent planned our 15-second promo and then said video "isn't available on your current plan". To make video, you need Standard at $15 a month. We did not test Runway's image tools. Tested October 31, 2026 as part of our four-tool test.
How we tested: on October 31, 2026 we gave each tool the same brief on a new free account, in Chrome: "A 15-second promo video for Ember & Oak, a small-batch coffee roaster in Portland, Oregon. Show coffee beans tumbling in a roaster, a barista pouring latte art, and morning light in a cozy cafe. End with the words "Ember & Oak - Roasted slow." Warm, cinematic look." We used each tool's main text-to-video entry point, accepted its suggested defaults, and timed it from submit to a playable video. We did not pay for any plan. Ember & Oak is a made-up business.
Runway free plan at a glance
| What we checked | Result |
|---|---|
| Credits on the new account | 500 shown (Runway's pricing page lists 125 one-time credits for Free) |
| Agent with our brief | Planned the video, then asked us to upgrade; used 5 credits |
| Manual video models | Every one showed the upgrade badge, including Gen-4.5 and Gen-4 Turbo |
| What it offered instead | Still frames of each scene |
| Cheapest plan with video | Standard $15/month, or $12/month billed yearly |
| Standard credits | 625 a month, about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 or 104 seconds of Gen-4 Turbo |
The agent: a good plan, then the upgrade
Runway's home screen is now an agent you chat with. We gave it the brief and it chose Seedance 2.5, a model from ByteDance that Runway offers alongside its own. It wrote out the shots, then replied: "Video generation isn't available on your current plan. Upgrading to Standard unlocks it." It offered to make still frames of each scene to "lock the look before you upgrade". The exchange cost 5 credits.
The manual route: every model is locked
In the Tool view, where you pick a model yourself, we checked Runway's own models (Aleph 2.0, Gen-4.5, Gen-4 Turbo, Gen-4) and the partner models (Seedance 2.5, Kling 4.0, Gemini Omni). Every one showed the upgrade badge. The account had 495 credits left, but none of them could buy video.
What Standard gets you
Standard is $15 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly, with 625 credits a month. Runway's pricing page says that is about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 or 104 seconds of Gen-4 Turbo, so our 15-second brief would use roughly 30% of a month on Gen-4.5.
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Who Runway is for
- Good fit: creators who will pay for the most control over models, shots and editing.
- Less good: anyone who needs a free video; Synthesia and VEED both made one in our test.
Related reading
- Synthesia review
- VEED review
- CapCut AI video on a free account
- We gave 4 AI video generators the same brief
Frequently asked questions
Does Runway have a free plan?
Yes, but on our October 31, 2026 test account every video model, including Gen-4.5 and Gen-4 Turbo, required an upgrade, so the free plan could not make video.
How much does Runway cost for video?
Standard costs $15 a month, or $12 billed yearly, with 625 credits a month: about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 or 104 seconds of Gen-4 Turbo.