Video Generation

Runway Gen-4.5 Environmental Impact

Q: How much energy does Runway Gen-4.5 use per query?

Each Runway Gen-4.5 query consumes approximately 250 Wh of energy. This is 833x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).

Q: What is Runway Gen-4.5's carbon footprint?

Based on the carbon intensity of its inference location (Cloud (US)), each Runway Gen-4.5 query produces approximately 88g of CO2.

Q: How does Runway Gen-4.5 compare to a Google search?

A Runway Gen-4.5 query uses 833x more than a traditional Google search in terms of energy consumption. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Runway Gen-4.5 uses 250 Wh per query.

Q: How much water does Runway Gen-4.5 use?

Each Runway Gen-4.5 query consumes approximately 460 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.

ExtremeEstimated

Leads Artificial Analysis text-to-video leaderboard (1,247 Elo)

Architecture: Video generation model (proprietary)
Provider: Runway

250.0 Wh

Energy per query

88.0 g

CO₂ per query

460 mL

Water per query

833x more than

vs Google search

Energy per query

250.0 Wh

833x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)

CO2 per query

88.0 g

US East (Virginia) grid (450 gCO₂/kWh)

Water per query

460 mL

~2 queries to fill 1 litre

Processing location

Cloud (US)

Provider

Runway

How does Runway Gen-4.5 compare?

Ranked #145 of 152 models by energy per query

View full comparison

Detailed Breakdown

Energy Consumption

Runway Gen-4.5 leads the Artificial Analysis text-to-video leaderboard at 1,247 Elo. At ~250 Wh per 10-second clip, it represents a significant improvement over Gen-3 Alpha in both quality and efficiency. Professional filmmakers and studios are its primary users.

Runway — Gen-4.5 (Dec 2025)

Power Source & Carbon

Runs on US cloud GPU infrastructure. Runway has not published environmental data.

Runway — About

Water Usage

At ~460 mL per clip.

Brookings — AI, data centers, and water

About Runway Gen-4.5

Runway Gen-4.5 sits at the high end of AI energy consumption at 250.0 Wh per generating one short video clip — over 833x what a Google search uses. Runway's video generation model, released in December 1, 2025, leads artificial analysis text-to-video leaderboard (1,247 elo). The extreme energy cost reflects the computational complexity of video generation: generating coherent frames across both space and time.

These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Runway has not published official energy data for Runway Gen-4.5. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.

Runway Gen-4.5 in Context

21x

phone charges per video

The video generation premium

One Runway Gen-4.5 generation uses 250.0 Wh — the equivalent of 21 full smartphone charges. Video generation requires running a diffusion model across both spatial and temporal dimensions, making it fundamentally more compute-intensive than text or image tasks. This is not an efficiency problem to be solved; it is an inherent characteristic of the task.

What does your Runway Gen-4.5 usage cost the planet?

Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Runway Gen-4.5.

Calculate My Compute

Frequently Asked Questions

How much energy does Runway Gen-4.5 use per query?

Each Runway Gen-4.5 query consumes approximately 250.0 Wh of energy. This is 833x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).

What is Runway Gen-4.5's carbon footprint?

Based on the carbon intensity of Cloud (US), each query produces approximately 88.0 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 450 g CO2/kWh with 25% renewable energy.

How much water does Runway Gen-4.5 use?

Each query consumes approximately 460 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.

How does Runway Gen-4.5 compare to a Google search?

A Runway Gen-4.5 query uses 833x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Runway Gen-4.5 uses 250.0 Wh.