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Tool review

Runway review: a short AI video from one photo

Runway’s Gen-4.5 turns a still into a clip of 2–10 seconds. The free plan is 125 credits, once, and that model needs a paid plan.

Source photo, then the clip

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The photograph I upload. Not a stock stand-in.

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The clip they send back. Not filmed yet.

What I look at on the screen

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The Runway upload screen, before generate, with the credit cost visible.

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The Runway pricing page on the day it was checked.

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The finished clip inside Runway, full frame, so a face or a label can be judged.

My test prompt, and what came back

Slow push in. The background softens. The face, eyes and mouth stay still. No new objects.

Result not filmed yet. I have not generated a clip in Runway for this page yet. The prices are from the public pages, checked on the date below.

What it is good at

  • A real free plan, with the credit amount written down: 125, once.
  • Image-to-video is a documented Gen-4.5 feature, not a buried extra.
  • Paid plans on the pricing page say they remove the watermark.
  • Credit cost is published: Gen-4.5 is 12 credits a second.

Where it falls short

  • Free credits do not renew, and free videos are watermarked.
  • Gen-4.5 needs a Standard plan or higher, so the free credits may not unlock it.
  • Clips are a few seconds. This is not an editor for a 40-photo tribute.
  • The public prices are in US dollars. UK tax can change the checkout.

Runway is a web app for generating video, images and audio. For this site, the useful part is image-to-video: you upload a photograph, describe the motion, and it makes a short clip. It is a poor fit if what you actually want is a three-minute film of forty family photos with music and titles. That job is an editor. Runway is a generator.

Public pages were checked on 14 November 2026. Plan names and credit packs move. Use the links at the bottom before you pay.

What you can make

Runway’s help page for Gen-4.5 describes text-to-video and image-to-video. For a photo, you drag the image into the prompt, then write what should move. The page says image-to-video prompts should describe the motion, not re-describe the whole picture.

The same page lists these limits for Gen-4.5:

  • Standard plan or higher
  • 12 credits per second
  • A length you choose between 2 and 10 seconds
  • 720p output
  • Web only, for this model
  • Aspect ratios including 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3, 3:4 and 21:9
  • 24 or 25 frames a second

A vertical 9:16 frame is there, which matters if the clip is for a phone. Ten seconds is the long end. A memorial, a property tour or a birthday film needs a timeline editor around it. Use a generated clip as a three-second opening, not as the whole piece. The steps for that are in how to animate a still photo.

What the free plan really is

The pricing page and the free-plan help page agree on the shape of the free offer:

  • $0
  • 125 credits, once
  • Those credits do not expire, and they do not refresh
  • 5 GB of asset storage
  • A limited set of models, which changes
  • A watermark on every free video
  • No extra credits for sale until you move to a paid plan

“Free” here is a taster, not a monthly allowance. At 12 credits a second, 125 credits is about ten seconds of Gen-4.5 if that model were included. The help page says it is not included on the free plan. Spend the free credits only after you have checked which models the account will actually run.

On 14 November 2026 the pricing page showed a monthly price and a lower yearly price:

Plan Monthly Billed yearly Credits
Standard $15 $12 a month 625 a month
Pro $35 $28 a month 2,250 a month
Max $95 $76 a month 9,500 a month

The pricing page says Standard includes access to all AI video and image models, no watermarks, and 20 GB of storage. The help centre says monthly credits on Standard and Pro expire on the billing date, and that Max can roll up to one month of unused credits forward. Bought credits, on paid plans, do not expire. The smallest extra purchase listed is 1,000 credits, and free-plan users cannot buy them.

The help centre still mentions plan names such as Team that are easy to miss on the main pricing grid. If you are buying for a business, read both pages. Prices on the site are in US dollars. A UK checkout can add tax. Check the figure in your account.

A five-second Gen-4.5 clip is 60 credits on the published rate. On Standard’s 625 credits, that is about ten such clips in a month if you spend the allowance on nothing else. That is a planning number, not a promise: other models cost differently, and the pricing table also shows third-party models inside Runway.

Who it suits

Choose Runway if you have one strong photograph and you want a few seconds of believable motion: a slow push in, hair or steam moving, a product turning slightly. It suits a social opener or a shop’s hero shot, provided the product itself does not change shape. Reject any take that invents a feature the product does not have. That is an advertising problem, not only an aesthetic one. See product and property videos.

Skip it as your only tool for a funeral tribute or a long anniversary film. You will fight the length limit, and a warped face is worse than a still photograph held on screen. CapCut is the better base for a multi-photo edit.

Before you upload

Runway’s terms and privacy policy decide what happens to the image. Read them, especially for a photo of a child, a customer, or someone who has died. This review does not summarise those terms, because they change and a paraphrase would go stale. Do not upload a picture you do not have permission to use.

Sources

Checked 14 November 2026:

Questions people ask

Is Runway free?

Runway lists a free plan with 125 credits, given once. They do not expire and they do not renew. You cannot buy more credits on the free plan. Free videos carry a Runway watermark.

Can I turn a photo into a video on the free plan?

Runway’s Gen-4.5 help page says image-to-video needs a Standard plan or higher. The free plan only includes a limited set of models, and that set changes. If the model shows an upgrade prompt, it is not included.