Runway Gen 4 is an AI video generation model launched by Runway that supports text to video, image to video, video editing, style transfer, etc., and is targeted at film and television producers and content creators.

RunwayGen4

Core parameters and statistics

Parameters	Specifications
Product positioning	AI video generation model (text/image → video)
Core technology route	Video Diffusion Model
Input modal	Text prompt words, reference image, reference video, style reference
Output format	Video (MP4), supports multiple resolutions
Available platforms	Web (desktop browser)
Developer	Runway (New York, USA)
First public release	Gen 4 will be released in beta form in mid-2025, with the current stable version in early 2026
Target users	Film and television producers, advertising creative teams, content creators, independent filmmakers

A brief comment in one sentence: Runway Gen 4 is a generative AI engine that "shoots" videos directly from text descriptions, shortening the cycle of "creative conception → visual presentation" from days to minutes.

User and market recognition

Industry Penetration: Runway has established deep brand recognition in the film, television and advertising industries, and its products have been used by many Hollywood studios, independent film studios and leading advertising agencies for pre-storyboarding and creative concept verification. After its release, Gen 4 received high attention in professional film and television communities such as NAB exhibition SIGGRAPH.

Benchmarking status: Runway Gen 4, together with OpenAI Sora, Pika, Kling (Kuaishou Keling), and Vidu (Shengshu Technology), will form the first echelon of AI video generation in 2025-2026. The core differentiation of Runway lies in the "generation + editing" integrated workflow - not only can it generate videos, but it can also perform style migration, green screen keying, and image quality restoration within the same platform. The editing operation and the generation model share the underlying feature space to maintain style consistency.

Cost advantage

C-side/Individual: Runway provides free packages (limited), paid packages are graded based on generation time and resolution, and monthly fee plans cover individual creators.

Developer/API: API access is provided through the Runway Dev platform, and billing is based on processing volume. The specific price is subject to the official pricing page.

Enterprise/Privatization: The enterprise plan needs to be customized by contacting the sales team to support higher quotas, exclusive deployment and security compliance requirements.

Compared with competing products that only provide generation capabilities, Runway's integrated editing capabilities can reduce the hidden time cost of switching between multiple tools.

Main functions

• Text-to-Video: Directly generate video clips based on text descriptions, suitable for rapid creative verification and concept presentation.
• Image-to-Video: Generate dynamic videos using reference pictures as a starting point, maintaining subject consistency while imparting movement.
• Video Editing and Style Transfer: Apply stylized filters or change the visual style to existing videos to maintain temporal continuity.
• Green Screen Keying: Based on AI video segmentation capabilities, the foreground and background can be separated without the need for a professional green screen.
• Image quality repair and enhancement: Improve the image quality of low-resolution or old video materials, suitable for archival material repair.

Model and version evolution

• 2025-06 (beta): Gen 4 is first released in beta form, opening up core generation capabilities to early users.
• 2026-01 (current): Stable version released, with generational improvements compared to beta in terms of output resolution, action coherence and picture consistency.

Runway's product iteration has a fast pace, and new features and control capabilities are continuously pushed through platform updates, without using the traditional naming method of large version numbers.

Technical advantages

Video Diffusion Model: Gen 4 is based on the diffusion model architecture and is specially optimized for the timing consistency of videos. Different from single-frame image generation, the video model needs to ensure the coherence of characters, objects, light and shadow in time and space between the previous and next frames. Runway's long-term accumulation in this direction constitutes its technical barrier.

Generation + Editing Integration: Unlike solutions that separate generation and editing, Runway completes generation and editing operations in the same feature space, allowing editing operations such as style migration and repair to "understand" the visual language of the original content and avoid style breaks caused by cross-model splicing.

How to use

Entrance	Description
Web official website	Visit https://runwayml.com/ and use it directly after registration
iOS/Android App	Use on mobile via official App
API	Obtain API Key access through Runway Dev platform (https://dev.runwayml.com/)

Typical usage process: Visit the official website → Register an account → Select the generation mode (Wen Sheng Video/Tu Sheng Video) → Enter prompt words or upload reference images → Adjust parameters → Generate and export.

Product Pricing

Runway offers tiered pricing models:

• Free Package: Includes basic generation quota, suitable for experience and evaluation.
• Professional Package: Monthly subscription offers higher resolution, longer duration and more generation times.
• Enterprise Plan: Customized on demand, including dedicated API quota, priority support and private deployment options.

For specific prices, please refer to Runway’s official pricing page (https://runwayml.com/pricing).

Application scenarios

• Film and television pre-storyboarding: Directors and concept designers use Gen 4 to quickly generate storyboard videos to verify the lens language and narrative rhythm, significantly reducing traditional previs costs.
• Advertising creative testing: The advertising team can produce multiple versions of creative concept videos within minutes for internal pitches and customer communication.
• Social Media Content: Content creators generate short video materials in batches to increase publishing frequency while maintaining visual quality.
• Game Cutscenes: The game development team generates cutscenes and special effects previews to speed up development iterations.

Applicable people

• Film and TV Producers: Directors, editors and concept designers who need to quickly turn creative ideas into visual materials.
• Advertising Creative Team: Advertising practitioners who need to produce high-frequency versions of creative ideas for internal reviews and client proposals.
• Content Creator: YouTubers, social media operators and self-media people who pursue high-quality video content production.
• Use with caution: For scenes that require extremely high precision in picture details (such as product close-ups, hand details, complex interactions with multiple characters), it is recommended to evaluate whether the delivery standards are met after actual testing.

Summary and Outlook

Runway Gen 4 represents a critical juncture in the transition of AI video generation from "experimental technology" to "productivity tool." Its integrated generation + editing workflow design has obvious efficiency advantages in multi-step editing scenarios. The current main limitation is that the stability of complex dynamic scenes (multiple character interactions, fast camera movements, hand details) still needs to be improved. It is recommended to conduct full actual testing in the target scene before commercial use.

Procurement/Adoption Risk Assessment: Enterprises need to verify data security and privacy terms before purchasing (Runway provides enterprise-level security solutions but require contract confirmation), evaluate the cost boundaries of generated content at different resolutions and working hours, and how well the current version matches actual business scenarios.

Related tools: runway, pika

Version Info

• Runway Gen 4 current ：The latest stable version currently supports text to video, image to video, video editing and other functions. （~2026-01）
• Runway Gen 4 beta ：Early beta version is online. （~2025-06）