Runway Gen-4 is an image-to-video model. You give it a starting image and a text prompt describing the motion, and it returns a 5- or 10-second clip at 720p-class resolution (1280x720 for 16:9). It costs 12 Runway credits per second. Gen-4 Turbo does the same job for 5 credits per second. Gen-4.5, released in December 2025, is now Runway's flagship. It adds text-to-video and lets you pick any length from 2 to 10 seconds, at the same 12 credits per second. For most new work, start with Gen-4.5. Use Gen-4 Turbo for cheap drafts.
This review was rewritten in September 2026. The first version, from May, got several things wrong, and the correction note below lists them.
We rebuilt this page from Runway's own help center, API docs, pricing page and changelog, all checked on September 26, 2026. Corrections to the May version:
- Gen-4 outputs 720p-class video, not native 4K. 4K is a separate upscale step.
- We removed the "60-shot test" results because there is no recorded test to back them up.
- We removed comparisons with "Veo 4". Google has not released a model by that name. Its current Veo model is Veo 3.1.
- We added Gen-4.5, Gen-4 Turbo, Gen-4 References, current credit costs and plan prices.
Disclosure: Oakgen is our product. We include it because it is relevant to this workflow, but the comparison also covers where standalone tools may be better.
Runway Gen-4 Models at a Glance
Runway uses "Gen-4" for a family of models. Searchers often mean different ones, so here they are side by side.
| Model | Input | Durations | Output resolution | Runway app cost | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gen-4 | Image (required) + text | 5 or 10 s | 720p-class, 6 aspect ratios | 12 credits/s (60 for 5 s, 120 for 10 s) | April 1, 2025 |
| Gen-4 Turbo | Image (required) + text | 5 or 10 s | 720p-class, 6 aspect ratios | 5 credits/s (25 for 5 s, 50 for 10 s) | April 7, 2025 |
| Gen-4.5 | Text, or image + text | 2 to 10 s | 720p, 24 or 25 fps | 12 credits/s | December 2025 (image-to-video added January 21, 2026) |
| Gen-4 Image | Text, optional references | Still image | 720p or 1080p | 8 credits per 1080p image | By April 2025 (API May 16, 2025) |
| Gen-4 References | Up to 3 reference images + text | Still image | Same as Gen-4 Image | Billed as Gen-4 Image | April 30, 2025 (paid), May 7, 2025 (free) |
The six Gen-4 video sizes are 1280x720 (16:9), 720x1280 (9:16), 960x960 (1:1), 1104x832 (4:3), 832x1104 (3:4) and 1584x672 (21:9). Gen-4 runs at 24 fps, and prompts can be up to 1,000 characters. Gen-4.5 offers the same six sizes for image-to-video, but only 16:9 for text-to-video in the app.
Animate an Image With Runway Gen-4 Turbo
Upload a still, describe the motion, and render a 5- or 10-second Gen-4 Turbo clip on Oakgen. No separate Runway subscription needed.
What Runway Gen-4 Actually Is
Runway calls Gen-4 a model built for "world consistency." In practice it is image-first. Runway's help center says Gen-4 "requires an input image," and that image becomes the first frame of the clip. Your text prompt should describe motion, not what the image already shows.
That design explains most of Gen-4's strengths and weaknesses:
- Consistency comes from the image. Character, wardrobe, lighting and composition are fixed by your first frame, so shots stay on-model when you start from the same references.
- Prompt skill matters less than image skill. A clean, artifact-free input image does more for the output than a long prompt.
- No text-to-video. If you have no starting image, you need Gen-4.5 or another model.
Runway's research page presents consistent characters, objects and locations across scenes as the headline feature, from "a single reference image." In the product, that workflow runs through Gen-4 References (an image tool) followed by Gen-4 or Gen-4.5 video. More on that below.
Gen-4 vs Gen-4 Turbo vs Gen-4.5: Which One to Use
Runway's own advice for Gen-4 is to "first explore generative possibilities in Turbo" and switch to Gen-4 only when Turbo falls short. Runway now marks its Gen-4 video article as covering "an older generation of Runway models" and points to Gen-4.5 for text-to-video and image-to-video.
