Runway Free plan — 125 one-time credits

This dated editorial record includes superseded conditions. Use the current facts above for eligibility and access.

Verified 2026-10-10 against Runway's own pages. AMOUNT, verbatim and server-rendered (curl visible-text extraction; also an independent WebFetch pass): runway.com/pricing renders "125 credits", "125 one-time credits to explore Runway's AI tools." and "Includes 125 credits (one time)" on the Free card, and its FAQ says "the Free plan includes a one-time deposit of 125 credits that doesn't expire." (runwayml.com/pricing 301s to runway.com/pricing). Help centre, read in a browser because curl gets a 403 bot challenge: "A one-time deposit of 125 credits is included with the Free plan and does not expire." (help.runwayml.com/hc/en-us/articles/15124877443219-How-do-credits-work) and "Your one-time deposit of 125 credits does not expire, and does not renew or refresh once spent." (…/50404627334547-Free-plan-details). The same figure is rendered in FAQ <dl> blocks on runway.com/product/ai-video-generator and in several runway.com/resources guides. NO CARD, VERBATIM (ADR-0037): "You can start free, with no credit card required." (runway.com/product/ai-video-generator, rendered <dd>, also in that page's FAQPage JSON-LD), "Yes. Runway has a free plan — no credit card required." (runway.com/product/ai-image-generator), and "Runway has a free plan and no credit card is needed to start." (runway.com/use-cases/ai-music-video-generator). The Free card on the pricing page itself says nothing about cards. NOT USED: an i18n string in the pricing page's payload, paidAds.heroPromptDisclaimer = "No credit card required. 500 free credits to start.", which appears in the server-rendered text of none of the 169 non-article runway.com pages in the sitemap (all fetched and grepped). It is a dead or ad-only bundle string under ADR-0035, and its '500' contradicts every rendered '125'. ELIGIBILITY: "if your account or network has previously been associated with fraudulent activity on our systems, these credits will not be issued" (…/40521953538451-Where-are-my-Free-Credits). No purchase on Free: "Credits cannot be purchased on a Free plan." and "Credit purchases are not available to Free plan users." WEB APP ONLY, verbatim: "Credits or plans purchased in Runway are completely separate from credits purchased for the Runway API." (How do credits work) and "Credits or plans purchased on the web app (app.runwayml.com) are completely separate from credits purchased via the API (dev.runwayml.com). Web app credits will never appear in your API credits, and vice versa." (…/21668552945171-Runway-API-FAQs). Category is trial-credit, not provider-free-tier: the plan is "Free forever", but the credits are one-time and cannot be topped up. API FREE CREDIT NOT PUBLISHED, because Runway's own pages conflict (ADR-0023). docs.dev.runwayml.com/characters/video-meeting/ says "Every new account includes 600 free credits — roughly 30 minutes of Character video." That is consistent with Characters pricing of "2 credits upfront, then 2 credits per 6 seconds" and with $0.01 per credit, so about $6. But docs.dev.runwayml.com/guides/setup/ says "Before you can start using the API, you’ll need to add credits to your project. … A minimum payment of $10 (at $0.01 per credit) is required to get started." The pricing page's API tab (client-rendered, read in Chrome) says "Get started free, no credit card required" but gives no figure. 600 appears only on the Characters meeting tutorial: not on the pricing guide (docs.dev.runwayml.com/ai-context.md calls that guide "the single source of truth" for credit costs), not on any dev.runwayml.com marketing page (all 25 sitemap URLs grepped), and not in the four help-centre articles read. NOT SOURCED: a dollar value for web-app credits; a per-model credit list for the Free plan (Runway says to "Log in with a free account to view current availability for the Free plan"). ADVERSARIALLY RE-VERIFIED 2026-10-10: all six claims UPHELD by an independent pass (curl + Chrome rendering). The '500 free credits to start' string sits in the page data of 345 of 346 sitemap pages but in the visible text of none, is used by none of the 107 loaded JS files, and does not render even with gclid/utm ad parameters — not published (ADR-0035). Two corrections applied: the 'video-generation' tag dropped (the Free plan lists no video-generation model; 'Access to all AI video & image models' starts at Standard), and the watermark added: 'Images made on the Free plan carry a small Runway watermark.' (video-generator page) and 'All videos generated on a Free plan feature a Runway watermark.' (Free plan details FAQ). API figure not published: docs.dev.runwayml.com/characters/video-meeting/ 'Every new account includes 600 free credits' vs docs.dev.runwayml.com/guides/setup/ 'A minimum payment of $10 … is required to get started' (V58). Re-verified 2026-10-21 in the audit-remediation source sweep: current primary offer page and the material eligibility, validity, unit and payment evidence recorded in SOURCE-VERIFICATION.csv. Historical notes above are retained as history, not current terms. No account was created and no claim was submitted.

Dated change log and sources