Runway vs Luma AI: Plans, Credits and Models Compared (2026)

Runway is the cheaper way in, and Luma AI is the one built around a 1080p HDR finishing pipeline. Runway's Standard plan is $15 a month, or $12 a month billed annually ($144 a year), and Runway also keeps a Free plan with 125 one-time credits. Luma AI has no free plan on its pricing page, and its entry plan, Plus, is $30 a month or $25 a month billed yearly ($300 a year). Entry costs differ. So do the finishes.

Both platforms now host many of the same outside models, including Kling 4.0, Seedance 2.5 and Veo 3.1, so the real choice comes down to each house model and the rules around credits. Pick Luma for 16-bit HDR and EXR priced as a credit multiplier with no plan gate. Pick Runway for a lower entry price, Aleph 2.0 edits and credit rollover on Max.

What each subscription costs, month by month and per year

Runway sells three single-user plans. Standard is $15 a month or $12 a month billed annually ($144 a year) for 625 credits a month. Runway's Pro is $35 a month or $28 a month billed annually ($336 a year) for 2,250 credits. Runway's Max is $95 a month or $76 a month billed annually ($912 a year) for 9,500 credits. Runway's Team plan costs $69 a seat a month, or $55 a seat a month billed annually, for two to nine seats, and Enterprise is quote-only. Runway closed its legacy Unlimited plan to new subscribers in June 2026.

Luma AI prices every plan per account, not per seat. Plus is $30 a month or $25 a month billed yearly ($300 a year) for 10,000 credits a month ^[1]. Luma's Pro is $90 a month or $75 a month billed yearly ($900 a year) for 40,000 credits. Luma's Ultra is $300 a month or $250 a month billed yearly ($3,000 a year) for 150,000 credits. Team and Enterprise are priced by sales. Luma advertises savings of up to 20% on yearly billing; by our arithmetic the yearly saving is $60, $180 and $600 a year on the three plans, about 17% on each.

Do not line up the credit counts. Each vendor's credit is a different currency, priced against its own models, so a bigger number buys nothing by itself. The useful question is how far one plan goes on the model you will actually use. On Luma, by our arithmetic, Plus's monthly allowance covers 25 five-second Ray3.2 clips at 1080p in SDR, if every credit goes to that one job with no failed or rejected takes. Runway publishes its own per-model rates, so run the same check on its pricing page.

Credits: expiry, rollover and what you get back

Luma's credits are use-it-or-lose-it. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle on every plan ^[2]. Failed generations get their credits back, but takes you reject still cost credits, and the Luma Agent can generate several variations unless you ask for one version. Past the allowance, an optional spending limit lets you keep working; Luma's pricing page shows no per-credit price for those extra credits, and extra credits you have used are not refunded. Our Luma AI pricing guide lays out every credit rate.

Runway is more forgiving at the top of its ladder. Credits on Standard and Pro reset at each billing date, but Max and Team carry up to one month of unused credits. Credits come back only for generation errors, so a clip you dislike still costs its credits, the same rule Luma applies. Runway's 125 free credits never renew and never expire. Developers should note one more split: on self-serve plans, Runway's web-app credits and API credits are separate pools.

Refunds are discretionary on both sides. Luma refunds only the most recent billing period, at its discretion; a plan you have not used may qualify for a full refund after support reviews the account . Cancel at least one day before the term ends to avoid the next charge. Runway considers refunds on purchases or renewals from the last 30 days, and only when the plan or credits are unused or close to unused. A Runway cancellation finishes only after the last confirmation step in Stripe.

Ray3.2 against Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0

Ray3.2 arrived in June 2026 as Luma's own model. It produces 5- or 10-second clips from text or an image, works up to 20 seconds when modifying footage, and takes up to 16 keyframes per clip. Output is 1080p native; 4K comes only by upscaling. The finishing story is the draw: native 16-bit HDR and EXR export in ACES2065-1 for Resolve or Nuke. HDR costs twice the SDR credits, HDR with EXR three times, and Luma's pricing page ties neither to Pro or Ultra. Our Ray3.2 guide covers keyframes and Draft Mode.

