Meet the BudgetPixel API: How It Works and What You Get

Seedance 2.5, Kling 3.0, Wan 3.0, GPT Image 2.5, Nano Banana 2.1, FLUX 3, Music 3.0: more than 70 of the models on budgetpixel.com are behind one API key, with one balance and one bill. No accounts with a dozen model makers, no separate API price list.

Every picture, clip and sound in this post was made through the API, and each example below comes with the request that made it.

What can you make with the BudgetPixel API?

Most of what the website's image, video and audio workshops make:

There are also endpoints for safety checks (nudity and child-safety screening), file conversion, music-genre tagging, stock pictures, music and sound effects, and BudgetPixel characters: write an @handle in a prompt to cast the same face across pictures and videos, on the models that take reference images.

Here is a sample of what one key made for this post.

A photo that looks shot on film

GPT Image 2.5 Flare is fast, 40 credits at 1K and medium quality, and good at the look of real photography: flash, grain, a wide lens. This one was 160 credits: 2K at high quality (80 at medium).

curl -X POST https://api.budgetpixel.com/v1/images/gpt-image-2.5-flare \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BUDGETPIXEL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "prompt": "Street-style editorial photo on 35mm film, direct flash, low angle with a 20mm lens: a young man with bleached curly hair and a thin silver chain, wearing an electric-violet track jacket, jumps off a concrete ledge in a parking garage at night, frozen mid-air with one sneaker toward the camera, fluorescent lights streaking behind him. Natural skin texture, film grain, slight motion blur at the edges, saturated violet and sodium-orange palette. No text, no logos.",
    "aspect_ratio": "3:2",
    "resolution": "2K",
    "quality": "high"
  }'

A product shot with the right lettering

Nano Banana 2.1 is one of the most reliable models for words in a picture. The label had to read LUMEN, and it does. 70 credits at 2K.

curl -X POST https://api.budgetpixel.com/v1/images/nano-banana-2.1 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BUDGETPIXEL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "prompt": "Beauty product photograph with hard direct flash: a frosted glass skincare jar with the word LUMEN printed in clean white capital letters sits on a cracked block of ice on top of a violet acrylic plinth, water droplets frozen mid-splash, deep violet background with a hot orange rim light, macro lens, crisp reflections, high-end ad look. No other text, no logos.",
    "aspect_ratio": "3:2",
    "size": "2K"
  }'

The same product in a new place

Pass a picture as a reference and the model works from it. We gave Nano Banana 2.1 the jar above and asked for a beach at noon: the jar and its label came back the same.

{
  "prompt": "Use the jar from the reference image exactly as it is, label included, and place it standing in warm golden sand at noon next to a striped violet-and-orange beach towel, hard midday sun with a crisp shadow, turquoise sea and a sliver of sky behind, shot on 35mm film with a slight vignette. No other text.",
  "reference_images": ["https://your-site.com/lumen-jar.png"],
  "aspect_ratio": "3:2",
  "size": "2K"
}

A reference can be a public link, a data URI, or a file you send to POST /v1/uploads first (up to 50 MB, free). Some models take one reference, some take several; GET /v1/models lists the limits.

A 5-second clip from a still

Video works the same way, just slower. We gave Kling 3.0 Pro the cover of this post as its first frame and asked her to toss the key. 5 seconds at 1080p with sound: 850 credits. Ours took 21 minutes to come back, so poll patiently; over the past 30 days, the median 5-second Kling 3.0 Pro clip on BudgetPixel took under 3 minutes.

curl -X POST https://api.budgetpixel.com/v1/videos/kling-v3.0-pro \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BUDGETPIXEL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "prompt": "She flicks the brass key up into the air and catches it, then grins at the camera while a taxi speeds past behind her; neon reflections shimmer on the wet street and the camera pushes in slightly. Sounds: rain on the taxi roof, passing traffic, a short laugh.",
    "image": "https://your-site.com/taxi-cover.jpg",
    "length_seconds": 5,
    "aspect_ratio": "16:9",
    "generate_audio": true
  }'

A song with your lyrics

Music 3.0 writes and sings a full song from a style and your words, 200 credits a song. This one came back 71 seconds long and sings every line we gave it.

{
  "prompt": "Upbeat synth-pop, 112 bpm, bright female vocals, punchy drums and a warm bassline, night-drive mood, catchy chorus",
  "lyrics": "[verse]\nMidnight on the avenue, the city's open wide\nNeon in the puddles and a taxi for a ride\n[chorus]\nOne key, every door\nTurn it once and ask for more\nOne key, light it up\nEvery sound and every shot",
  "format": "mp3"
}

That body goes to POST /v1/audios/music-3.0.

A sound effect

Sound effects are priced by the second: 5 credits a second, so this 6-second street scene cost 30. Send it to POST /v1/audios/sonilo-sfx.

{
  "prompt": "Rain on a city street at night, a taxi drives through a deep puddle and honks twice, distant traffic and a siren far away",
  "duration": 6
}

How does the BudgetPixel API work?