Our decision table:
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rough drafts, testing motion ideas, high volume | Gen-4 Turbo | Less than half the credit cost of Gen-4 or Gen-4.5 |
| You only have a prompt, no image | Gen-4.5 | The only Gen-4-family model with text-to-video |
| Final shot from a strong still | Gen-4.5 image-to-video | Same price as Gen-4, newer model, flexible 2 to 10 s |
| You need an exact 3- or 7-second beat | Gen-4.5 | Gen-4 only offers 5 or 10 s |
| Consistent character across many shots | Gen-4 References, then Gen-4.5 or Turbo | Lock the look in stills first, then animate |
| Editorial delivery (ProRes, PNG sequence) | Gen-4.5 | Runway's pro export formats cover Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0 edits, not Gen-4 |
| Dialogue or synced sound in one pass | Another model | Gen-4 and Gen-4.5 output silent video |
For a typical ad or short film, we would draft in Turbo, pick the frames and motion that work, then render finals in Gen-4.5. Standard Gen-4 made sense before Gen-4.5 existed. At the same credit price, there is now little reason to choose it for new work.
Runway Gen-4.5: What Changed From Gen-4
Runway announced Gen-4.5 on December 1, 2025. The changelog shows it reaching all paid plans on December 11, 2025, and gaining image-to-video on January 21, 2026. The verified changes:
- Text-to-video and image-to-video. Gen-4 was image-only.
- Flexible duration. Any length from 2 to 10 seconds, instead of 5 or 10.
- Frame rate choice. 24 or 25 fps. Gen-4 is 24 fps only.
- Professional formats. On Max and higher plans, ProRes or PNG sequence export adds 5 credits per second. Runway's API also lists HDR output options for Gen-4.5.
- Same price. 12 credits per second, matching Gen-4.
On quality, Runway says Gen-4.5 took first place on the Artificial Analysis text-to-video leaderboard with 1,247 Elo as of November 30, 2025. Runway lists Veo 3 at 1,226 and Kling 2.5 at 1,225 on the same board. That is a vendor-reported snapshot from launch week, and leaderboards move quickly. Treat it as a sign Gen-4.5 was competitive at release, not as today's ranking.
Runway also publishes Gen-4.5's weak spots, which is unusual and useful:
- Causal reasoning. Effects sometimes happen before their causes, like a door opening before the handle turns.
- Object permanence. Objects can vanish or appear after being hidden.
- Success bias. Actions tend to succeed even when they shouldn't, like a badly aimed kick still scoring.
In practice, avoid prompts where the payoff depends on cause and effect happening in the right order. Cut those beats into separate shots.
Oakgen does not currently offer Gen-4.5 for generation, so use Runway's own app or API for it.
Gen-4 References: How Consistent Characters Work
Gen-4 References is the feature behind most "Runway Gen-4 character consistency" claims. It is an image tool in Runway's Tool mode:
- Open the Image tab and turn on References.
- Add up to three reference images, such as a character, a location and a prop.
- Tag a reference with a name to save it across sessions, then call it in the prompt with
@name. - Generate the new still, for example
@maya sitting in a neon diner at night, rain on the window. - Animate that still with Gen-4 Turbo or Gen-4.5.
Runway's guidance for character references: natural, even lighting, moderate image quality and a neutral expression. That gives the model a "blank canvas" that is easier to restyle. For complex changes, Runway suggests changing one element at a time and feeding each result back in as a new reference.
Runway has kept improving References. It added Layout Sketch in May 2025 and shipped an improved version of References in June 2025. If you tried it in early 2025 and gave up, it is worth another test. The same references-then-animate approach works in other tools too, as our Kling 3 character consistency guide shows.
Runway Gen-4 Pricing in 2026
Runway bills every model in credits. Current app plans, from Runway's pricing page:
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing (per month) | Credits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 125 one-time | Gen-4.5 needs a paid plan |
| Standard | $15 | $12 | 625 per month | Credits reset each cycle |
| Pro | $35 | $28 | 2,250 per month | Credits reset each cycle |
| Max | $95 | $76 | 9,500 per month | Unused credits roll over for 1 month |
Credits don't roll over on Standard or Pro. Purchased top-up credits never expire, and the minimum top-up is 1,000 credits.
What a clip costs in each model, using Runway's published per-second rates:
| Clip | Gen-4 Turbo | Gen-4 | Gen-4.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 seconds | 25 credits | 60 credits | 60 credits |
| 10 seconds | 50 credits | 120 credits | 120 credits |
| Clips per Standard month (625 credits), 5 s each | 25 | 10 | 10 |
| Clips per Pro month (2,250 credits), 5 s each | 90 | 37 | 37 |
The clip counts in the last two rows are our arithmetic from Runway's rates. They assume every generation is a keeper, which never happens. Divide by your real retry rate.
