PixelLab
Concept art & 2D assets · Free tier + paid- Commercial use
- Commercial use allowed
- Free plan
- Free planFree trial tier, no credit card
- Ship free-plan output?
- Yes
- Engines
- Any (standard file export / engine-agnostic)
PixelLab vs Runway
Facts from each vendor's published pages, checked . Compare different tools →
Our ranking
In Concept art & 2D assets, PixelLab ranks #6 and Runway ranks #8. No independent quality tests found. Ranked on game-dev fit: commercial use allowed; no engine integration stated; API and official MCP server.
Runway
Trailers & marketing · Free tier + paid- Commercial use
- Commercial use allowed
- Free plan
- Free trial or credits only125 one-time credits
- Ship free-plan output?
- Yes (free option is a trial or credits)
- Engines
- Any (standard file export / engine-agnostic)
Bottom line for game devs
- Commercial use: both commercial use allowed (PixelLab terms; Runway terms).
- Free plan: PixelLab: free plan (Free trial tier, no credit card) pricing. Runway: free trial or credits only (125 one-time credits) pricing.
- Shipping free-plan output in a paid game: both allow it, per their published terms.
- API and MCP: both: public API, official MCP server.
- Engine integrations stated by the vendor: both: none stated (standard file export).
Best for
Pixel-art characters, rotations, animations and tilesets
Trailer and teaser video shots
What it does
AI generator for pixel art game assets: characters, 4/8-direction rotations, text- and skeleton-based sprite animations, tilesets, maps and UI elements.
AI video, image and audio generation (Runway Gen-4.5 plus third-party models), usable for trailer shots, teasers and marketing material.
Verdict
For 2D devs who need pixel-art sprites, rotations and animations; outputs are usable commercially on every plan, but its terms bar training other models on them.
For generating trailer and teaser shots; the terms don't restrict commercial use of outputs, but Runway may train on your inputs and outputs.
Tasks●
Concept art & 2D assets
Trailers & marketing, Concept art & 2D assets
Engines
Any (standard file export / engine-agnostic)
Any (standard file export / engine-agnostic)
Free plan●
Free plan Free trial tier, no credit card
Free trial or credits only 125 one-time credits
Pricing
Free trial tier (no credit card). Paid plans listed at $12/month (2,000 generations), $24/month (5,000) and $50/month (10,000). API and MCP calls use your plan's generations; separate USD API credits are only needed without a subscription or once the plan's generations run out (PixelLab, by email, 17 Oct 2026; the API's balance endpoint reports both). source
Free $0 (125 one-time credits). Standard US$12/month, Pro US$28/month and Max US$76/month, billed annually (US$15, US$35 and US$95 billed monthly). Gen-4.5 uses 12 credits per second of video. source
Export formats
Not stated by vendor
Not stated by vendor
Commercial use
Commercial use allowed
Pricing page lists "Use generated images commercially" and says the user owns the rights to generations, except using them to train models. Terms also reference the Open RAIL-M license. source
Pricing page lists "Use generated images commercially" and says the user owns the rights to generations, except using them to train models. Terms also reference the Open RAIL-M license. source
Commercial use allowed
Terms of Use 4.4: Runway does not claim ownership of Inputs or Outputs and does not restrict your commercial use of Outputs. Inputs and Outputs may be used to train its models. source
Terms of Use 4.4: Runway does not claim ownership of Inputs or Outputs and does not restrict your commercial use of Outputs. Inputs and Outputs may be used to train its models. source
Revenue share / caps
Not stated by vendor
Not stated by vendor
API
Available. REST API; calls draw on subscription generations, or on USD credits without a plan source
Available. Runway developer API source
MCP server
Official MCP server. Remote MCP server for coding assistants (bearer token) source
Official MCP server. Runway Dev MCP server (OAuth) source
Last checked
Rows marked ● differ between the two tools. Licence badges: green = commercial use allowed (including any free plan or trial), amber = paid plans only, restricted, or allowed but with no free plan, red = not allowed, grey = not stated by vendor or not applicable. Read the vendor's current terms before you ship.