Google Veo vs Runway API

Google Veo

Audio on every Veo 3.1 clip, up to 4K on Veo 3.1 and Fast. All three Veo 3.1 previews shut down on the Gemini API on 2026-10-22.

Runway API

OpenAPI 3.1, llms.txt and Markdown copies of every docs page. Gen-3 Alpha Turbo and Gen-4 Aleph were removed on 2026-07-30 with no prior notice in the changelog.

Google Veo

1. Move off veo-3.1-*-preview before 2026-10-22. Use gemini-omni-1.1-flash on the Gemini API or the GA Veo IDs on Vertex AI
2. Call predictLongRunning, then poll the operation name about every 10 seconds until done is true. Jobs take 11 seconds to 6 minutes
3. Download the video within 2 days. The server deletes it after that
4. Set durationSeconds to 8 for 1080p, 4K or reference images. Shorter clips aren't supported there
5. In the EU, UK, Switzerland and MENA image-to-video only accepts personGeneration set to allow_adult

Runway API

1. Send X-Runway-Version: 2024-11-06 on every request or it fails
2. Use the SDK's wait-for-output helper or poll GET /v1/tasks/{id} until SUCCEEDED or FAILED
3. Don't retry a SAFETY.* failure unchanged. It's moderation, not an outage
4. Take model IDs from the models page, not memory. Two were removed without notice on 2026-07-30
5. Copy outputs to your own storage. URLs expire within 24 to 48 hours