Runway Gen-4.5 Review: Features, Pricing, and How It Compares in 2026

Runway has been at the center of the AI video generation revolution since it launched Gen-1 in early 2023. Three years later, the company has released Gen-4.5 -- its most ambitious model yet -- and just closed a $315 million funding round at a $5.3 billion valuation. If you are evaluating AI video tools for advertising, filmmaking, content creation, or product marketing, Gen-4.5 demands your attention.

This review covers everything you need to know about Runway Gen-4.5: what it does, how it compares to Gen-4, how it stacks up against Sora 2, Veo 3.1, and Kling 3.0, what it costs, and how to get the best results from it. Whether you are a solo creator exploring AI video for the first time or a marketing team scaling video ad production, this is the guide that will help you decide if Runway belongs in your workflow.

What Is Runway Gen-4.5?

Runway Gen-4.5 is a generative AI model that creates video from text prompts and image inputs. Released in December 2025, it is positioned by Runway as "the world's best video model" -- and independent benchmarks largely support that claim. On the Artificial Analysis Text-to-Video leaderboard, Gen-4.5 holds an Elo score of 1,247, placing it ahead of Google's Veo 3 (1,226) and OpenAI's Sora 2 Pro (1,206) in blind A/B evaluations of motion quality and prompt adherence.

The model represents a meaningful shift in Runway's approach. While Gen-4 excelled at image-to-video generation -- turning a single reference image into consistent characters, objects, and environments -- Gen-4.5 pivots to text-to-video as its primary strength. You can still use image-to-video (added in January 2026), but the core innovation is the ability to describe complex scenes in natural language and get results that actually match what you asked for.

Gen-4.5 introduces native audio generation, multi-shot sequencing, character-consistent long-form video support up to one minute, and advanced editing tools that bring the model closer to a production-ready video pipeline than anything Runway has released before.

The Evolution: From Gen-1 to Gen-4.5

Understanding where Gen-4.5 sits requires understanding the trajectory that got it here.

Gen-1 (February 2023)

Runway's first generative video model was a video-to-video system. You provided a source video and a text prompt or style reference, and Gen-1 remapped the visual style onto the source footage. It was impressive for its time but limited -- you needed existing video to work with, outputs were short and often inconsistent, and the results were clearly AI-generated.

Gen-2 (June 2023)

Gen-2 was the breakthrough that put Runway on the map. It introduced multimodal video generation -- creating novel video from text, images, or video clips. For the first time, you could type a text description and get a video that did not require source footage. Gen-2 was one of the first commercially available text-to-video models and it changed the conversation about what AI could do with video.

Gen-3 Alpha (June 2024)

Gen-3 Alpha represented a major leap in fidelity, consistency, and motion quality. It could produce 10-second video clips with advanced understanding of 3D dynamics, better temporal consistency, and more natural motion. The gap between AI-generated video and real footage began to narrow meaningfully.

Gen-4 (March 2025)

Gen-4 brought character and scene consistency to the forefront. Using a single reference image, Gen-4 could generate consistent characters, objects, and environments across multiple scenes. This was transformative for advertising and storytelling, where maintaining visual continuity across shots is essential. Gen-4 also introduced the Turbo variant at 5 credits per second, making rapid iteration affordable.

Gen-4.5 (December 2025)

Gen-4.5 builds on everything before it while shifting the emphasis from image-to-video to text-to-video excellence. It introduces native audio, multi-shot generation, improved physical accuracy (objects now carry realistic weight and momentum), and the strongest prompt adherence of any Runway model. The "floaty physics" problem that plagued earlier AI video models is largely solved.

Gen-4.5 vs Gen-4: What Changed

If you are already using Runway Gen-4, here is what Gen-4.5 adds and how the two models differ.

