> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.runflow.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Latency

> How long Runflow runs take by category. Use these ballparks to size your polling interval, skeleton timing, and timeout.

Run latency varies by model category and by the size/complexity of the input. Use the ballparks below to size your client behavior; for actual measurements per model, see [Per-model performance](#per-model-performance).

## Ballparks by category

| Category         | Typical (p50) | Tail (p95) | What drives it                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| ---------------- | ------------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `text-to-image`  | 4–15 s        | 30 s       | Image model + resolution + step count. 1K vs 4K is the biggest factor.                                                                                                                                                                   |
| `image-to-image` | 8–30 s        | 60 s       | Edit-style models (Nano Banana Pro Edit, GPT Image 2 Edit) sit at the lower end. Workflow Solutions that chain models (object-removal, reference-inpaint, background-replace) sit higher because they run multiple steps + an evaluator. |
| `text-to-video`  | 60–300 s      | 600 s      | Duration × resolution × model. A 5 s 1080p Wan run is \~90 s; a 15 s 4K Veo or HeyGen run can push 5 min.                                                                                                                                |
| `image-to-video` | 60–300 s      | 600 s      | Same drivers as text-to-video plus reference processing time.                                                                                                                                                                            |
| `video-to-video` | 90–600 s      | 900 s      | Wan video edit, Happy Horse video edit. Heaviest in the catalog.                                                                                                                                                                         |
| `text-to-audio`  | 3–10 s        | 20 s       | ElevenLabs v3 TTS, Gemini TTS. Sub-10 s for short utterances.                                                                                                                                                                            |

These are full lifecycle measurements: `queued` → `dispatching` → `running` → `succeeded` as observed via `GET /v1/runs/{id}`. Network round trips not included.

<Note>
  Use the **p95 column** to size client-side timeouts, not p50. A timeout below p95 will produce false-positive failures on long-tail runs that would have succeeded.
</Note>

## What this means for your client

| Decision                       | Recommendation                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Polling interval**           | 2 s for image categories, 10 s for video. Polling faster wastes API quota without changing your latency.                                                                                             |
| **Skeleton / "generating" UI** | Show a progress affordance based on the category's p50, not a hardcoded value. A user who waits 4 s for a text-to-image run gets a snappier feel than the same user waiting 4 s for a text-to-video. |
| **HTTP request timeout**       | At least 2× the p95 for the category, or use a callback URL ([Callbacks](/concepts/callbacks)) to avoid client timeouts entirely.                                                                    |
| **Retry strategy**             | Don't retry the same run on timeout. That creates a duplicate. Use `client_ref` for idempotency, or just poll longer. See [Errors](/concepts/errors) for the retry table.                            |
| **User-facing copy**           | Rotate between phrases at intervals matched to category p50 (`"Generating..."` → `"Touching up..."` → `"Almost there..."`). Static `"Loading..."` for a 4-minute video run is bad UX.                |

## Why we don't publish per-model latency hints (yet)

A `p50_seconds` / `p95_seconds` field on `GET /v1/public/models` is on the [public catalog discoverability plan](https://github.com/bettergroupinc/runflow-monorepo/blob/main/docs/exec-plans/active/2026-05-23-public-catalog-discoverability.md#scope) (Phase D). Until that ships, use the category ballparks above. If you need per-model precision, the authenticated `/v1/models/{id}/run-performance-stats` endpoint returns aggregated stats from your org's recent runs.

## Solutions that include output evaluation

Some Solutions run a quality evaluation step on the output before returning. That step adds 2-4 minutes to the total wall-clock time on top of the underlying model run. Read each solution's page at [www.runflow.io/api](https://www.runflow.io/api) for whether the solution evaluates output before returning, and use `(category p95) + 4 min` to size timeouts for solutions that do.

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Runs" icon="play" href="/concepts/runs">Lifecycle, statuses, output shape.</Card>
  <Card title="Callbacks" icon="webhook" href="/concepts/callbacks">Skip polling entirely for long runs.</Card>
  <Card title="Rate limits" icon="gauge" href="/concepts/rate-limits">Quota and back-off rules.</Card>
  <Card title="Errors" icon="triangle-exclamation" href="/concepts/errors">Retry table per status code.</Card>
</CardGroup>