Runway

Overview

Runway is one of the pioneers and long-term leaders in the AI video generation track. Since 2018, it has been conducting AI + video research, pushing AI video from research demos all the way to consumer-grade and Hollywood industrial-grade production pipelines.

The current mainstays are Gen-4 / Gen-4 Turbo (released in March 2025, iterated to Gen-4.5 in 2026). Compared to Gen-3 Alpha, they offer generational improvements in visual physical consistency, long-shot stability, and cross-shot character and scene consistency, making them the version truly used by Hollywood studios in projects. The accompanying Act-Two performance capture (driving a complete digital character performance with a selfie video, including facial expressions, gestures, and body movements) and Runway API have completely upgraded it from a "creative tool" to a "video production platform," with partnerships already established with Lionsgate and others.

In 2026, Runway also launched Runway Aleph (a next-generation video-to-video editing model) and Workflows (multi-model node-based orchestration), gradually shifting its positioning from a "single-point generator" to an "AI film and television creation operating system." On 2026/7/24, Runway Agent introduced natural language workflows, allowing node-based workflows to be built, run, or edited in natural language. On 2026/8/7, Seedance 2.5 became available on Runway, supporting up to 50 character references and clips up to 30 seconds long with full sound effects and dialogue. On 2026/8/30, Runway released Solaris, the first model in its Interface World Models line, generating interactive interfaces frame by frame in real time and responding to interactions such as clicks and drags. On 2026/9/8, Runway launched plugins for Premiere Pro and After Effects, embedding generation and restyling directly into the edit, with Edit Studio re-rendering a selected clip at its original duration with Aleph 2 after restyling anchor frames, plus one-click HDR conversion, background removal, and upscaling. On 2026/9/22, Runway released a DaVinci Resolve plugin that generates images and video, repaints the clip under the playhead, and sends results straight into the media pool and timeline inside Resolve Studio.

Key Features

• Gen-4 / Gen-4 Turbo Video Model: The main video model for 2025-2026, achieving industry-leading physical consistency, long-shot stability, and character consistency. The Turbo version is fast, while the Standard version offers high quality.
• Act-Two Performance Capture: Upload a selfie performance video to drive any digital character, including facial expressions, gestures, and body movements. It is the most complete performance transfer solution in AI video.
• Runway API: An API for enterprises and studios, allowing Gen-4 / Aleph / Act-Two to be embedded into their own video production pipelines.
• Aleph Video-to-Video: A next-generation video editing model that enables local repainting, style transfer, object replacement, and shot rewriting on existing videos.
• Workflows Multi-Model Orchestration: Node-based orchestration of different Runway models and third-party models to build reusable production pipelines. Since 2026/7/24, Runway Agent can build, run, or edit node-based workflows using natural language.
• Seedance 2.5 on Runway: Available since 2026/8/7, supporting up to 50 character references and clips up to 30 seconds long with full sound effects and dialogue, which can then be edited and extended.
• Solaris Interface World Models: Released 2026/8/30 as the first model in Runway's Interface World Models line, generating interactive interfaces frame by frame in real time and responding to interactions such as clicks and drags, without intermediate representations like code.
• Premiere Pro and After Effects Plugin: Launched 2026/9/8, a panel embedded directly inside Premiere Pro and After Effects lets you generate images and video and restyle footage on your timeline, dropping results straight into the sequence or comp. Edit Studio re-renders a selected clip at its original duration with Aleph 2 after restyling anchor frames, and HDR conversion, background removal, and upscaling are one click away.
• DaVinci Resolve Plugin: Released 2026/9/22, generating images and video, repainting the clip under the playhead, and sending results straight into the media pool and timeline inside Resolve Studio.
• Complete AI Video Editing Suite: One-stop professional editing tools including Green Screen intelligent keying, Inpainting, super-resolution, frame interpolation, and motion brushes.
• Hollywood-Grade Commercial Deployment: Collaborations with top studios like Lionsgate, integrated into real film, series, and advertising production workflows.

Use Cases

• Quick generation and revision of ads / TVCs / brand marketing videos
• Pre-visualization (Previz) and shot pre-production for film and TV
• Rapid output for short video and social media content creators
• Using Act-Two for character performance driving and virtual hosts
• Using Aleph for stylization and object replacement on existing videos
• Using the API to integrate AI video into custom creation tools or e-commerce material pipelines
• Generating and restyling footage directly inside Premiere Pro, After Effects, or DaVinci Resolve
• Building multi-character, sound-synced clips up to 30 seconds with Seedance 2.5

Pros

• Gen-4 series is top-tier in the industry for physical consistency and long-shot stability
• The only AI video brand truly entering Hollywood industrial pipelines
• Act-Two performance capture is the most complete character driving solution in current AI video
• Complete toolchain: generation + editing + performance + API + Workflows all in one
• Well-developed API and enterprise services, suitable for integration into actual production workflows
• Plugins for Premiere Pro, After Effects, and DaVinci Resolve bring generation and restyling into the editor
• Runway Agent supports natural language workflow building, running, and editing

Pricing

Free (125 one-time credits, experience Gen-4 Turbo); Standard $15/month (625 credits/month, Gen-4 Turbo + partial Gen-4); Pro $35/month (2250 credits/month, full Gen-4 + Act-Two + higher resolution); Unlimited $95/month (unlimited Standard generation mode + priority GPU); Enterprise on demand (API quota, SSO, custom models). Annual billing offers approximately 20% discount. Act-Two and Aleph are available in Pro and above tiers. The Premiere Pro and After Effects plugin is free to download (macOS/Windows), with generation using your existing paid plan credits.

