Runway vs Luma Dream Machine

The evidence is lopsided — Luma logs five constraint events to Runway's one — so read Luma's fuller record against Runway's single disclosed move. Both are credit-metered video tools that ended an 'unlimited' arrangement, the natural contact point. Luma's history is busier and, in spots, more concealed: its 2024-11-25 launch of paid tiers was the most severe stroke, paywalling previously-free generation for 25M+ users, with two same-day changes flagged silent — commercial-use rights gated to Plus and above, and monthly credits set never to roll over (only purchased top-ups survive, expiring in 12 months). Then Ray3 arrived on 2025-09-18 at roughly 300% higher credit cost, a 5s 720p clip jumping to 320 credits and pushing budget users toward weaker models. Runway's one recorded event, the 2026-06-01 retirement of the Unlimited plan's credit-free Explore Mode, rhymes with that — slow-lane unrestricted drafting vanishes — but Max softens it with about 4x more credits and even a one-month rollover, a pointed contrast to Luma's explicit no-rollover rule. The complaints mirror each other too: a Runway user objects to being charged for failed generations, a Luma user pleads that credits 'shouldn't expire.' On the evidence available, Luma shows a clearer multi-step pattern of tightening and hidden terms, while Runway's thinner record shows one tightening cushioned by a larger, partly-rolling bucket. Heavy iterators worried about losing paid-for capacity will prefer Runway's rollover; casual users now get billed per generation either way, and Luma's silent-terms track record earns a close reading of the fine print.