API pricing is simpler. Runway's developer platform sells credits at $0.01 each. That makes Gen-4.5 $0.12 per second and Gen-4 Turbo $0.05 per second. Gen-4 Image is 5 credits at 720p or 8 at 1080p, and Gen-4 Image Turbo is 2 credits. Standard Gen-4 video is not listed in the API model catalog. Only Gen-4 Turbo and Gen-4.5 are.
Price a Gen-4 Turbo Shot List
Gen-4 Turbo on Oakgen costs 65 credits per 5-second clip, drawn from the same balance you use for images, voice and music.
How to Prompt Runway Gen-4
Runway's Gen-4 prompting guide pushes one idea hard: keep prompts simple and physical. The rules that matter most:
- Describe motion, not the image. Repeating what's already in the frame "can lead to reduced motion."
- Use positive phrasing only. Runway says negative prompts are "not supported and may produce unpredictable or even opposite results." Write "locked camera, the camera remains still," not "no camera movement."
- Be concrete. "The woman smiles and waves" beats abstract language about the feeling of a greeting.
- One scene per clip. Gen-4 clips are 5 or 10 seconds. Scripting every second with several actions confuses the model.
- Build up in layers. Start with the core motion, then add subject motion, camera motion, scene motion and style, one at a time.
A copy-paste template that follows those rules:
[Camera move] [subject] [one clear action]. [Secondary motion in the scene]. [Style descriptor].
Three examples:
Slow push-in on the subject as she lifts the coffee cup and takes a sip. Steam drifts across the frame. Cinematic live-action.
Handheld camera tracks the cyclist as he rides down the wet street. Headlights streak past in the background. Documentary style.
Locked camera. The product rotates slowly on the turntable. Soft light sweeps across the label. Clean studio commercial.
For Gen-4.5 text-to-video, you also have to describe the visuals, because there is no image to carry them. Runway's help center says Gen-4.5 handles "complex, sequenced instructions" and camera choreography within one prompt. Still, the causal-reasoning limits above mean you should split critical cause-and-effect beats into separate shots.
Where Runway Gen-4 Falls Short
Runway is strong at image-led, controllable shots. It is not the right tool for everything:
- Resolution. Every Gen-4-family model renders at 720p-class sizes. 4K means an upscale pass, and upscaled footage is not the same as native 4K detail.
- Short clips. The maximum is 10 seconds. Longer sequences need editing or extension tools.
- No native audio. Talking heads or scenes with synced sound need another model or a separate audio pass.
- Gen-4 needs an image. You either create stills first (Gen-4 Image, or any image model) or use Gen-4.5.
- Plan gating. Gen-4.5 needs the Standard plan or higher, and Runway lists it for web only, while Gen-4 also runs in the iOS app.
If native audio or longer takes matter more than Runway's controls, compare Veo 3.1 and the other options in our Runway alternatives guide. For a head-to-head on motion styles, see Kling vs Runway vs Sora.
Runway Gen-3 vs Gen-4
If you are coming from Gen-3, the choice has been made for you. Runway retired Gen-3 Alpha on July 8, 2026 and Gen-3 Alpha Turbo on July 30, 2026. Its help center maps the old Gen-3 jobs to replacements: text-to-video and image-to-video go to Gen-4.5, keyframes go to the Animate Frames app, and video-to-video goes to Aleph 2.0 in Edit Studio.
Runway also labels its Gen-4 video article as covering an older generation of models, with the same pointers. Gen-4 and Gen-4 Turbo are still selectable in Tool mode, but new features, such as ProRes export, are landing on Gen-4.5.
Using Runway Gen-4 on Oakgen
Oakgen runs a subset of Runway's models alongside Kling, Seedance, Wan and others, all paid from one credit balance. As of September 2026, based on our model configuration (1 USD = 260 credits):
| Runway model on Oakgen | What it does | Oakgen cost |
|---|---|---|
| Gen-4 Turbo (image-to-video) | Animates an uploaded image, 5 or 10 s, 6 aspect ratios | 65 credits (5 s), 130 credits (10 s) |
| Gen-4 Image | Text-to-image stills; reference-guided stills for consistent characters use the edit mode, which takes your reference images | About 21 credits per image at 1080p |
The main limitation: Oakgen does not offer the standard Gen-4 video model or Gen-4.5. It offers Gen-4 Turbo for image-to-video. Gen-4 Turbo on Oakgen also doesn't include Runway's in-app extras such as Upscale to 4K, Expand Video or the References library. If your pipeline depends on Runway's editing tools, pro export formats or References library, a Runway plan is the better fit. Our Oakgen vs Runway comparison sets out that trade-off plan by plan.
