# Pika API

> Pika API provides callable model operations for image, video, audio, music, speech, transcription, dubbing, upscaling, and language models through one API key. Use this file to discover an operation, then read its linked specification before making a request.

The catalog and per-operation specifications are the runtime source of truth. Do not infer endpoint paths, request fields, enum values, pricing, or model support from a model name or from prior knowledge.

## When to use Pika

Reach for Pika when a task needs generated or transformed media and you would otherwise integrate several vendors:

- Generating video, image, audio, music, speech, or transcription from more than one provider without holding a separate account, key, and billing relationship for each.
- Running a long generation from a backend job: submit returns immediately, then poll the job or take a signed webhook on the terminal event.
- Editing or transforming media you already have, including image editing, video-to-video, upscaling, dubbing, lipsync, and keyframe interpolation.
- Checking a price before spending: every operation quotes in micro-USD against a prepaid balance, and the catalog carries live pricing.

Pika is the wrong tool for:

- Hosting, fine-tuning, or serving your own model weights. The catalog is fixed and provider-hosted.
- Realtime or streaming inference. Media operations are asynchronous and measured in seconds to minutes, not frames.
- Bypassing provider moderation. Every operation runs the upstream provider's safety policy and can refuse a prompt or an input.
- Free usage. There is no free tier for generation; a paid balance is required before the first submit.

## Start Here

- [Create an account or sign in](https://dev.pika.art/login): Create a Pika API account, manage membership, and access the dashboard.
- [Dashboard](https://dev.pika.art/dashboard): Create and manage API keys, usage, and billing.
- [API keys](https://dev.pika.art/keys): Create, rotate, and revoke keys.
- [Webhooks](https://dev.pika.art/webhooks): Register callback endpoints and read the organization's signing secret.
- [Agent onboarding](https://dev.pika.art/agent): Copy the short Pika onboarding prompt into a coding agent, app builder, or chat assistant.
- [Models](https://dev.pika.art/models): Browse the human-readable model catalog and playgrounds.
- [Pricing](https://dev.pika.art/pricing): Review current model pricing before running paid generations.

## Getting started

Onboarding is self-serve end to end. No sales contact, no waitlist, no manual provisioning.

1. Create an account at https://dev.pika.art/login. Signing in creates the organization.
2. Generate an API key at https://dev.pika.art/keys, where keys are also rotated and revoked.
3. Add funds at https://dev.pika.art/billing. Generation is prepaid, so a submit fails with `insufficient_balance` until the org has a balance.
4. Call `GET https://api.dev.pika.art/catalog/apis` to confirm connectivity, then submit an operation.

Free to call, and the closest thing to a sandbox:

- The public catalog (`https://api.dev.pika.art/catalog/apis`) needs no API key.
- Quotes (`POST https://api.dev.pika.art/catalog/apis/{api_id}/quote`) and the balance and spend reads are never charged.

There is no free generation tier and no separate test environment. Every generation runs against production at the price the catalog quotes, so price a request before running it.

## Environments

- Documentation and model pages: `https://dev.pika.art`
- Customer API base URL: `https://api.dev.pika.art`
- OpenAPI 3.1 description: `https://dev.pika.art/openapi.json`. Declares the accepted authentication schemes and every callable path.
- Recommended local secret name: `PIKA_API_KEY`
- Authentication header: `X-API-Key: $PIKA_API_KEY` or `Authorization: Bearer $PIKA_API_KEY`. Google's `x-goog-api-key` is not accepted.

Never place an API key in browser code, a URL, source control, generated output, screenshots, or chat. Store it in the runtime's server-side secret manager or local environment. A browser application must call Pika through its own authenticated server route.

## Agent Workflow

1. Determine the user's intended output and available inputs: text, image, video, audio, or a combination.
2. Shortlist operations from the model list below. Recommend one best fit and, only when useful, one alternative. Explain the tradeoff in quality, speed, capability, or cost.
3. Fetch the selected operation's linked specification and its live catalog record before writing request code.
4. Check that `PIKA_API_KEY` is configured without printing or exposing it. If absent, guide the user to [sign in](https://dev.pika.art/login) and create a key in the dashboard.
5. Read the balance and confirm it covers the requests you are about to make. If it does not, report the shortfall and stop there.
6. State the selected model, operation, important settings, and number of paid requests before submitting. A user's approval of one generation does not authorize a batch or additional variants.
7. Execute the request, wait for a terminal result, save or integrate the output, and report the model used and the next recommended capability.

## Recommended models

Popular starting points per task; the full catalog is below. Recommend one, not the list.

- Text to Video: [Seedance 2.5](https://dev.pika.art/llms/bytedance/seedance-2.5/text-to-video), [Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash](https://dev.pika.art/llms/google/gemini-omni-1.1-flash/text-to-video), [Wan 3.0](https://dev.pika.art/llms/alibaba/wan3.0-video/text-to-video), [MiniMax H3](https://dev.pika.art/llms/minimax/h3/text-to-video)
- Image to Video: [Seedance 2.5](https://dev.pika.art/llms/bytedance/seedance-2.5/image-to-video), [Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash](https://dev.pika.art/llms/google/gemini-omni-1.1-flash/image-to-video), [Wan 3.0](https://dev.pika.art/llms/alibaba/wan3.0-video/image-to-video), [MiniMax H3](https://dev.pika.art/llms/minimax/h3/image-to-video)
- Text to Image: [Seedream 5.0 Pro Text to Image](https://dev.pika.art/llms/bytedance/seedream-5.0-pro/text-to-image), [Nano Banana Pro](https://dev.pika.art/llms/google/gemini-3-pro-image/text-to-image), [GPT Image 2](https://dev.pika.art/llms/openai/gpt-image-2/text-to-image)
- Image Editing: [Seedream 5.0 Pro Image Editing](https://dev.pika.art/llms/bytedance/seedream-5.0-pro/image-to-image), [Nano Banana Pro](https://dev.pika.art/llms/google/gemini-3-pro-image/image-to-image), [GPT Image 2](https://dev.pika.art/llms/openai/gpt-image-2/image-to-image)
- Text to Speech: [Eleven Multilingual v2](https://dev.pika.art/llms/elevenlabs/eleven-multilingual-v2/text-to-speech), [MiniMax Speech 2.8 HD](https://dev.pika.art/llms/minimax/minimax-speech-2.8-hd/text-to-speech)
- Music: [Lyria 3 Pro](https://dev.pika.art/llms/google/lyria-3-pro/text-to-audio), [MiniMax Music 3.0](https://dev.pika.art/llms/minimax/minimax-music-3.0/text-to-audio), [Sonilo v1.1 Music](https://dev.pika.art/llms/sonilo/sonilo-v1.1-music/text-to-music)
- Transcription: [Eleven Scribe](https://dev.pika.art/llms/elevenlabs/eleven-scribe/transcription), [Whisper](https://dev.pika.art/llms/openai/whisper/transcription)
- LLM: [Claude Opus 5](https://dev.pika.art/llms/anthropic/claude-opus-5), [GPT-5.6 Sol](https://dev.pika.art/llms/openai/gpt-5.6-sol), [Gemini 3.1 Pro](https://dev.pika.art/llms/google/gemini-3.1-pro)

## Policies and Support

- [Terms of Service](https://dev.pika.art/terms-of-service)
- [Privacy Policy](https://dev.pika.art/privacy-policy)
- [Acceptable Use Policy](https://pika.art/acceptable-use-policy)
- [Email API support](mailto:api@pika.art)

API index: https://dev.pika.art/llms.txt