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Runway already has use-case Apps, node-based Workflows, and now App Studio—a place to describe a creative tool in plain language and have it planned, designed, and hosted inside your workspace. On October 23, 2026, the Runway changelog under Paid Plans introduced App Studio: describe the creative app you need, and App Studio builds it with Runway’s models, your brand, and your files, then hosts it for you. The useful angle is which surface fits which job, what credits the build itself costs, and what sharing can and cannot do today—not slogan-style product copy. For App Studio credit burn, time saved versus hand-built Workflows or classic Apps, and day-to-day build quality, measurements have not been run on this site; feedback can go through the site-owner link in the footer.
Nearby DigIntoAI reading on code-driven creative pipelines: Code2Video-AA: How Models Design Videos in Code — and What It Costs.
App Studio vs classic Apps vs Workflows
Three surfaces answer different questions. Treat this as a capability map, not a credit price sheet—Help and changelog do not publish a side-by-side Workflows credit formula on the App Studio pages, so the table below stays at capability only.
| Surface | What it is for | How you shape it | Sharing / reuse (high level) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Apps | Ready, use-case-specific flows Runway already shipped (and older Apps panel entries) | Pick and run; limited “build your own” | Still available via Switch to classic Apps at the bottom of the App Studio menu; return with Try App Studio |
| Workflows | Node pipelines you inspect and re-run—models, modalities, intermediate steps | Graph / nodes; Agent can also assemble Workflows from a description (changelog history) | Changelog history includes Publish Workflows as Apps for workspace sharing of a pipeline you already designed |
| App Studio | Turn a recurring weekly team task into one tool everyone in the workspace runs the same way | Natural-language description → agent plans, designs, builds with live preview → Publish to an audience | Hosted app with link and audience badge; Store holds ready-made apps separate from the old Apps panel |
Help is explicit that the Store is not the same set as the apps you used to open from the classic Apps tab. Official Runway apps in the Store open immediately; other Store apps use Get and land under Example apps. To change an example, Remix starts a new app of your own from a copy.
In short: use classic Apps when a shipped use-case flow is enough; use Workflows when you need a visible, re-runnable node pipeline; use App Studio when the job is “describe the tool once, then let the workspace run the same hosted app.” That is a product-fit choice—not a claim that App Studio replaces Workflows or that every creative team should migrate overnight.
For another video-path choice DigIntoAI has covered (different product, same “which mode fits the job” question): How to Choose Gemini Video Mode—Static 1 FPS or Agentic Retrieval.
Credits: ~700 to start, ~50 per block—not a fixed app price
Building an app uses credits. Runway’s App Studio FAQ states:
- You need a minimum balance of about 700 credits to start a session.
- Building charges the credits used by the AI models that work on your app during the session.
- You are charged in blocks of about 50 credits as the build goes.
Read that carefully: ~700 is a start-balance threshold, not “every app costs 700 credits.” ~50 per block is how the session meters work while the agent plans and builds—not a published sticker price for a finished app. How many blocks a real brief burns, whether a Remix is cheaper than a cold start, and whether the finished app saves more credits downstream than it cost to build are still open in practice. Official Help is the source for the threshold and block size; your own workspace Activity / billing view is the source for what *your* builds actually spent.
Runs of the finished app still consume generation credits on whatever models those steps call—that is ordinary Runway usage, separate from the build-session metering above. App settings in the builder let you swap models per step after the first design lands.
Building and publishing: describe → preview → audience
Help’s build path, condensed:
- Open App Studio from the left sidebar. Describe the app in the home field (one sentence can start—“Convert ad scripts into shot-by-shot visual storyboards”—or pick a suggestion).
- The builder shows chat on the left and Preview on the right. Status moves through Working / Planning / Building; early on you may Pick a color scheme, tune brand colors, and optionally drop a logo.
- When tasks finish, iterate the same way: ask for a change, or point at UI with preview tools. Code tab and open-in-new-tab are available for inspection.
