Assess · Runware

Can you own it?

Ownership levelPartialnone·limited·partial·substantial·fullAnalytical input D · 50.4/100

This page is a projection of the one entry record, the Use & modify and Transparency factors that Assess covers. The full verdict is set by all four factors together, floor-weighted so the weakest caps the whole.

Which domain expands which factor

AssessUse & modify + Transparency
ImplementData control + Reliability
UseReliability
SupportTransparency

Data governance - retention, ZDR & training

Correction (2026-09-21): the current Terms of Service (independently re-read, two fetches including a targeted negative search) no longer contain the broad licence-over-inputs/outputs finding from the prior pass. Sec 3 now states, near-verbatim: "Runware will not use your Training Data or Trained Models to train, fine-tune, or develop Runware's own models or those of any third party." Combined with Sec 2 granting Runware no rights over ordinary inputs/outputs either, nothing in the current text permits training on your data - trains_on_inputs resolved from unclear to never.

Retention is still generic, not zero - unchanged. The Privacy Policy keeps data "as long as necessary" and for the life of the account, with no auto-purge and no opt-in-storage clause. This remains the entry's principal residual weakness.
Load-bearing caveat: the confidentiality/licence-removal finding above is inferred from the current text's absence of the old clauses - web archives were proxy-blocked this pass, so no verbatim old-vs-new diff was possible. High confidence given an evident deliberate rewrite, but flagged as inferred rather than side-by-side quoted.

Data & IP ownership

Correction (2026-09-21), reversing the prior central finding. A 2026-08-06 pass found the customer had nominal ownership of Generations but Runware held a worldwide, perpetual, transferable licence over both inputs and outputs. The current Terms (independently re-read) show this is gone: Sec 2, near-verbatim - "As between you and Runware, you own your Outputs... Runware asserts no ownership of, and claims no intellectual property rights in, your Outputs." The only licence granted to Runware is name/logo for marketing (benign). A Private Model Protection clause (Sec 2) separately treats privately uploaded custom models as confidential, with an NDA available - this was already true before the rewrite and remains a genuine positive. The Privacy Policy still names only Stripe and Google Analytics as sub-processors, so the processors that actually handle prompt content remain undisclosed. Self-hosting the same open-weight checkpoints remains the cleanest route where data control matters most.

Data residency & jurisdiction

The Trust page advertises "EU & US" data residency, but no contractual region-pinning document was found, and US CLOUD Act is not addressed anywhere located. The binding legal entity is Runware Ltd (United Kingdom) under UK law and London arbitration, even though the company markets a US (San Francisco) HQ. EU residency is advertised, not guaranteed, so treat this as a UK-jurisdiction provider without a sovereign, EU-only option.

Compliance & attestations

SOC 2 and ISO 27001 appear as badges on the Trust page with no readable report (no number, issuer, scope, type, or period). No public DPA was located (both runware.ai/dpa and runware.ai/data-processing-agreement returned 404, so it is likely enterprise-only). GDPR/UK GDPR is cited without naming SCCs or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Request a DPA and the actual attestation reports before any regulated use.

Security controls

The Trust page carries the SOC 2 / ISO 27001 badges and there is a dedicated vulnerability-disclosure page; models run on Runware's own Sonic Inference Engine hardware. Held short of a strong rating absent a readable attestation report or an independent penetration test.

Pricing & cost model

Pay-as-you-go, usage-based pricing with representative rates read on the pricing page; enterprise plans add dedicated capacity and custom terms.

Reliability posture

A USD 50M Series A (December 2025) and advertised enterprise custom SLAs point to production scale, but no public uptime SLA or status page was found, so availability is asserted rather than independently observable.

How this scores

The ownership factors this domain covers, drawn from the one entry record.

Use and modify freelyCan you use it freely and leave without lock-in?

Strong

The catalogue is open-weight Hugging Face models, so you can run and adapt the same checkpoints elsewhere or self-hosted; the models themselves are fully portable, and self-hosting sidesteps the hosted data terms entirely.

