Runway Builders Program

Runway — the video-AI lab behind Gen-4 and the new Characters real-time video agents — launched Builders in March 2026 to get startups onto its API, reportedly backed by a $10M fund. Accepted Seed to Series C companies get up to 500,000 free API credits plus Tier 5 access, the highest API usage tier, so you can ship video features at production throughput without burning runway on inference.

What you get

• Up to 500,000 free Runway API credits to start building immediately
• Tier 5 access — Runway's highest API usage tier for maximum throughput
• Access to Runway Characters via the API: persistent real-time AI personas with defined appearance, voice, and personality (powered by GWM-1)
• Private Slack community with training sessions and direct support from the Runway team

Eligibility

• Seed to Series C startups (the application form also lists Pre-Seed and Bootstrapped options, so earlier-stage teams can apply)
• A concrete use case for video/media AI — the application asks what you're building and which tools you use today
• Founding cohort included Cartesia, MSCHF, Oasys Health, Spara, Subject, and Supersonik

How to apply

Apply via the form at runwayml.com/product/builders (company, website, funding stage, use case, current tools) or email runway-builders@runwayml.com. Apply before committing to paid API tiers — the credit grant is sized per startup, up to the 500k cap.