Runway's own lineup splits generation from editing. Gen-4.5 generates clips of 2 to 10 seconds at 720p. Aleph 2.0 edits existing clips of 2 to 30 seconds, longer than Ray3.2 accepts for footage changes. Act-Two handles performance, and the Agent, Workflows, App Studio and Runway Ads sit around them. The gate that matters for color work: HDR and ProRes output start on Max and are also on Team and Enterprise. A colorist on Standard or Pro gets neither.

Neither house model adds sound. Ray3.2 output is silent, so on Luma you add ElevenLabs speech, music or effects in the workspace, or switch to a model with native audio. Runway's own guide says Gen-4.5 does not generate embedded audio in the web app. Both host Kling 4.0 from Kling AI, Seedance 2.5 from ByteDance and Veo 3.1, Google's video model, each billed in the platform's own credits. Those outside models can change in availability, length limits and price, and Luma's limits may differ from other apps using the same model (review).

Starting without paying, and what you may do with the output

Runway's Free plan gives 125 credits once, every video carries a Runway watermark, and you cannot buy extra credits on it. It does not include Gen-4.5, Aleph 2.0 or the outside video models, which start on Standard; Free covers images, voiceovers and work on existing video. Luma says free trial credits are included on all plans but does not say how many. Its terms limit a trial to 14 days unless agreed otherwise in writing, and trial output is for internal evaluation and testing only. So a Luma trial is a look around. Runway's free credits, by contrast, have no deadline.

Rights differ in a way buyers miss. Runway's terms do not restrict commercial use of outputs on any plan, Free included, although Free videos keep the watermark. Luma's terms give you ownership of your outputs, but commercial use covers only what you produce while on a paid plan. For client work on either tool, budget for a paid month, and start on monthly billing before committing to a year. Luma does let an annual plan switch to monthly later, though not to a different annual plan, with used months recalculated at the monthly rate; the refund of unused months is at Luma's discretion.

Teams, data and what reviewers complain about

Team buying is clearer on Runway. Standard, Pro and Max are single-user plans; inviting members needs Team (a published price per seat and one shared credit pool) or Enterprise (quote-only). Luma's pricing page lists member management under its Team plan, while an April 2026 post said accounts on all plans can add members; confirm with Luma before buying for a team. On any Luma plan you can share boards with Viewer or Editor access, and Plus includes edit access for guest collaborators.

Training terms run the same way on both. Runway's consumer terms let it train on your inputs and outputs, and no-training is an Enterprise term. Outside Enterprise and the API, Luma's terms allow it to use your inputs and outputs to train its models, with no published opt-out. Both also plug into chat assistants. Luma's connector for Claude and ChatGPT draws on your Luma credits at app rates, with no API key and no separate subscription . Runway MCP for ChatGPT and Claude spends web-app credits too.

Read the rating sources as complaint maps, not trends. Luma's Trustpilot reviews cluster around billing, support, refunds, price and credits spent on unusable generations. Runway's center on refunds, charges, slow support, credits spent on unusable clips and canceling. The shared thread is credit spend that produced nothing usable. That follows directly from the rule both vendors apply: rejected takes are billed. So draft cheaply first, on either platform, and render the final version only once the motion and framing are settled.

Which one fits the work in front of you

Choose Luma if the clip has to survive a grading suite. EXR in ACES, 16 keyframes per clip and 1080p native output serve filmmakers and post houses, and agencies get Luma Agents, boards and repeatable Skills on top. Choose Runway if the budget is tight, the job is mostly editing real footage with Aleph 2.0, or you want credits that carry a month on Max. Runway is also the simpler purchase for a small team, because its seats carry a published price.

If most of your work runs on Kling 4.0, Seedance 2.5 or Veo 3.1, the house models matter less. Both platforms host all three, billed in their own credits. Then work out on each pricing page how many clips of that model a plan's monthly allowance covers, check the expiry rules, and pick the plan whose allowance you will actually spend. An allowance you leave unused is money gone. If neither fits, our Luma AI alternatives cover the other video tools.

The bottom line

The two platforms now overlap on outside models, so the decision rests on the house model, the credit rules and the price of entry. Runway wins on a low start, a free plan for images and existing video, longer edits with its house model (Aleph 2.0, up to 30 seconds) and a month of rollover on its top plans. Luma wins when the output feeds a color pipeline, because it prices HDR and EXR as credits rather than a top-tier gate, though its credits expire each cycle and commercial use covers paid time only. Grading work points to Luma. Budget editing points to Runway.