How this scores (AOI sub-dimensions)

Transparency & lock-in4/5how portable it is and how easily you can leaveThe catalogue is open-weight models from Hugging Face, so the same checkpoints run on other providers or self-hosted and the models are fully portable.

Cost4/5how the pricing model compares and how predictable it isPay-as-you-go usage-based pricing with representative rates read on the pricing page, and low cost is a core part of the positioning.

TransparencyAre the binding terms published, legible and independently checkable?

Moderate

The binding Terms and Privacy Policy are legible and independently re-read 2026-09-21. Held at moderate rather than strong: the DPA still returns 404, the SOC 2 / ISO 27001 reports remain badges with no readable report or dated certificate, and the confidentiality-clause correction below rests on inferred current-text absence rather than a verbatim historical diff (archives were proxy-blocked).

How this scores

Not a scored AOI dimension. For a hosted provider, transparency is whether the binding terms are published, legible and were actually read - the read/unverified evidence below, not a certification. A strong rating here must trace to a retrieved binding document.

What this means for adoptionYou partly own workloads here, but this picture improved materially on independent re-verification (2026-09-21). The models are open weights, so use, modification and exit stay fully in your hands, and self-hosting the same checkpoints avoids the hosted data terms entirely. On a hosted basis, the current binding Terms no longer grant Runware a broad licence over your inputs and outputs or deem them non-confidential - a 2026-08-06 pass found exactly that, but the current text (independently re-read) shows the customer owns Outputs outright and Runware commits not to train on your data. Load-bearing caveat: this correction is inferred from the current text's absence of the old clauses, not a verbatim old-vs-new diff (web archives were proxy-blocked). What has not improved: retention is still generic with no auto-purge or numeric window, and SOC 2/ISO 27001 remain self-asserted badges with no readable report. Use Runware with more confidence than before for ordinary workloads, but still confirm retention terms directly and request the underlying compliance reports before regulated use.

Sources

The same evidence records as the entry sheet. Read means the text was verified; unverified means it is known to exist but not yet read.

Terms of serviceread2026-07-26

Runware Terms of Service (Runware Ltd, UK; read 2026-07-26): the customer owns the Generations (outputs) but grants Runware a worldwide, perpetual, transferable licence over inputs and outputs; the Terms reference "storing training data and models per our pricing schedule"; UK governing law and London arbitration; termination at Runware's sole discretion; data deleted on request.

Privacy Policyread2026-07-26

Runware Privacy Policy (Runware Ltd, UK; read 2026-07-26): generic retention ("as long as necessary" / account life) with no auto-purge or opt-in-storage clause; training use not addressed; sub-processors named are only Stripe and Google Analytics; GDPR/UK GDPR referenced without naming SCCs or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Securityunverified2026-07-26

Runware Trust page (read 2026-07-26, partial): "Data residency EU & US" badge with no contractual region-pinning document located; SOC 2 and ISO 27001 shown as badges only with no readable certificate or report; a separate security-disclosure page for vulnerability reporting.

Vendor announcementread2026-07-26

Runware pricing page (read 2026-07-26): pay-as-you-go usage-based pricing with representative rates; enterprise plans add dedicated capacity and custom terms.

Vendor announcementunverified2026-07-26

Runware website ("One API for all AI"): a unified API over a large catalogue of open-weight Hugging Face models run on Runware's own Sonic Inference Engine; low usage-based pricing; markets a US HQ and states data belongs to the customer (marketing framing not supported by the binding Terms/Privacy read this session).

Third-party analysisread2026-07-26

Independent press (SiliconANGLE and others, Dec 2025): Runware raised a USD 50M Series A (Speedinvest and others) to build "one API for all AI"; markets a San Francisco HQ with operations in London and 10+ countries (the binding legal entity is Runware Ltd, UK); inference pods in the US and central Europe; aims to make the broad Hugging Face open-model catalogue addressable behind one schema.

Terms of serviceread2026-09-21

Runware Terms of Service, current version (independently browser-read 2026-09-21, two fetches including a targeted negative search for the prior adverse clauses).