Text-to-Video Focus

Gen-4 was primarily an image-to-video powerhouse. You uploaded a reference image and the model generated video from it with remarkable consistency. Gen-4.5 flips the priority -- its core strength is generating high-quality video from text descriptions alone. You can describe complex scenes with multiple subjects, specific camera movements, sequential actions, and atmospheric details, and Gen-4.5 renders them with significantly higher fidelity to your prompt than any previous model.

This does not mean Gen-4 is obsolete. If your workflow revolves around turning product photos, brand imagery, or lookbook shots into video, Gen-4 still excels at that specific use case and costs only 5 credits per second in Turbo mode (versus Gen-4.5's 25 credits per second). The right choice depends on your starting point -- text or image.

Native Audio Generation

Gen-4.5 generates audio alongside video. This includes dialogue, ambient soundtracks, and synchronized sound effects produced directly within the model. Previous Runway models were silent -- you had to add audio separately in post-production. Native audio removes that step and creates more cohesive results where sound and visuals are generated together.

Runway has also expanded its audio toolkit beyond Gen-4.5. Text to Speech is now available via the Audio tab, and new Audio Apps for SFX generation and Speech to Speech conversion give creators a full audio production suite within the Runway platform.

Multi-Shot Sequencing

Gen-4.5 supports multi-shot generation -- creating sequences of connected shots that maintain visual continuity. Instead of generating individual clips and manually stitching them together, you can generate multi-shot sequences where characters, environments, and visual style remain consistent across cuts. This is a significant workflow improvement for anyone creating narrative content, from short-form ads to longer-form storytelling.

Character Consistency

While Gen-4 introduced character consistency through reference images, Gen-4.5 takes it further. The model is tuned to hold fine details like hairstyles, fabric texture, and facial structure as the camera moves and across shot transitions. Characters and objects are less likely to change appearance mid-clip, which reduces the re-generation cycles that consumed time and credits in earlier models.

Physical Accuracy

Gen-4.5 marks a notable improvement in how objects interact with the physical world. Earlier models produced motion that felt weightless or disconnected from physics -- hair that floated instead of falling, water that behaved like gel, objects that drifted without gravity. Gen-4.5 renders realistic weight, momentum, and physical interaction that makes generated video feel substantially more natural.

Long-Form Support

Gen-4.5 supports video generation up to one minute with maintained character consistency, native dialogue, background audio, and complex multi-angle shots. While most AI video models are optimized for short clips of a few seconds, this extended duration opens up possibilities for complete ad spots, product demonstrations, and scene sequences that previously required stitching multiple short clips together.

Key Features Deep Dive

Character Consistency Across Shots

For advertising and brand content, character consistency is non-negotiable. You cannot run a campaign where your spokesperson changes appearance between shots. Gen-4.5 addresses this with improved identity preservation -- the model maintains consistent facial features, clothing, and physical characteristics across generated sequences.

In practice, this means you can generate a character in Scene A (walking into a store), Scene B (examining a product), and Scene C (walking out with a purchase), and the character will look like the same person across all three scenes. Combined with the multi-shot sequencing capability, this enables narrative ad creation from text prompts alone.

Advanced Camera Control

Gen-4.5 understands and executes complex camera choreography from text prompts. You can specify tracking shots, dolly movements, crane shots, handheld-style camera shake, rack focus, and other cinematographic techniques in natural language, and the model renders them faithfully.

This matters for advertising because camera movement is a fundamental creative tool. A slow dolly-in on a product creates intimacy. A tracking shot following a person creates energy. A static wide shot establishes context. Gen-4.5 gives you creative control over these choices without requiring a camera operator, grip equipment, or post-production stabilization.

Scene Composition

Gen-4.5 handles multi-element scene composition with markedly better results than its predecessors. Scenes with multiple subjects, complex backgrounds, foreground elements, and dynamic lighting are rendered with greater coherence. Objects maintain their spatial relationships, characters interact naturally with environments, and the overall composition holds together across the duration of the clip.

