api-reference

Runway Public API Reference

PREREQUISITE: Run +check-compatibility first to ensure the project has server-side capability.

Base URL: https://api.dev.runwayml.com

All requests require these headers:

Authorization: Bearer <RUNWAYML_API_SECRET>
X-Runway-Version: 2024-11-06

---

Models & Endpoints

Video Generation

Model	Endpoint	Input	Cost (credits/sec)
gen4.5	POST /v1/image_to_video or POST /v1/text_to_video	Text and/or Image	12
gen4_turbo	POST /v1/image_to_video	Image required	5
gen4_aleph	POST /v1/video_to_video	Video + Text/Image	15
act_two	POST /v1/character_performance	Image/Video	5
veo3	POST /v1/image_to_video or POST /v1/text_to_video	Text/Image	40
veo3.1	POST /v1/image_to_video or POST /v1/text_to_video	Text/Image	20-40
veo3.1_fast	POST /v1/image_to_video or POST /v1/text_to_video	Text/Image	10-15

Video duration: 2-10 seconds. Aspect ratios: 1280:720, 720:1280, 1104:832, etc.

Image Generation

Model	Endpoint	Cost (credits)
gen4_image	POST /v1/text_to_image	5 (720p), 8 (1080p)
gen4_image_turbo	POST /v1/text_to_image	2
gemini_2.5_flash	POST /v1/text_to_image	5

Audio Generation

Model	Endpoint	Use Case	Cost
eleven_multilingual_v2	POST /v1/text_to_speech	Text to speech	1 credit/50 chars
eleven_text_to_sound_v2	POST /v1/sound_effect	Sound effects	1-2 credits
eleven_voice_isolation	POST /v1/voice_isolation	Isolate voice from audio	1 credit/6 sec
eleven_voice_dubbing	POST /v1/voice_dubbing	Dub audio to other languages	1 credit/2 sec
eleven_multilingual_sts_v2	POST /v1/speech_to_speech	Voice conversion	1 credit/3 sec

Characters (Real-Time Avatars)

Model	Description	Session Max Duration
gwm1_avatars	Real-time conversational avatars powered by GWM-1	5 minutes

Endpoints:

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/v1/avatars	Create a new Avatar
GET	/v1/avatars/{id}	Retrieve an Avatar
PATCH	/v1/avatars/{id}	Update an Avatar (name, voice, personality, documentIds)
DELETE	/v1/avatars/{id}	Delete an Avatar
POST	/v1/realtime_sessions	Create a new real-time session
GET	/v1/realtime_sessions/{id}	Retrieve session status (poll until READY)
POST	/v1/realtime_sessions/{id}/consume	Consume session credentials for WebRTC (one-time use)

Avatar creation parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
name	string	Display name for the avatar
referenceImage	string	URL or runway:// URI of the character image
voice	object	{ type: 'runway-live-preset', presetId: 'clara' }
personality	string	System prompt / personality instructions
documentIds	string[]	Optional. IDs of knowledge base documents to attach

Voice presets: clara (soft), victoria (firm), vincent (authoritative). Preview all at dev.runwayml.com.

Session statuses: NOT_READY → READY → RUNNING → COMPLETED (or FAILED / CANCELLED)

Documents (Knowledge Base)

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/v1/documents	Create a document (plain text or Markdown)
GET	/v1/documents/{id}	Retrieve a document
DELETE	/v1/documents/{id}	Delete a document

Each Avatar supports up to 50,000 tokens of knowledge. Link documents to an Avatar via client.avatars.update(id, { documentIds: [...] }).

