Runway Free Plan: What You Get in 2026

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Runway’s free plan gives you 125 one-time credits, watermarked videos, and limited model access - enough for a few tests, not regular work. The interface is English-only, but you can write prompts in other languages, and Polish works for dubbing. Our full guide with models, pricing, and tests is on the Runway page; here we focus on maximizing the free plan and working in non-English languages.

What the Free Plan Includes in October 2026

According to runway.com’s pricing page, checked October 3, 2026, the Free plan includes:

• 125 one-time credits - they don’t renew monthly. Once you spend them, you need to buy a plan.
• Watermark on generated materials. The pricing page lists “No watermarks” as a Standard plan feature.
• 5 GB storage for files.
• Limited model selection. Runway doesn’t publish an exact list. Independent reviews from 2026 say Free mainly offers Gen-4 Turbo in image-to-video mode, while Gen-4.5 requires Standard - we haven’t confirmed this in official documentation.

You can create an account without a credit card: using email, Google, or Apple. The Free plan is also available in iPhone and Android apps.

How Far 125 Credits Go

Credit costs from Runway’s pricing and our calculation for the full allocation, assuming you spend it entirely on one tool:

For comparison: in our test, one 4-second Gen-4.5 clip cost 0.48 USD via API, equivalent to 48 credits. Two such attempts and your free allocation is nearly gone.

How to Spend Free Credits Wisely

1. Frame first, motion second. Generate an image in Gen-4 Image Turbo for 2 credits, refine it until the composition is right, then animate. A failed image costs 2 credits, a failed clip costs 25-60.
2. Short clips. Set 5 seconds instead of 10. If the motion works, you can extend it later with a paid plan.
3. One motion per shot. “Tram slowly passes” will work, “tram passes, someone boards, camera follows them” will fall apart in 5 seconds.
4. Name the camera movement. Without it, the model chooses motion itself and usually overdoes it. In our Gen-4.5 test, despite “static camera” and “slowly,” the tram moved from deep in the street right past the camera in 4 seconds.
5. Ban text. Signs and screens come out as gibberish. Add “no text, no signs,” and still check the background - in our test, letter-like scribbles appeared on signs despite the ban.

Ready-to-use prompts for first attempts and five mistakes that burn through credits are in the article Runway: what it can do and what not to expect.

Can You Get Runway Without Limits

Not anymore. The Unlimited plan with Explore mode, which let you generate without limits in a slower queue after exhausting credits, disappeared from the offering for new customers on June 1, 2026. It was replaced by the Max plan at 95 USD monthly with 9500 credits, but no unlimited mode. Old Unlimited subscribers, according to Runway help, automatically transition to Max on November 30, 2026. Sites still promising “Runway unlimited free” are describing pre-June status or selling something else.

Using Runway in Other Languages

Interface

Runway is available only in English. Runway help itself suggests using Chrome’s built-in page translation. This works reasonably well for menus and descriptions, but keep tool names (Generate Video, Aleph, Act-Two, Studio) in the original, as that’s how you’ll find help and tutorials.

Prompts

Runway accepts prompts in other languages, but help notes that not all work equally well. We approach it this way:

• scene description in English when precision matters (the same text we gave all models in our test),
• place names in their native form, e.g. “Praga district of Warsaw,” since the model knows them from English descriptions anyway,
• film terms always in English: static shot, slow push in, handheld, shallow depth of field.

Audio and Voice

Polish is on the official language list for Voice Dubbing and Speech to Speech. You can record a Polish line and transfer it to another voice or dub a recording from English to Polish. In the Free plan, this consumes the same 125-credit pool.

Free Plan vs Standard

Standard makes sense if you publish clips and need them without watermarks. For experimenting and checking whether Runway suits you at all, Free is enough. Full pricing with Pro, Max, and Team plans is in the article How much Runway costs.

Free Alternatives to Runway

• Google Flow - 50 points daily for each account, meaning 5 Veo 3.1 Lite clips or 2 Fast clips, with audio. Points don’t accumulate but renew daily. Veo 3.1 Lite won our tram test (8.5/10); details in the Veo guide.
• Kling - free plan with watermark and no commercial use; pricing and limits in the article How much Kling AI costs.
• Wan 2.2 locally - if you have a powerful graphics card, you generate without credits; we described this in the article Wan 2.2 locally.

Luma has no free plan in its pricing, and Sora hasn’t worked since April, so they’re not in this comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Runway free?

Only to start: the Free plan gives 125 one-time credits and watermarked videos. Credits don’t renew.

Does free Runway include Gen-4.5?

Runway doesn’t publish a model list for Free, and independent reviews say Gen-4.5 requires the Standard plan. Even if it were available, 125 credits equals about 10 seconds of Gen-4.5 video.

Does Runway have a Polish version?

No. The interface is English-only, but you can write prompts in Polish, and dubbing and voice transfer support Polish.

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Sources and Check Date

Checked October 3, 2026.

• Runway - pricing
• Runway help - Unlimited switching to Max
• Runway help - translating interface
• Runway help - prompt languages
• Runway help - languages in audio
• App Store Poland - Runway