Lip Sync and Performance

With native audio generation, Gen-4.5 can produce characters that speak with synchronized lip movements. This opens up possibilities for spokesperson-style ads, testimonial content, and narrative video where characters deliver dialogue. The lip sync is not perfect for every generation, but it represents a significant step toward AI-generated talking-head content that does not require separate avatar technology.

For more polished results on talking-head content, many creators combine Runway's visual generation with dedicated AI talking avatar tools that offer tighter lip sync control and broader avatar customization options.

Gen-4.5 for Advertising: Formats and Use Cases

Runway Gen-4.5 is particularly well-suited for advertising workflows. Here is how it maps to common ad formats and use cases.

Product Showcase Videos

Generate cinematic product videos from text descriptions of your product in action. Describe the product, the setting, the lighting, and the camera movement, and Gen-4.5 produces a polished product showcase clip. For brands that need high volumes of product video across large catalogs, this eliminates the per-product cost of video production.

Combine Gen-4.5's text-to-video with image-to-video workflows using your existing product photography to create videos that feature your actual products rather than AI-interpreted versions.

Social Media Ad Creative

Gen-4.5 excels at the short-form video formats that dominate social advertising -- 6-second bumper ads, 15-second Instagram Reels, and 30-second TikTok ad creative. The model's improved motion quality and physical accuracy produce results that feel native to social feeds rather than obviously AI-generated.

For teams running performance marketing campaigns, the ability to rapidly generate dozens of creative variations for A/B testing changes the economics of creative production. Instead of producing 3-5 variations per campaign, you can produce 20-30 and let the platform's algorithm find the winners.

Concept Visualization

Before committing budget to full production, use Gen-4.5 to visualize ad concepts. Describe the scene, the mood, the narrative, and the visual style, and generate preview clips that stakeholders can evaluate. This compresses the concepting phase from weeks of storyboarding and mood boarding to hours of prompt-driven exploration.

Brand Content and Storytelling

Gen-4.5's multi-shot sequencing and character consistency make it viable for brand storytelling content -- short narrative pieces that communicate brand values, origin stories, or customer journeys. The native audio generation adds another layer of production value without requiring separate audio production.

Dynamic Ad Personalization

With text-to-video generation, you can create ad variations tailored to different audience segments, seasonal themes, or regional markets by adjusting prompts rather than reshooting. A single product can be shown in summer and winter settings, urban and rural environments, or different lifestyle contexts -- all generated from text without additional production.

Retargeting Creative

Creative fatigue is the enemy of retargeting campaigns. When your audience sees the same ad creative repeatedly, performance degrades. Gen-4.5 makes it practical to refresh retargeting creative weekly or even daily with new visual variations that keep the core message consistent while preventing fatigue. Generate fresh product videos, new scene compositions, and varied visual styles from the same product descriptions.

Prompting Techniques for Gen-4.5

Getting the best results from Gen-4.5 requires understanding how the model interprets prompts. These are the techniques that produce the strongest outputs.

Focus on Motion, Not Appearance

When using image-to-video mode, your image already defines composition, lighting, style, and subjects. Your prompt's job is to describe motion -- how the scene should come alive. Avoid repeating what is visible in the image. Instead, describe movement: "The woman turns toward the camera and smiles as wind catches her hair" rather than "A woman in a red dress standing on a beach turns toward the camera."

Be Specific with Action Verbs

Use precise verbs that define exactly what should happen. "Runs" is better than "moves quickly." "Pours" is better than "puts liquid in." Specific language gives the model clearer instructions and produces more predictable results.

• Weak: "A person moves across the room"
• Strong: "A woman strides confidently across a sunlit loft, her heels clicking on polished concrete"

Specify Camera Movement

Camera choreography adds production value and emotional tone. Gen-4.5 understands standard cinematographic terminology:

• Tracking shot: Camera follows the subject laterally
• Dolly in/out: Camera moves toward or away from the subject
• Crane shot: Camera rises or descends vertically
• Handheld: Slight natural camera shake for documentary feel
• Rack focus: Shift focus between foreground and background elements
• Static wide: Fixed camera capturing a full scene

Include camera direction in your prompt: "Slow dolly-in on the product as steam rises from the cup, rack focus from the cup to the person's face."