Where Oakgen helps: you can make the starting still with any image model in the image generator, animate it with Gen-4 Turbo, and test the same image in other video models without a second subscription. The same starting-frame approach appears in our guide on how to animate a photo.
Test Gen-4 Turbo Against Other Video Models
Run the same starting image through Runway Gen-4 Turbo, Kling and Seedance on Oakgen, then keep the shot that works.
Verdict: Is Runway Gen-4 Worth Using in 2026?
Gen-4 was an important release. It made image-led consistency practical and gave Runway a serious answer to "same character, new shot." In September 2026, though, plain Gen-4 is mostly superseded. Gen-4.5 costs the same per second, accepts text or images, and supports flexible durations and pro export formats. Gen-4 Turbo is still the best value in the family for drafts and high-volume image animation.
Our recommendation: lock characters with Gen-4 References or a good still, iterate in Gen-4 Turbo, render finals in Gen-4.5, and handle audio separately. If you need native audio, clips longer than 10 seconds, or native high resolution, look beyond the Gen-4 family.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Runway Gen-4?
Runway Gen-4 is Runway's image-to-video model, released to paid plans on April 1, 2025. You upload a starting image, describe the motion in text, and it generates a 5- or 10-second clip at 720p-class resolution. Gen-4 Turbo is the faster, cheaper version, and Gen-4.5 is the newer flagship.
What is the difference between Gen-4 and Gen-4.5?
Gen-4.5 adds text-to-video, supports any duration from 2 to 10 seconds, and is Runway's current recommended model. Gen-4 only works from an input image and offers 5 or 10 seconds. Both cost 12 credits per second in the Runway app and output 720p-class video.
How much does Runway Gen-4 cost?
In the Runway app, Gen-4 costs 12 credits per second (60 credits for 5 seconds, 120 for 10), Gen-4 Turbo costs 5 credits per second, and Gen-4.5 costs 12 credits per second. Paid plans start at $15 per month, or $12 per month billed annually, for 625 monthly credits. On the Runway API, a credit costs $0.01.
Does Runway Gen-4 generate 4K video?
No. Gen-4, Gen-4 Turbo and Gen-4.5 generate at 720p-class resolutions such as 1280x720. Runway offers a separate Upscale to 4K action after a clip is generated.
Can Runway Gen-4 make videos from text only?
Gen-4 and Gen-4 Turbo require an input image. Gen-4.5 supports both text-to-video and image-to-video, so use Gen-4.5 if you want to start from a prompt alone.
Does Runway Gen-4 generate audio?
Gen-4 and Gen-4.5 generate silent video. Runway's API request for these models has no audio option. Add voice, music or sound effects in a separate step, either in Runway's audio tools or another app.
What are Gen-4 References?
Gen-4 References is Runway's image feature for consistent characters, objects and locations. You can use up to three reference images in one generation, tag them for reuse, and then animate the resulting image with Gen-4 or Gen-4.5.
Can I use Runway Gen-4 on Oakgen?
Yes, partly. As of September 2026, Oakgen offers Runway Gen-4 Turbo image-to-video at 65 credits for 5 seconds and 130 credits for 10 seconds. It also offers Gen-4 Image at about 21 credits per image, with reference-guided stills in its edit mode. Oakgen does not offer the standard Gen-4 video model or Gen-4.5.
Sources
All accessed September 26, 2026.
- Runway: Introducing Runway Gen-4
- Runway: Introducing Runway Gen-4.5
- Runway Help Center: Creating with Gen-4 Video
- Runway Help Center: Creating with Gen-4.5
- Runway Help Center: Creating with Gen-4 Image References
- Runway Help Center: Gen-4 Video Prompting Guide
- Runway Help Center: Gen-3 Alpha Prompting Guide (retirement notice)
- Runway Help Center: Exporting Videos in ProRes and PNG Sequence Formats
- Runway pricing
- Runway changelog
- Runway API pricing
- Runway API models
- Google Gemini API models list (Veo 3.1)
