---
id: runwayml
version: "5.14.0"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# runwayml — The official Python library for the runwayml API

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 222.3K/mo

## What it is and what it does

RunwayML is an official Python SDK that wraps the RunwayML REST API, enabling developers to call generative AI services (image-to-video, text-to-image, and others) from Python code. It is generated by Stainless and provides both synchronous and asynchronous clients powered by httpx, with full type hints for all request parameters and response fields.

The library handles common API patterns automatically: pagination across list results, error classification (connection errors, rate limits, authentication failures, etc.), and automatic retry logic for transient failures. Responses are Pydantic models with helper methods for JSON serialization and dictionary conversion. It supports Python 3.9 through 3.14 and runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Use it for:

- Generate videos from static images with text prompts using the image-to-video endpoint.
- Create images from text descriptions via the text-to-image API with specified aspect ratios.
- Build async workflows that call multiple RunwayML endpoints concurrently without blocking.
- Integrate RunwayML's generative capabilities into a larger Python application with full IDE autocomplete.
- Paginate through lists of routers or other resources without manually handling cursor logic.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides a Python client library for the RunwayML REST API, offering synchronous and asynchronous access to RunwayML's generative AI services with full type hints and automatic pagination.

Yes. The library is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and permissive licensing. Install it if you need to call RunwayML's API from Python and want type safety, automatic pagination, and both sync/async support out of the box. The only prerequisite is a valid RunwayML API key.

## Install

pip install runwayml
uv add runwayml
poetry add runwayml

## Installing runwayml

Before you install: Low friction installation with a pure Python wheel. Actively maintained with a release from 2026-08-13. Depends on common, well-maintained libraries (httpx, pydantic, anyio) with no compiled dependencies.

License in practice: Licensed under Apache-2.0 (permissive), allowing use in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions—attribution required but no copyleft obligations.

Quickstart:

pip install runwayml

import os
from runwayml import RunwayML

client = RunwayML(api_key=os.environ.get("RUNWAYML_API_SECRET"))
image_to_video = client.image_to_video.create(
    model="gen4_turbo",
    prompt_image="https://example.com/assets/bunny.jpg",
    ratio="1280:720",
    prompt_text="The bunny is eating a carrot",
)
print(image_to_video.id)

Requires a valid RunwayML API key (RUNWAYML_API_SECRET environment variable or passed explicitly); requires Python 3.9 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the library's auto-pagination handles all edge cases and rate-limit scenarios reliably in production.
- Performance characteristics of the async client with aiohttp backend under high concurrency.
- Whether retry logic (2 times by default) is appropriate for typical RunwayML API latency patterns.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 222.3K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

runwayml api client, image to video generation python, text to image api client, async http client wrapper, generative ai sdk python, runway ml sdk, typed rest api client, api-client, generative-ai, async-support

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