Runway

Category: AI Video

Best-in-class AI video. Read the licence before brand work.

Runway is among the strongest AI video generation tools available, with its current flagship model handling text-to-video, image-to-video and video-to-video at a quality level few match. Around generation sit genuinely useful editing tools: in-context video editing that changes elements within existing footage, performance transfer that maps an actor's performance onto a generated character, inpainting, background removal and motion brush. It has moved well beyond a single product, with world models, real-time interactive generation in research preview, and a robotics line. The company raised a substantial round in early 2026 at a multi-billion valuation. There is a first-party MCP server billed from normal credits, though it is a Pro and Max feature rather than being available on the lower consumer tiers. The top tier is now metered credits rather than unlimited, which it previously advertised.

Our verdict

The quality is genuinely at the front of the field and the editing tools, particularly in-context editing of existing footage, do things no competitor matches. If AI video is central to your output this is the one to try. The MCP server is a real plus for anyone scripting generation, though it starts at the Pro tier. Now the part we would want you to read before putting a client brand through it. On every consumer tier, Runway's terms grant it a perpetual, worldwide, sublicensable licence to use both your inputs and your outputs for model training, with no documented opt-out. Enterprise explicitly excludes this. For UK brand work that distinction is not a detail, it is the whole reason to buy Enterprise. Indemnity also runs one way on consumer tiers: you indemnify Runway, outputs are provided as is, and IP indemnity is Enterprise only. Processing is entirely US-based with no EU or UK residency, and failed generations still consume credits with no published refund policy.

Best for: Video and creative teams producing short-form content who need the best available generation quality and will buy Enterprise for client work.

Pros

• Generation quality is at the front of the field
• In-context video editing changes elements within existing footage, which rivals cannot match
• Performance transfer maps an actor's performance onto a generated character
• First-party MCP server billed from normal credits
• C2PA content provenance with a working public verifier
• Commercial use permitted on every tier including free

Cons

• Consumer tiers grant a perpetual licence to train on your inputs and outputs, with no opt-out
• Enterprise is the only tier that excludes training, which matters for any client brand work
• Indemnity runs one way on consumer tiers and IP indemnity is Enterprise only
• All processing is US-based with no EU or UK data residency
• Failed or off-prompt generations still consume credits, with no published refund policy
• The previously advertised unlimited top tier is now metered credits
• MCP starts at the Pro tier, not the entry plans

Pricing: Free, then from $12/mo billed yearly (Freemium)

Rating: 4/5