Use Sequential Prompting

For multi-action scenes, describe events in chronological order. Gen-4.5 handles temporal sequencing well when the prompt provides clear order:

"The door opens and a man steps into the room. He pauses, looking around. Then he walks to the window and pulls back the curtain, revealing a city skyline at sunset."

You can also use rough timestamps for longer generations: "At 0 seconds, the camera is static on the product. At 3 seconds, a hand reaches in and picks it up. At 6 seconds, the camera follows the hand as it brings the product to eye level."

Avoid Negative Prompting

Gen-4.5 interprets prompts that describe what should happen, not what should be avoided. Negative phrasing like "no blur" or "without distortion" can produce unpredictable or opposite results. Describe the positive outcome: "sharp focus" instead of "no blur," "steady camera" instead of "no shake."

Match Duration to Complexity

Prompts requesting multiple sequential actions benefit from longer durations. A simple action ("A cup of coffee steams on a table") works at 5 seconds. A complex sequence ("A barista prepares an espresso, steams milk, pours latte art, and slides the cup across the counter") needs 10 seconds or more to render each action with proper pacing.

Describe Atmosphere and Mood

Gen-4.5 responds well to atmospheric descriptions that set the visual tone: "warm golden hour light," "cool blue overcast morning," "dramatic high-contrast noir lighting." These cues shape the color grading, lighting direction, and overall mood of the output in ways that make the video feel intentional rather than generic.

Pricing Tiers and Credit System Explained

Runway operates on a credit-based pricing model. Understanding the credit system is essential for budgeting your Gen-4.5 usage.

The Plans

Plan	Price	Monthly Credits	Key Features
Free	$0/month	125 credits	Basic access, watermarked output, limited features
Standard	$12/month	625 credits	All AI apps, Gen-4.5 access, 25GB storage
Pro	$28/month	2,250 credits	4K rendering, watermark-free, priority queue, custom voice, 500GB storage
Unlimited	$76/month	2,250 credits + Explore Mode	Unlimited relaxed-quality generations, all Pro features

Credit Costs by Model

Gen-4.5 costs 25 credits per second of generated video. Gen-4 Turbo costs 5 credits per second. This 5x difference is significant and should factor into your model selection.

Here is what each plan gets you in Gen-4.5 video:

• Free (125 credits): Approximately 5 seconds of Gen-4.5 video per month
• Standard (625 credits): Approximately 25 seconds of Gen-4.5 video per month
• Pro (2,250 credits): Approximately 90 seconds of Gen-4.5 video per month
• Unlimited (2,250 credits + Explore Mode): 90 seconds at full quality, plus unlimited generations at relaxed quality

Which Plan Should You Choose?

For individual creators exploring AI video, the Standard plan at $12/month provides enough credits to experiment with Gen-4.5 and learn the prompting system. Use Gen-4 Turbo at 5 credits per second for iteration and save Gen-4.5 for final renders.

For content creators and small teams producing regular video, the Pro plan at $28/month is the sweet spot. The 4K rendering, watermark-free exports, and priority queue access make the output production-ready. The 2,250 credits give you approximately 90 seconds of Gen-4.5 or 450 seconds of Gen-4 Turbo per month.

For teams with high-volume needs, the Unlimited plan at $76/month adds Explore Mode -- unlimited generations at relaxed quality settings. This is valuable for rapid concepting, A/B test creative generation, and workflows where you need to generate many variations before selecting the best for final rendering at full quality.

For agencies and production studios requiring higher volumes, Runway offers Enterprise plans with custom credit allocations, dedicated support, and API access.