- Until you Publish, the app is a private preview only you can open, with no link yet.
- Publish (top-right): check the audience row (default Everyone in [workspace]), optionally switch to Only you or Specific people, Save, then confirm publish. Publishing can finish in the background over a few minutes. Later edits stay in preview until you Publish again.
Sessions can continue up to about eight hours after you close the tab; idle sessions pause with work saved. Insights on a card show visits over 7 / 30 / 90 days. After publish, App settings hold Models, Secrets (after first publish), and Assets; a header download can zip source once published. Workspace settings can set Internet access for apps On or Off (Off limits apps to Runway / App Studio services; changes apply to running apps in about two minutes).
Sharing limits—and the “Anyone with a link” contradiction
Sharing docs state a clear workspace-login audience rule, and one Publishing step still lists a wider option that does not match the FAQ.
Who can open (Sharing Help) lists three audiences after publish:
- Only you — nobody else, even with the link
- Everyone in [workspace name] — anyone who can sign in to that workspace
- Specific people — listed emails, and only if they can already sign in to the workspace
The same article states that every audience needs a Runway account in your workspace, and that there is no option to share an app with people outside it. The FAQ question “Can people outside my workspace open my app?” answers No—no public link option.
Yet the Publishing steps in that same Sharing article list audience choices that include Anyone with a link alongside Only you, Everyone in workspace, and Specific people. That line sits in the step list even while Who can open and the FAQ deny an outside-workspace / public-link path.
Outside-workspace / public-link sharing is still unclear. FAQ and Who can open say there is no public link for people outside the workspace, while the Publishing audience list includes Anyone with a link. Until those pages agree, plan for workspace-login audiences only: share inside the workspace, or list Specific people who already have workspace access. Copy the link from Publish or from Share on the card; the link works only for the audience you chose. First open asks the visitor to Continue as their Runway email.
Treat Anyone with a link as a documentation contradiction—not a confirmed capability. External-client sharing stays pending verification.
Nearby DigIntoAI coverage of another creator-video product split: What HeyGen Video Does That Avatar V Doesn't.
You cannot delete or unpublish—use Only you; Enterprise can disable the surface
FAQ and Sharing both say you cannot currently delete or unpublish an app. To stop teammates opening it: open the builder → Publish → audience row → Only you → Save. The change takes effect immediately; you do not need to Publish again.
On Enterprise plans, App Studio is toggled per workspace from Organization Settings → Settings → App Studio (all workspaces or individual ones). When it is off, App Studio is unavailable in that workspace—which also explains some “I still see Apps, not App Studio” cases alongside a manual switch to classic Apps.
Workspace app quota (side note)
Above the library, a counter shows apps used—Help’s example is 1 of 250. Unpublished apps and Store example apps count toward it. That is a workspace capacity note, not a plan price table and not a substitute for reading your contract.
Who should use which surface
A practical checklist without marketing slogans:
- Need a shipped use-case button today? Start in classic Apps (or Store examples if you are already in App Studio and want a Remix base).
- Need a visible multi-step pipeline you will edit as a graph? Prefer Workflows (and remember changelog history around publishing Workflows as Apps—still a pipeline-first path).
- Need the same hosted tool for a weekly team ritual, described in language rather than nodes? That is App Studio’s stated job.
- Budget the build, not only the generations. Keep ~700 credits free before starting a build session; expect ~50-credit blocks while the agent works; 700 is a start-balance threshold, not the price of one app.
- Plan sharing as workspace-bound until the Anyone-with-a-link contradiction is clarified. Outside-client links stay unclear on the Publishing step list alone—plan for workspace-login audiences.
- If an app must leave circulation, use Only you—deletion / unpublish is not available today.
- Enterprise admins: decide workspace-by-workspace whether App Studio is on before teams invest build credits.
For App Studio credit burn, time saved versus hand-built Workflows or classic Apps, and day-to-day build quality, measurements have not been run on this site; feedback can go through the site-owner link in the footer.