L
LAI video, image and audio generation with creative agents for brand content
From $25/mo
Runway vs Stable Diffusion
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
R
Choose Runway if…
- you work on iOS, Android
- you're in its core audience: content creators, marketing teams
S
Choose Stable Diffusion if…
- you work on Self-hosted
- you're in its core audience: developers, researchers
Side by side
Feature Runway Stable Diffusion
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starting price$12/mo—
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Trains AI on your content—Yes, unless you opt out
Data retention—Kept as long as reasonably necessary, including while account is active
Security and complianceSOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR—
Updates, last 90 days30—
Audio generation—
4K output—
Third-party models—
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, APIWeb, API, Self-hosted
CategoryVideo GeneratorsImage Generators
CompanyRunway AI, Inc.Stability AI Ltd
Based inUnited StatesUnited Kingdom
Founded2018—
Part of——
Key features
R Runway
- Text and image to video with Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0
- Third-party models such as Kling, Seedance and Nano Banana Pro
- Music, voice, sound effects and text-to-speech generation
- Agentic creative collaborator
- Runway Ads publishes ads to Meta, Google and TikTok
- 4K upscaling, plus HDR and ProRes output on Max
- Custom voice clones and brand kits
- Developer API and MCP server
S Stable Diffusion
- Text-to-image with the Stable Diffusion 3.5 suite
- SD 3.5 Flash and Turbo variants for faster, cheaper generation
- SDXL 1.0 available from 0.9 credits per image
- Platform API with credit-based billing
- Self-hosted deployment under a license
- Custom model training on the Enterprise plan
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
Runway
Free$0
Standard$12/mo billed yearly ($15 monthly)
Pro$28/mo billed yearly ($35 monthly)
Max$76/mo billed yearly ($95 monthly)
EnterpriseCustom
Stable Diffusion
Community LicenseFree
API credits$0.01 per credit
Enterprise LicenseCustom
Strengths and limitations
Runway
- Free plan with 125 credits that don't expire
- Own models and third-party models available in one workspace
- iOS and Android apps plus an API
- Extra purchased credits never expire
- Free credits are one-time, not monthly
- Monthly credits on Standard and Pro don't roll over
- Minimum top-up purchase is 1,000 credits
- Standard is limited to 3 projects
Stable Diffusion
- Free Community License for organizations under $1M annual revenue
- 25 free API credits for new accounts
- Choice of model sizes at different per-image costs
- Organizations above $1M annual revenue need a custom-priced Enterprise License
- API is pay-per-credit, with no flat monthly plan listed
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Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy