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. Credits are $0.01 each. The plans are Free (125 one-time credits), Standard $12/month for 625 credits, Pro $28 for 2,250, and Max $76 for 9,500. That makes Standard about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 a month, which is the arithmetic most write-ups get wrong.
TL;DR
- Gen-4.5: 12 credits per second. Gen-4 Turbo: 5. A credit is $0.01, and the API prices the same models at $0.12 and $0.05 per second
- Plans (annual billing): Free 125 one-time · Standard $12 / 625 · Pro $28 / 2,250 · Max $76 / 9,500. Monthly billing is $15, $35, $95
- There is no Unlimited plan. That tier name is retired; the top tier is Max
- Only Max rolls credits over, and only by one month. Standard and Pro credits expire at the reset
- Real output: 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 on Standard, 187 on Pro, 791 on Max, before the takes that don't work
The plans
| Plan | Annual $/mo | Monthly $/mo | Credits/mo | Gen-4.5 seconds | Rollover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 125 one-time | ~10 | no |
| Standard | $12 | $15 | 625 | ~52 | no |
| Pro | $28 | $35 | 2,250 | ~187 | no |
| Max | $76 | $95 | 9,500 | ~791 | 1 month |
Figures from Runway's own pricing page and developer pricing docs, both checked 2026-09-05.
The credit rates
| Model | Credits/second | Per second on the API | 5s clip | 10s clip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gen-4.5 | 12 | $0.12 | 60 credits | 120 credits |
| Gen-4 Turbo | 5 | $0.05 | 25 credits | 50 credits |
Runway's model router bills at the rate of whichever model it selects, so a router-driven generation costs whatever it routed to rather than a blended rate. Worth knowing if you are budgeting against an automated pipeline.
What that means in practice
Standard is an evaluation tier, not a working one. 52 seconds of Gen-4.5 a month sounds like ten clips, and it is, if every clip works first time. At a realistic three takes per usable shot it is three or four finished shots a month. If you are producing anything on a schedule, Standard will run out in the first week.
Pro is the honest entry point. 187 seconds of Gen-4.5, or about 37 five-second clips, and roughly twelve usable shots at a realistic take rate.
Max is where the rollover matters. It is the only tier where unused credits carry forward, and only by one month. That single rule is worth more than it looks for bursty work: a quiet month partially funds a heavy one, which is exactly the pattern campaign work has.
Gen-4 Turbo more than doubles your count. At 5 credits a second it costs 42% of Gen-4.5 per second, at lower quality. Drafting on Turbo and finishing on Gen-4.5 is the same discipline that works everywhere else in this category.
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. 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, credits you did not spend are gone at the reset, so a light month is money burned rather than banked. That is the structural argument for pooled or rolling credit models, and it is why a light-usage team frequently pays more per shipped clip on a subscription than the sticker price suggests.
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 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 at 8 credits a second and Act-Two, but not Gen-4.5 and not Runway's editing suite.
Which is the honest limit of the comparison: if you need Aleph for in-context video editing or Act-Two performance transfer as your core workflow, Runway is the product for that and a generation pool does not replace it. See is Runway worth it in 2026 for that judgment 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 number on this page comes from Runway's pricing page or its developer pricing docs, fetched and read directly, and both are linked in the FAQ 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, about $0.60 of a plan's allowance. A 10-second clip is 120.
Does Runway have an unlimited plan? No. The tier previously called Unlimited is retired; the top consumer tier is Max at $76/month annual for 9,500 credits.
Do Runway credits roll over? Only on Max, and only by one month. Standard and Pro credits expire at the monthly reset.
Where do these numbers come from? Runway's pricing page for plans and allowances, and Runway's developer pricing docs for the per-second model rates. Both read 2026-09-05. If they have moved since, trust them over us and tell us.
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. Compare the whole field on identical prompts in best AI video generator 2026; the 8frame canvas is free and unlimited, and generation is paid from $19/month.