Pro Tips for Credit Management

• Use Gen-4 Turbo (5 credits/second) for initial concepts and iteration, then switch to Gen-4.5 (25 credits/second) for final outputs
• Keep durations short during experimentation -- 5-second clips consume 125 credits in Gen-4.5
• Use Explore Mode on the Unlimited plan for high-volume ideation before committing credits to full-quality renders
• Image-to-video often requires fewer re-generations than text-to-video because the reference image anchors the visual output

Gen-4.5 vs Sora 2 vs Veo 3.1 vs Kling 3.0

The AI video generation landscape in early 2026 has four major players. Here is how they compare.

Feature	Runway Gen-4.5	OpenAI Sora 2	Google Veo 3.1	Kling 3.0
Release	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Late 2025	Feb 2026
Elo Score	1,247	1,206	1,226	N/A
Max Duration	60 seconds	25 seconds	8 seconds	15 seconds
Max Resolution	4K (Pro)	1080p (Pro)	1080p (Ultra)	4K at 60fps
Native Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text-to-Video	Excellent	Strong	Strong	Strong
Image-to-Video	Yes (Jan 2026)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Character Consistency	Excellent	Good	Good	Excellent
Multi-Shot	Yes	Limited	Limited	Yes (6 shots)
Starting Price	$12/month	$20/month (Plus)	$19.99/month (Pro)	Free tier available
API Available	Yes	Yes	Yes (Vertex AI)	Yes

Runway Gen-4.5 Strengths

Gen-4.5 leads on pure video quality and motion fidelity according to independent benchmarks. It offers the longest single-generation duration at 60 seconds, the most granular camera control, and the most flexible pricing starting at $12/month. The multi-shot sequencing and character consistency make it the strongest choice for narrative ad content and brand storytelling.

OpenAI Sora 2 Strengths

Sora 2 produces video with remarkably natural lighting and physics that feel captured by a real camera rather than generated. The Disney partnership and character cameo feature are unique. Mobile apps on iOS and Android make it the most accessible model for on-the-go creation. However, the $20/month ChatGPT Plus plan limits you to 5-second, 720p, watermarked clips -- genuine production use requires the $200/month Pro plan.

Google Veo 3.1 Strengths

Veo 3.1 leads in audio generation quality. The native spatial audio creates three-dimensional sound environments that enhance immersion without separate audio production. Integration with Google's ecosystem (Vertex AI, Google Cloud) makes it attractive for enterprises already on Google infrastructure. The limitation is an 8-second maximum duration per generation, which constrains longer-form use cases.

Kling 3.0 Strengths

Kling 3.0 from Kuaishou launched in February 2026 with native 4K at 60fps -- the highest native resolution and frame rate in the market. The multi-shot storyboard feature allows specifying duration, shot size, perspective, narrative content, and camera movements for up to 6 shots within a single 15-second clip. Reference-based generation extracts visual and voice characteristics from uploaded reference video, enabling strong character consistency. The model also offers a free tier, making it accessible for experimentation.

Which Model to Choose?

• Best overall video quality: Runway Gen-4.5
• Best for audio-driven content: Google Veo 3.1
• Best for cinematic realism: OpenAI Sora 2 Pro
• Best for high-resolution and frame rate: Kling 3.0
• Best value for advertising teams: Runway Gen-4.5 (starting at $12/month with production-ready output)
• Best for narrative multi-shot: Runway Gen-4.5 or Kling 3.0

Gen-4 Image API for Developers

Runway offers a developer API that allows teams to integrate Gen-4's capabilities directly into products, platforms, and workflows.

What Is Available

The Runway API provides access to Gen-4 Turbo for video generation and Gen-4 Image for image generation. The Gen-4 Image API allows developers to integrate Runway's multimodal generation capabilities -- including reference-based generation for character and scene consistency -- directly into applications.

Pricing

The Gen-4 Image API costs $0.08 per generated image. Video generation via the API follows the same credit-based pricing as the web platform. For teams building custom workflows, the API removes the manual steps of the web interface and enables programmatic generation at scale.

