Single-image character creation
Create a real-time conversational video agent from a single reference image, then give it a voice, knowledge, and tools for live interaction.
Runway Characters
Runway Characters turns a single image into a real-time conversational video agent with configurable voice, knowledge, personality, and actions. It is aimed at teams building tutoring, support, training, entertainment, and other live interactive experiences.
What Runway Characters does
Runway Characters is a real-time conversational video agent product from Runway. It turns a single image into an interactive character that can speak, react, and carry on live conversations with configurable voice, knowledge, personality, and actions.
The product is positioned for customer-facing and internal workflows such as tutoring, support, training simulations, gaming, and entertainment. Runway also presents Characters as part of a broader platform that includes world models and video generation research, with developer options for embedding, custom interfaces, and integration through LiveKit Agents.
Core capabilities
Live conversational video output
Use the character in tutoring, support, training, entertainment, and other interactive contexts where back-and-forth conversation matters.
Knowledge grounding
Attach your own documents so the character can answer with domain-specific information about products, policies, or company knowledge.
Tool calling and action surfaces
Define UI actions or trusted backend RPCs so the character can trigger workflows and feed results back into the conversation.
Developer integration options
Add a character to a web app with a one-line widget, or integrate more deeply with the React SDK and LiveKit Agents.
Meeting workflow support
Bring characters into meetings with support for Zoom, Meet, and Teams so they can see and hear the room in real time.
Common ways teams use Characters
Tutoring and education
Create a responsive tutor that can explain concepts, answer questions, and maintain a natural back-and-forth for K-12, test prep, language learning, or higher education.
Customer support and service
Use a lifelike agent to guide users through account, policy, or product questions in ecommerce, software, travel, telecom, and similar support settings.
Training simulations
Simulate interviews, sales objections, difficult feedback conversations, or onboarding scenarios with a character that reacts in real time.
Interactive entertainment and gaming
Build game characters, hosts, or companions that respond to player choices and sustain interactive exchanges across entertainment experiences.
Embedded product experiences
Add a real-time avatar to a website or product flow using the widget, React SDK, or LiveKit-based stack for custom interface control.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Creates conversational video agents from a single image with no fine-tuning required.
- Supports custom voice, knowledge, personality, and tool use for more specific interactions.
- Offers multiple deployment paths, including an embeddable widget, React SDK, and LiveKit Agents integration.
- Can be used in real-time workflows such as tutoring, support, training, and interactive entertainment.
- Provides meeting-oriented support through Zoom, Meet, and Teams integration examples.
Cons
- The public source does not provide a full integration catalog beyond the examples shown for LiveKit, the widget, React SDK, and meeting apps.
- Pricing is credit-based and tied to session time, so costs depend on usage and are not fixed by a simple flat subscription for Characters.
FAQ
How does Characters pricing work?
Runway Characters charges Runway API credits. The source says Characters cost 2 credits upfront, then 2 credits per 6 seconds of active session time. Credits are purchased in the Developer Portal.
Can I create multiple Characters?
Yes. The source says you can create as many Characters as you want, and creating a Character does not start billing by itself. Credits are charged when you start a realtime call session with that Character.
Can Characters work with LiveKit?
Yes. Runway provides a LiveKit Agents integration for custom conversational experiences. In that setup, LiveKit can handle speech-to-text, the language model, and text-to-speech while Runway provides the visual layer.
What is the fastest way to add a Character to a site?
The fastest option is the embedded widget, which adds a Character with a single script tag and does not require a backend. For more control over the UI and session lifecycle, the React SDK is the alternative.
What can I customize in a Character?
Characters can be configured with voice, personality, knowledge, and actions, and the source also notes support for custom voices, knowledge bases, and tool use. Visual styles can range from photorealistic to animated, including human and non-human characters.
Quick Facts
- Category
- AI video agents
- Product line
- Runway Characters
- Primary use
- Real-time conversational video interactions
- Deployment options
- Embedded widget, React SDK, LiveKit Agents
- Pricing signal
- Credit-based usage with a free tier shown on Runway pricing
- Source domain
- runwayml.com
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