May 8–11, 2026 | Virtual | Powered by Modal

API Hackathon

A three day hackathon to build the best [agent / app / tool / creative workflow] with Runway’s API for up to $25K in cash prizes and 200K API credits.

How it Works

You get a weekend, API credits and direct access to the engineers who built the API. We'll go live Friday morning with a showcase of what Runway can do and a technical walkthrough so you're not starting cold. Build whatever you want — solo or with a team — and submit your project with a demo video by Monday at 9am ET. No pitch decks. No approval chains. Just build something and show us what it does.

What to build

The API Hackathon is about building agents and applications that create, manipulate or orchestrate media using AI. Think beyond single API calls — we want to see systems that chain together creative decisions, respond to inputs and produce something people actually want to use.

A few directions to spark ideas:

An autonomous agent that generates and iterates on video content based on a brief
A tool that lets non-technical users direct AI video production through natural language
A workflow that uses Runway's API to automate a real media production pipeline
An interactive app built on the Runway Characters API

These are suggestions, not constraints. The only rule is that your project runs on Runway's API.

The Criteria

Creativity
Does your project solve a real problem or explore an interesting use case?
Technical depth
How well does the project leverage Runway's API? Does it go beyond basic usage?
Impact
Could this project be used by real users or customers? Could it become a real product?
Polish
Is your project a working demo, not just a concept? Does it feel like an end-to-end experience?

Full hackathon terms here

The Prizes

Top finishers take home a mix of cash, API credits and a feature on Runway's channels, with the breakdown by place below.

First Place
$25,000 in cash, 200,000 Runway API credits and a feature on Runway's channels.
Second Place
200,000 Runway API credits.
Third Place
200,000 Runway API credits.
All participants receive 50,000 Runway API credits to use during the hackathon.

Schedule

Friday, May 8

9:00am ET — Hackathon begins. Runway overview and use case showcase.

10:00am ET — Technical API walkthrough.

Saturday, May 9 - Sunday May 10

Build. The Runway team will be available in Discord for questions and support throughout the weekend.

Monday, May 11

9:00am ET — Submissions due.

Friday, May 15

Winners announced.

Resources

Live sessions — We'll email join links before the hackathon; recorded workshops will be shared after the Friday kickoff.

Discord — Chat with other builders and get help from the Runway engineering team.

Runway API docs — Quickstarts, endpoints and code examples to get you up and running.

Runway Skills — A library of open-source agent skills for working with Runway's API, including examples for media generation at scale.

Modal — Infrastructure and docs for running API workloads at scale.

Save your spot for the weekend. Registration gets you access to the kickoff, technical walkthrough, Discord and API credits.