Management Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/v1/tasks/{id}	Get task status and output
DELETE	/v1/tasks/{id}	Cancel/delete a task
POST	/v1/uploads	Create ephemeral upload
GET	/v1/organization	Organization info & credit balance
POST	/v1/organization/usage	Credit usage history (up to 90 days)

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Task Lifecycle

All generation endpoints return a task object. The flow is:

1. Submit — POST /v1/<endpoint> → returns { "id": "task_xxx" }
2. Poll — GET /v1/tasks/{id} → returns task with status
3. Retrieve output — When status === "SUCCEEDED", the output array contains signed URLs

Task Statuses

Status	Meaning
PENDING	Queued, waiting to start
RUNNING	Currently generating
SUCCEEDED	Complete — output URLs available
FAILED	Generation failed — check failure field
THROTTLED	Concurrency limit hit — auto-queued

SDK Polling (Recommended)

The SDKs provide a waitForTaskOutput() method that handles polling automatically:

// Node.js — polls until complete (default 10 min timeout)
const task = await client.imageToVideo.create({
  model: 'gen4.5',
  promptImage: 'https://example.com/image.jpg',
  promptText: 'A sunset timelapse',
  ratio: '1280:720',
  duration: 5
}).waitForTaskOutput();

console.log(task.output); // Array of signed URLs

# Python
task = client.image_to_video.create(
    model='gen4.5',
    prompt_image='https://example.com/image.jpg',
    prompt_text='A sunset timelapse',
    ratio='1280:720',
    duration=5
).wait_for_task_output()

print(task.output)

Manual Polling (REST)

async function pollTask(taskId) {
  while (true) {
    const response = await fetch(`https://api.dev.runwayml.com/v1/tasks/${taskId}`, {
      headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.RUNWAYML_API_SECRET}`,
        'X-Runway-Version': '2024-11-06'
      }
    });
    const task = await response.json();

    if (task.status === 'SUCCEEDED') return task;
    if (task.status === 'FAILED') throw new Error(task.failure);

    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 5000)); // poll every 5 seconds
  }
}

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Output Handling

• Successful tasks return an output array with signed URLs to generated content
• Output URLs expire within 24-48 hours
• Download and store outputs in your own storage — do not serve signed URLs to end users
• Video outputs are MP4, image outputs are PNG/JPEG

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Input Requirements

Size Limits

Type	Via URL	Via Data URI	Via Upload
Image	16 MB	5 MB	200 MB
Video	32 MB	16 MB	200 MB
Audio	32 MB	16 MB	200 MB

Supported Formats

• Images: JPEG, PNG, WebP (no GIF)
• Video codecs: H.264, H.265/HEVC, AV1, VP8/VP9, Apple ProRes, Theora
• Audio: MP3, AAC, FLAC, PCM, ALAC

URL Requirements

If providing assets via URL:

• HTTPS only (no HTTP)
• Domain names only (no IP addresses)
• No redirects
• Must support HTTP HEAD requests
• Must return valid Content-Type and Content-Length headers
• Max URL length: 2,048 characters

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Rate Limits & Tiers

Tier	Concurrency	Daily Gens	Monthly Cap	Unlock
1 (default)	1-2	50-200	$100	—
2	3	500-1,000	$500	1 day + $50
3	5	1,000-2,000	$2,000	7 days + $100
4	10	5,000-10,000	$20,000	14 days + $1,000
5	20	25,000-30,000	$100,000	7 days + $5,000

• No requests-per-minute limit — only daily generation quotas
• Exceeding concurrency → THROTTLED status (auto-queued, not rejected)
• Exceeding daily limit → 429 Too Many Requests
• Daily limits use a rolling 24-hour window

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Error Handling

HTTP Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
400	Input validation failure	Fix input, do not retry
401	Invalid API key	Check key, do not retry
429	Rate limited	Retry with exponential backoff + jitter
502/503/504	Server overload	Retry with exponential backoff + jitter

Task Failure Codes

Code	Meaning	Retry?
SAFETY.INPUT.*	Input content moderation	No — not refundable
SAFETY.OUTPUT.*	Output content moderation	Yes — try different prompt
INTERNAL.BAD_OUTPUT	Quality issue	Yes
ASSET.INVALID	Bad input format	Fix input
INTERNAL	Server error	Yes

The SDKs handle retries for transient errors automatically.

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Data URI Support

Base64-encoded images can be passed instead of URLs:

data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAA...

Useful for small images or when you don't want to host the file. Subject to the data URI size limits above.