Runway API Credits vs Sume USD Balance for the Same Video Models

Runway's API now resells several models it did not build, priced in credits at $0.01 each. Sume's video catalog overlaps on three of them. Here is the same model priced both ways, using Runway's pricing page as read on 2026-10-03 and Sume's catalog rates (provider list times 1.25).

The short result: on the overlapping models Runway's per-second price is lower than Sume's, and the choice comes down to what else you need from the platform.

Overlapping models, per second

Runway's table lists wan3 at 5, 10 and 20 credits, H3 Max at 5 and 8 credits (480p and 768p), and Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 at 3.4, 10, 15 and 30 credits.

What is not comparable

Runway also lists first-party models that Sume's catalog does not carry, for example Gen-4.5 at 12 credits and Aleph 2 at 28 credits with a 56-credit minimum, and Veo 3.1 at 40 credits with audio. If a brief needs one of those, Sume is not the answer and the table above is irrelevant.

Runway's changelog shows how fast its roster moves: MiniMax H3 Max arrived on September 3 and WAN 3.0 on August 26. Check each side's current list before you commit.

What Sume adds

Sume's route is POST /v1/videos, an OpenRouter-compatible shape, plus model: sume/auto when you do not want to pin a model. Billing is a USD workspace balance, reserved on submit and refunded on failure, and the same jobs are visible at GET /v1/jobs/{id}/status. The same account also covers lip sync, motion control, upscaling and Timeline assembly, which keeps a single-vendor pipeline simple.

If your whole workload is Wan 3.0 clips, Runway's 20 percent lower rate is the better deal. If the workload mixes generation with trimming, captions and assembly, the extra 25 percent buys one invoice and one integration. Price your own mix before deciding.