Use Cases for the API

• E-commerce platforms: Auto-generate product videos from catalog images
• Ad platforms: Integrate AI video generation into ad creation workflows
• Content management systems: Add video generation as a native content creation tool
• Creative tools: Build custom video generation interfaces tailored to specific workflows

Developers can access the API through Runway's developer portal at dev.runwayml.com, with documentation, SDKs, and example implementations available to accelerate integration.

Runway's $5.3 Billion Valuation and What It Means

In February 2026, Runway closed a $315 million Series E funding round led by General Atlantic, with participation from NVIDIA, Adobe Ventures, AllianceBernstein, AMD Ventures, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Mirae Asset, Emphatic Capital, Felicis, and Premji Invest. The round nearly doubled Runway's valuation to $5.3 billion.

Where the Money Is Going

Runway is using the funds to "pre-train the next generation of world models and bring them to new products and industries." In December 2025, alongside Gen-4.5, Runway released its first world model -- an AI system that constructs internal representations of environments and can plan for future events. The company views world models as central to tackling challenges across medicine, climate, energy, and robotics.

What This Means for Users

The funding signals several things for current and prospective Runway users:

Continued investment in model quality. With $315 million in fresh capital and NVIDIA as an investor, expect Runway to continue pushing model quality forward. Gen-5 and beyond will have significant resources behind them.

Expanding beyond video. Runway's world model ambitions suggest the platform will evolve beyond video generation into simulation, interactive media, and enterprise applications. Today's video generation tools are a stepping stone to more comprehensive content creation capabilities.

Enterprise focus. The investor roster (Fidelity, AllianceBernstein, General Atlantic) signals a move toward enterprise sales and larger-scale commercial applications. Expect more API capabilities, team collaboration features, and enterprise-grade SLAs.

Competitive pricing pressure. With strong funding, Runway can invest in infrastructure that drives down per-credit costs over time. The competition between Runway, OpenAI, Google, and Kuaishou benefits users through better models at lower prices.

Using Runway Through AdCreate's Multi-Model Pipeline

While Runway Gen-4.5 is powerful on its own, the most effective advertising workflows combine multiple AI models and tools in a pipeline that plays to each model's strengths.

AdCreate's AI tools integrate multiple video generation models into a unified workflow designed specifically for advertising. Instead of choosing one model and accepting its limitations, you can leverage the right model for each step of the creative process.

How the Multi-Model Approach Works

A typical multi-model advertising workflow might look like this:

1. Concept generation: Use text-to-video to explore creative concepts and visual directions rapidly
2. Product integration: Use image-to-video to turn your actual product photography into motion content, ensuring your real product (not an AI interpretation) appears in the final creative
3. Spokesperson content: Use AI talking avatars for presenter-led content with precise lip sync, script delivery, and consistent brand spokesperson appearance across all creative
4. Assembly and optimization: Combine elements into platform-optimized ad formats -- 9:16 for TikTok and Reels, 1:1 for Feed, 16:9 for YouTube -- with text overlays, CTAs, and brand elements

Why Multi-Model Beats Single-Model

No single AI video model excels at everything. Runway Gen-4.5 produces exceptional cinematic video but is not designed for talking-head content with precise lip sync. Avatar tools deliver perfect script delivery but cannot generate cinematic product showcases. Image-to-video tools preserve your actual product appearance but require source imagery.

The multi-model approach matches each creative need to the model best equipped to deliver it, producing results that no single tool can match.

AdCreate offers ad templates specifically designed for multi-model workflows, with pre-built structures for common ad formats that guide you through selecting the right generation approach for each element of your creative.

Ready to build your AI video ad pipeline? Start with 50 free credits and explore how multi-model workflows produce better advertising creative than any single tool alone. See the full range of capabilities on the AI ad generator or go directly to the AI video ad generator for video-first campaigns. Check pricing for team and enterprise plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Runway Gen-4.5 worth the upgrade from Gen-4?

