Runway publishes ceilings on what goes in

The input reference publishes 16MB for an image and 32MB for a video by URL, 5MB and 16MB as a data URI, and 200MB for an ephemeral upload. Every figure is a ceiling on what is supplied to the model rather than on what comes back from it. As of 2026-09-22.

Inclusion rule. File ceilings this reference states for inputs to a generation request. No figure here describes the size of the returned video, because the page does not state one. Order. Cheapest route first, as the reference lists them.

1An input ceiling and an output ceiling are different columns

The one platform in this register that publishes a file limit publishes it on the output side: a finished ad must be 500 MB or less. This page publishes the reverse, and nothing here helps with an upload check.

The sheets keep both in the same column because both are about files, and mark which side each belongs to. A register that folded them together would let an input ceiling look like a delivery guarantee, which is the sort of error a spec sheet is supposed to prevent.

2Three routes with a forty-fold spread between them

Five megabytes as a data URI and two hundred as an ephemeral upload are the same operation performed differently, and the ceiling moves by a factor of forty between them. Which route a pipeline uses is therefore a specification decision, not an implementation detail.

For conditioned advertising that matters at the reference-image step. A high resolution character frame can exceed the data URI limit easily and clear the URL limit comfortably, and the difference is visible only on this page.

3Per-second billing sits beside the ceilings

The same vendor's pricing guide charges per second of output, with published rates per second for two model names. So the invoice depends on the duration column and the feasibility depends on this one, and neither figure can be read from the other.

This is one of two rows in the register where a per-second basis is published at all. It makes the length parameter unusually consequential here, and it makes the file ceilings purely a question of whether a request is accepted rather than of what it costs.

4Where this cell sits in the column

Inclusion rule. Every generator in the register against the file column. Most say nothing about files at all, which is why the column is mostly hollow and worth printing. Order. Alphabetical by generator name.

• Ceilings on what goes in
  16MB for an image and 32MB for a video by URL, 5MB and 16MB as a data URI, 200MB for an ephemeral uploadnot on what comes outRunway API, input parameters / recorded 2026-09-22
• How generation is billed
  Charged per second of output, with gen4_turbo at 5 credits per second and gen4.5 at 12Runway API, pricing and costs / recorded 2026-09-22

5Sources

Read from the Runway API input reference, checked 2026-09-22. The column itself is described on file, and the rule that keeps surfaces and generators apart is on method. Next along this column: HeyGen, Google Veo.