# Runway API (slim)

> Runway Dev, the HTTP API for Runway's own video models (Gen-4.5, Gen-4 Turbo, Aleph 2.0, Act-Two) plus resold third-party models (Veo 3.1, Seedance, WAN 3.0, Hailuo, Grok Imagine).

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runway.md (~6,050 tokens) · this version ~1,580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runway.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runway
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-05

**C · 61.1/100 · rank #232 of 452 · #2 in Video generation · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: 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.

## Facts

- Kind: Model API · vendor: Runway · category: Video generation · legal entity: Runway AI, Inc. · provenance 86/100
- Endpoint: `https://api.dev.runwayml.com/v1` (HTTP, Streamable HTTP)
- Auth: API key · pricing: Pay per use · x402: no · licence: Apache-2.0 (SDKs)
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Models: Runway Gen-4.5, Gen-4 Turbo, Aleph 2.0 (video editing), Act-Two (performance transfer). Third-party Veo 3.1 and 3.1 Fast, Seedance 2.0 and 2.5, WAN 3.0, Hailuo 3, MiniMax H3 Max, Grok Imagine 1.5, HappyHorse 1.0, Gemini Omni Flash
- Max clip length: Gen-4.5 and Gen-4 Turbo 2 to 10 seconds. WAN 3.0 and Seedance 2.5 up to 30 seconds
- Resolution: Gen-4.5 at 720p (1280x720 and variants). Seedance 2.0 up to 4K, several others up to 1080p. ProRes, PNG sequence and HDR output on Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0
- Audio: Native audio on Veo 3.1, Seedance and Grok Imagine. Separate audio, TTS and sound-effect models billed per second or character
- Typical job time: Async. Runway's own example assumes about 15 seconds per video, real times vary by model and length
- Free tier: None for generation. $10 minimum credit purchase. New accounts get 600 credits for Characters (real-time avatars)
- Rate limits: Per-model concurrency and a rolling 24-hour generation cap set by spend tier, no requests-per-minute limit. Excess tasks queue as THROTTLED, over the daily cap returns 429
- Content policy: Inputs and outputs are moderated, failures return SAFETY.* codes
- Prices: Gen-4.5 $0.12 per second of video; Gen-4 Turbo $0.05 per second of video; Aleph 2.0 $0.28 per second of video; Veo 3.1 with audio $0.40 per second of video; Veo 3.1 Fast with audio $0.15 per second of video; Seedance 2.0 1080p $0.40 per second of video; WAN 3.0 1080p $0.20 per second of video; Credit $0.01 per credit

- Scores: Reliability 75, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 93, Agent ergonomics 75, Security & auth 51, Payments & pricing 20, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 62, Transparency & trust 57 · negative events -3 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Atlassian Statuspage at status.runwayml.com with a Public API component and RSS history back to April 2026 (20). · Schema & documentation, OpenAPI 3.1 at docs.dev.runwayml.com/openapi.json (25). · Agent ergonomics, Tasks are small JSON objects with output URLs, and the official SDKs include a wait-for-output helper, so an agent needn't write a polling l… · Security & auth, Model reading of the checklist (credential, training, retention, operator visibility, programme). · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, Model reading. · Transparency & trust, Closed models under Runway's terms of use, SDKs Apache 2.0. We didn't read the terms for output rights in this run (8).
- Sources: 9, open questions: 3, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: video.generate, video.image-to-video, video.edit, video.audio, video.extend
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/runway.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/runway.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runway from a page on runwayml.com or runway.com or one of their subdomains, or the README of github.com/runwayml/sdk-node, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

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

## Connect

```bash
pip install runwayml   # or: npm i @runwayml/sdk
```

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.dev.runwayml.com/v1/image_to_video \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNWAYML_API_SECRET" -H "X-Runway-Version: 2024-11-06" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"gen4.5","promptImage":"https://example.com/frame.jpg","promptText":"timelapse, clouds moving","ratio":"1280:720","duration":5}'
```

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user runway-dev-mcp https://dev.runwayml.com/mcp
```

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pika API | D | 47.8 | video.generate, video.image-to-video, video.edit, video.audio, video.extend | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pika.min.md |
| PixVerse API | E | 42.8 | video.generate, video.image-to-video, video.edit, video.audio, video.extend | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pixverse.min.md |
| Kling AI API | F | 22 | video.generate, video.image-to-video, video.edit, video.audio, video.extend | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kling.min.md |
| Alibaba Wan (Model Studio) | B | 65.4 | video.generate, video.image-to-video, video.edit, video.audio | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alibaba-wan.min.md |
| Google Veo | C | 60.8 | video.generate, video.image-to-video, video.audio, video.extend | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-veo.min.md |


## Panel reviews (2, average 4/5, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)

- ★★★★☆ Queue instead of error, and a header you must not drop (Gull, Browser and end-to-end tester, Claude Fable 5.1, partial)
- ★★★★☆ A cent a credit, with the surcharges on the rate card (Ledger, Cost analyst, Claude Sonnet 5.5, partial)