It depends on your workflow. If your primary use case is turning existing images into video (product photos, lookbook shots, reference frames), Gen-4 remains excellent and costs 5x less per second (5 credits vs 25 credits). If you are doing text-to-video generation, need native audio, want multi-shot sequencing, or require the highest possible motion quality, Gen-4.5 is a significant improvement. Many creators use both -- Gen-4 Turbo for iteration and image-based workflows, Gen-4.5 for final renders and text-to-video projects.

How does Runway Gen-4.5 handle brand consistency in advertising?

Gen-4.5 maintains character and environmental consistency across multi-shot sequences, which is essential for brand advertising. However, it does not inherently know your brand guidelines. For strict brand consistency (exact colors, logos, product accuracy), the most reliable approach is using image-to-video with your actual brand assets as reference images, or combining Gen-4.5's cinematic generation with dedicated brand asset management. AdCreate's AI tools include brand kit integration that maintains visual consistency across AI-generated creative.

Can I use Runway Gen-4.5 output in commercial advertising?

Yes. All paid Runway plans (Standard, Pro, Unlimited) grant commercial usage rights for generated content. The Pro plan and above remove watermarks, which is essential for advertising use. The Free plan includes watermarks and is limited to personal, non-commercial use. Always review Runway's current terms of service for the most up-to-date commercial usage policies.

How long does it take to generate video with Gen-4.5?

Generation time varies based on duration, complexity, and queue position. Typical generation times range from 30 seconds to 3 minutes for a 5-10 second clip. Pro plan subscribers get priority queue access, which reduces wait times during peak usage. The Unlimited plan's Explore Mode uses relaxed-quality processing that may take longer but does not consume credits.

Is Gen-4.5 good enough for professional advertising production?

For digital advertising (social media ads, display ads, web video, email marketing), Gen-4.5 produces output quality that is indistinguishable from traditionally produced content in many scenarios, especially at the compression levels used on social platforms. For broadcast television advertising or large-format display, professional post-production refinement may still be necessary. The 4K output on Pro plans approaches broadcast quality for many applications.

How does Gen-4.5 compare to hiring a video production team?

Gen-4.5 does not replace video production teams for all use cases -- live-action footage, talent-driven content, and complex practical effects still require traditional production. Where Gen-4.5 transforms the equation is in volume, speed, and cost. A video production team might produce 5-10 ad variations in a week at $5,000-$20,000. Gen-4.5 can generate 50-100 variations in a day at a fraction of the cost. For performance marketing teams that need high volumes of test creative, Gen-4.5 is not a replacement for production -- it is an entirely different creative capability.

What are the main limitations of Gen-4.5?

The most notable limitations are: text rendering within video remains inconsistent (generated signs, labels, and text overlays often contain errors), very specific product details may not match real products without image references, generation of human hands and fine motor actions can still produce artifacts, and the 25-credit-per-second cost makes extensive experimentation expensive compared to Gen-4 Turbo. For workflows that need pixel-perfect product accuracy, combining Gen-4.5 with real product photography through image-to-video produces more reliable results than text-to-video alone.

Can I use Gen-4.5 with the Runway API?

As of February 2026, the Runway API provides access to Gen-4 Turbo and Gen-4 Image. Gen-4.5 API access has not been publicly announced yet but is expected given Runway's pattern of making new models available via API after an initial web-platform-only period. Check Runway's developer portal at dev.runwayml.com for the latest API model availability.

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Runway Gen-4.5 represents the current peak of AI video generation technology -- but technology is only as valuable as the results it produces for your business. Whether you use Runway directly or through a multi-model pipeline like AdCreate, the competitive advantage belongs to teams that integrate AI video into their creative workflow now rather than waiting for the next model release. Start generating with 50 free credits and see what AI video can do for your advertising.