Summary

Runway is a veteran leader in the AI video track. From 2025 to 2026, with the Gen-4 series + Act-Two + Aleph + API, it has upgraded itself from a "show-off demo" to a "video platform truly entering the film industry pipeline." Through 2026 it has continued to expand: natural language workflows in Runway Agent (2026/7/24), Seedance 2.5 with up to 50 character references and 30-second clips (2026/8/7), the Solaris Interface World Models line (2026/8/30), and plugins for Premiere Pro, After Effects (2026/9/8), and DaVinci Resolve (2026/9/22) that bring generation and restyling into the editor. If you work on ads / film pre-production / high-quality content creation, Runway remains one of the top choices. For daily social media short videos, it can be used alongside Kling 3.0 / Sora 2 / Google Veo 3: Runway excels in control and consistency, Kling and Veo excel in Chinese language / physical feel, and Sora 2 excels in audio-video synchronization and Cameos.

Version History

• Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0 arrive on Baseten Dedicated Inference with licensed weights in single-tenant environments (2026-10-14): On October 14, 2026, Baseten announced a partnership with Runway to bring its video models to enterprises. Gen-4.5 turns text and image inputs into video with support for detailed scene direction, camera movement and a range of visual styles, useful for visualising a storyboard, animating a product image, producing cinematic b-roll or adapting one concept into several variations. Aleph 2.0 edits material you already have: starting from a prompt or an edited keyframe, it changes a specific element or restyles a scene and carries the edit across relevant shots while preserving surrounding detail, supporting multi-scene videos up to 30 seconds at 1080p. Enterprises can license Runway model weights directly and deploy them in secure single-tenant environments on Baseten Dedicated Inference, where each deployment runs in an isolated workload plane with dedicated GPUs while Baseten runs the control plane and infrastructure. Runway and Baseten support each deployment together from model customisation through production serving.
• Launches a DaVinci Resolve plugin for generating and repainting footage in the editor (2026-09-22): Runway released a DaVinci Resolve plugin that generates images and video, repaints the clip under the playhead and sends results straight into the media pool and timeline inside Resolve Studio, so the generation workflow no longer requires switching between the editor and a browser.
• Runway launches Adobe plugin for Premiere Pro and After Effects (2026-09-08): Runway introduces Runway Plugins: a panel embedded directly inside Premiere Pro and After Effects lets you generate images and video and restyle footage on your timeline, dropping results straight into the sequence or comp without leaving the edit. Edit Studio re-renders a selected clip at its original duration with Aleph 2 after you restyle its anchor frames. HDR conversion, background removal and upscaling are one click away in the panel. The plugin is free to download (macOS/Windows); generation uses your existing paid plan credits.
• Runway releases Solaris, the first model in its Interface World Models line, generating interactive interfaces frame by frame in real time (2026-08-30): Runway releases Solaris, calling it the first model of the new model family Interface World Models, which generates interfaces in real-time frame-by-frame using world models and responds to interactions such as clicks and drags, without the need for intermediate representations like code.
• Runway Seedance 2.5 goes live with support for 50 character references (2026-08-11): Full lineup, full tracklist, generated one at a time. Seedance 2.5 is now available on Runway, supporting 50 unique character references and clips up to 30 seconds long, synced with music. Click the link below to get started.
• Runway launches Seedance 2.5 with support for 50 character references (2026-08-07): Seedance 2.5 is now available on Runway. Each generation can reference up to 50 character references to build a complete world full of characters; you can create clips up to 30 seconds long with full sound effects and dialogue, then edit and extend them freely according to your story needs. Click the link below to get started now.
• Runway Agent introduces natural language workflow features (2026-07-24): Introducing workflows in Runway Agent. Now you can build, run, or edit node-based workflows using natural language. Workflows unlock high-quality outputs at scale. Try it now by clicking the link below to invoke the /Workflow skill.
• Agent Natural Language Workflow (2026-07-24): Runway Agent introduces workflows, allowing natural language to build/run/edit node-based workflows, massively unlocking high-quality output.
• Runway Gen-4.5 / Aleph / Workflows (2026): Gen-4 iterates to 4.5, Aleph video-to-video model + Workflows node-based orchestration launched, upgrading from generator to creation OS.
• Runway Gen-4 / Act-Two / API (2025): Fourth-generation video model released, with major upgrades in physical and character consistency; Act-Two performance capture and Runway API launched simultaneously, officially entering Hollywood industrial pipelines.
• Runway Gen-3 / Gen-3 Alpha (2024): Image quality leaps to Hollywood level, 10-second generation becomes industry benchmark.
• Runway Gen-1 (2023-02): Video-to-video style transfer, laying the foundation for the AI video track.
• Runway Gen-2 (2023): The first truly usable commercial text-to-video product, ushering in the AI video era.