Runway vs Veo 3.1
Compare Runway and Veo 3.1 on pricing, free tier, open source, API, self-host, verdict and momentum.
Both are video tools. Runway is freemium (free tier (125 one-off credits); Standard $12/mo, Pro $28/mo (yearly)) with an API, a free tier; Veo 3.1 is freemium (free daily credits in Flow; Google AI Pro $19.99/mo (1000 Flow credits/mo); Ultra 5x $99.99/mo (10k Flow credits/mo) / 20x $199.99/mo (25k Flow credits/mo)) with an API and a free tier. The catalog stamp is ship for Runway and ship for Veo 3.1, last verified 2026-09-01 and 2026-09-01 respectively.
Runway
The incumbent AI video suite — Gen-4.5 generation plus a full editing toolchain.
Veo 3.1
Google's video model with native audio generation — the current quality leader.
| field | Runway | Veo 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| pricing | freemium · free tier (125 one-off credits); Standard $12/mo, Pro $28/mo (yearly) | freemium · free daily credits in Flow; Google AI Pro $19.99/mo (1000 Flow credits/mo); Ultra 5x $99.99/mo (10k Flow credits/mo) / 20x $199.99/mo (25k Flow credits/mo) |
| free tier | yes | yes |
| open source | no | no |
| api | yes | yes |
| self-host | no | no |
| verdict | ship | ship |
| momentum | steady | blueshift |
| last verified | 2026-09-01 | 2026-09-01 |
| key limitation | Credit math gets expensive for iteration-heavy projects. | Per-second API pricing is steep for experimentation. |
The call
Pick Runway for short-form video that needs edit tools, not just a clip gen…
Pick Veo 3.1 for hero shots and short deliverables where native audio matter…
Runway sources
Veo 3.1 sources
Open live compare →Runway pageVeo 3.1 pageRunway.jsonVeo 3.1.json