Every generation is a job: you start it, then you check on it.

1. Start a job with POST /v1/{type}/{model}, for example /v1/images/nano-banana-2.1 or /v1/videos/wan-3.0-video. The answer comes back at once with a job id and the status pending.
2. Check the job with GET /v1/{type}/{id} until the status is succeeded (or failed or timeout). Pictures usually take under a minute; video takes one to a few minutes, so check every 15 to 30 seconds.
3. Download the result from the link in the answer. Files are deleted 24 hours after the job was created, and each link lasts at least 6 hours; checking the job again gives you a fresh link.

A few things are worth knowing before you build on it:

• You pay only for success. When a job starts, its price is set aside from your balance; it's charged when the job succeeds and released if it fails or is blocked.
• There are no webhooks. Keep the job ids you create and check them; there's no endpoint that lists your jobs.
• Don't blindly retry a POST. There's no idempotency key, so a repeated request is a second job, and a second charge if it succeeds.
• Ask before you spend. POST /v1/cost returns the price of a request without running it, and GET /v1/models lists every model with its prices and limits.

How do you make your first API call?

1. Sign in, open the developer console and create a key under API Keys. The first time, you'll accept the Developer API Terms. The key is shown once, so copy it somewhere safe.
2. Make sure you're on a paid plan: Basic, Premium, Pro or Ultra.
3. Start a job:

curl -X POST https://api.budgetpixel.com/v1/images/nano-banana-2.1 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BUDGETPIXEL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"prompt": "a red bicycle against a sunlit brick wall, product photo", "size": "1K", "aspect_ratio": "16:9"}'

The answer looks like {"id": "img_…", "status": "pending", "model": "nano-banana-2.1", …}. That picture costs 45 credits.

4. Check it until it's done:

curl https://api.budgetpixel.com/v1/images/img_… \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BUDGETPIXEL_API_KEY"

When status is succeeded, the picture is at images[0].url. A video job answers with video_url instead, and a music or sound-effect job with audio_url.

The API docs have every model's parameters, an OpenAPI file at https://api.budgetpixel.com/v1/openapi.yaml, and examples in curl, Python and JavaScript.

How much does the BudgetPixel API cost?

The same as the website, in credits, and only for jobs that succeed. Plan discounts and promotions apply to API calls too.

Credits come from your plan each month, or from credit packs at $1 per 1,000 credits (packs last 12 months). For heavy use, the Developer Pack in the console gives 1.15 million credits for $1,000. The API needs a paid plan:

• Basic: $10 a month, 11,000 credits.
• Premium: $22 a month, 25,000 credits.
• Pro: $55 a month, 60,000 credits, plus 5% extra on credit packs.
• Ultra: $125 a month, 130,000 credits, plus 10% extra on packs and 20% off Wan and 10% off Seedance, Seedream and Nano Banana.

To keep a script from running away with your balance, set a monthly spend limit and a spend alert in the console's Billing tab. Both count API and MCP use.

What are the BudgetPixel API's limits?

• Requests: 600 a minute per key, 1,200 per IP address. Going over returns a 429 with a Retry-After header.
• Jobs at once: 3 of each kind (pictures, video, audio) on Basic, 5 on Premium, 7 on Pro, 10 on Ultra, shared with the website. You can ask for more in the console.
• Inputs: uploads up to 50 MB (pictures, video and audio), linked files up to 30 MB, request bodies up to 45 MB.
• Results: kept 24 hours.

Can you use BudgetPixel from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor?

Yes, without writing code. BudgetPixel's MCP server at https://mcp.budgetpixel.com/mcp lets an AI assistant make pictures, video, music and more on your account, on a paid plan: it works in Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and the ChatGPT desktop app, and with any app that supports MCP (ChatGPT on the web can't connect to it yet). You sign in with your BudgetPixel account instead of pasting a key. Can Claude Generate Images? shows the setup in Claude, and The Best MCP Servers for AI Image and Video Generation compares BudgetPixel's with the others.

There are ready-made plugins too: a Cursor plugin, a ComfyUI node pack and a WordPress plugin, all listed on the plugins page.

Who is the BudgetPixel API for?

• App builders who want pictures, video or music in their product without signing up with a dozen model makers.
• Agencies and studios that run the same brief through several models and pick the best.
• Automation: product shots for every new item, a video for every listing, a song for every story.
• Teams already on BudgetPixel who want their scripts to spend the same credits, with every API request listed in the developer console.

What it doesn't have yet: webhooks, official SDKs, test keys and an endpoint that lists your jobs.

Sources

• BudgetPixel API docs and OpenAPI file, and the live model catalog, checked October 28, 2026.
• Plans and prices: budgetpixel.com/pricing and What do paid plans include?, October 28, 2026.
• Every picture, clip and sound above: made through the BudgetPixel API on October 28, 2026, with the requests shown.