Runway Gen-4.5 vs Luma Ray3.2: price of a 5 and 10 second clip

Runway's API lists gen4.5 at 12 credits a second, which is $0.12 a second at $0.01 a credit: $0.60 for 5 seconds and $1.20 for 10. Luma's Ray3.2 API is priced per clip block, not per second: text-to-video or image-to-video is $0.30 for 5 seconds and $0.90 for 10 seconds at 720p, and $1.20 and $3.60 at 1080p. So Luma is cheaper at 720p for 5 and 10 seconds, and Runway is cheaper at 1080p.

The grid

Both vendors publish a price list. Runway's page shows a single credit rate for gen4.5 without a resolution split, so the same $0.12 a second is used in every row below. Luma's page splits by resolution and by clip length.

Two things the grid shows

Luma's 10-second block is not double its 5-second block. At 720p it is $0.90 against $0.30, which is three times the price for twice the length. A 10-second clip therefore costs more than two 5-second clips: $0.90 against $0.60 for the pair, if your shot can be cut in two.

• At 720p Luma 5 s is $0.30 against Runway's $0.60, and Luma 10 s is $0.90 against $1.20.
• At 1080p the order flips: Luma 5 s is $1.20 against Runway's $0.60, and Luma 10 s is $3.60 against $1.20.
• Luma states that HDR output doubles pricing, so budget twice the grid if you need HDR.

Where Sume fits

Sume lists neither Runway Gen-4.5 nor Luma Ray, so there is no Sume price to put in these columns. For a rough reference on the same 10-second 1080p shot, the Sume catalog lists gemini-omni-flash-1.1 at $1.875, minimax-h3-max at $2.00 and wan-3.0 at $2.50. Those are different models, so the point is the price band and not a like-for-like quality claim.

Re-read both pages before you commit a batch. Runway's credit table and Luma's block table are the two sources for every vendor figure in this post.

A 30-second sequence

Suppose you need 30 seconds of footage at 720p. On Runway that is 30 x $0.12 = $3.60. On Luma, six 5-second blocks cost 6 x $0.30 = $1.80, while three 10-second blocks cost 3 x $0.90 = $2.70. At 1080p, Runway stays at $3.60, six Luma 5-second blocks cost 6 x $1.20 = $7.20, and three 10-second blocks cost 3 x $3.60 = $10.80.

So the cheapest way to buy 30 seconds on Luma at 720p is to ask for short blocks. That only works if your edit can use 5-second shots. The Runway rate is the same for any length, so the choice there is purely editorial.

What is not on either page

Neither page, as read here, gives a quality ranking, and this post makes none. Runway's page also lists wan3, seedance2 and grok_imagine_1_5_lite as separate models, so gen4.5 is not Runway's only video row.