How fast and cheap is AI manga colorization?
RuneManga colors a black-and-white manga page in under a second for one extra credit. What a page and a chapter take, why it is fast and what it costs.
RuneManga's colorizer colors a black-and-white manga page in about a tenth of a second of computer time. With the upload and the download, a page comes back in under a second with Colorize, and in one to four seconds with Translate + colorize, which also reads, translates and re-letters the page. Colorize costs 1 credit a page and Translate + colorize 2.
Colorize is a Beta. The times on this page were measured on our servers on 1 November 2026, one page at a time. When many readers are working at once, a page can wait a moment in the queue.
How long one page takes
- The coloring itself: about 0.07 to 0.1 seconds of computer time for a typical page.
- Colorize, from upload to finished page: usually 0.4 to 1 second.
- Translate + colorize: usually 1 to 4 seconds, because the text is also found, read, translated, erased and lettered again.
- A long webtoon strip takes a little longer, in proportion to its length.
How long a whole chapter takes
Pages are worked on a few at a time, so a chapter takes far less than its page count times the time of one page. A typical 20-page chapter is usually done in under a minute, with or without translation. In the browser extension the pages near where you are reading come first, so the page in front of you is usually ready by the time you reach it.
Why it is this fast
- One pass instead of many. Many AI image tools build a picture in dozens of small steps, which can take several seconds or more per image. RuneManga's colorizer looks at the page once and predicts its colors in a single pass.
- A compact model made for comics. It is a small model trained to color comic pages, not a general image generator, so it needs little computing power.
- It colors a smaller copy and keeps your lines. The colors are worked out on a reduced copy of the page, then brought back to full size along the page's own lines, so the line art, screentone and lettering stay exactly as they were.
- It runs next to translation. Coloring runs on the same machine as the rest of RuneManga, so adding color to a translated page takes only a fraction of a second more.
What it costs
- Colorize: 1 credit a page.
- Translate + colorize: 2 credits a page, one more than Translate.
- A page that is already in color comes back as it is, and its color credit is given back.
- Every account can claim 20 free credits a day on the Daily credits page, enough to colorize 20 pages a day.
Because a page takes so little computer time to color, color can stay this cheap. Plans and credit packs are on the pricing page.
Fast is not the same as perfect
Speed says nothing about whether the colors are right. The colorizer guesses colors from the line art, so a character's hair or clothes can come out different from the official colors, or change from page to page. It works best on clean line art, and it is a Beta: check the pages, and use Translate alone when you only need the text.
How to color a chapter quickly
- Open the WebApp and add the chapter's pages: files, a folder, a ZIP or a PDF.
- Choose Colorize, or Translate + colorize to translate in the same run.
- Start, then download the pages one by one or as one ZIP.
- In the browser extension, turn on Color next to Translate into, and pages are translated and colored as you read.
Questions
How long does AI manga colorization take?
With RuneManga, about a tenth of a second of computer time per page, and usually under a second from upload to finished page with Colorize. Translate + colorize takes one to four seconds a page.
How much does it cost to colorize manga with RuneManga?
Colorize costs 1 credit a page and Translate + colorize 2. Every account can claim 20 free credits a day, and a page that is already in color gets its color credit back.
Does adding color slow down translation?
Only a little. Coloring adds a fraction of a second to a page that is being translated.
Why are some AI colorizers much slower?
Many build the picture in dozens of steps or use very large models. They can give richer results, but they take seconds or minutes per page and cost more to run.
Does coloring change the line art or the text?
No. The page's own lines, screentone and lettering are kept; only color is added, and speech balloons stay white.