Pika H3 Flex

Animate a first frame, last frame or both into a video with synchronized audio. Choose any whole-second duration from 5 to 15, 480p or 768p resolution, and one of 11 aspect ratios. Optionally rewrite the prompt using the images. 1080p/2k/4k generates at 768p and upscales once with Pika Upsampler V1, preserving audio and frame rate. Combined pricing is per actual output second; the quote reserves the native frame-count duration bound.

pika/pika-h3-flex/image-to-video

Capabilities

Best for

•Cinematic text-to-video shots
•Short social and ad clips
•Consistent multi-shot sequences
•Look-dev and style exploration

Not for

•Frame-exact rotoscoping
•Feature-length renders
•Pixel-perfect compositing
•Precise on-screen text

Authentication

api key header

The Pika API uses API keys to authenticate requests. Send your key in the X-API-Key header. Your API key is a secret. Don't expose it in browsers or other client-side code. Instead, call the API from your server. The signed-in playground uses a portal session and never sends your API key.

header

X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY

Endpoint

asynchronous · poll for the result

POSThttps://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/pika/pika-h3-flex/image-to-videogenerate endpoint

GEThttps://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/jobs/{request_id}poll until completed

GEThttps://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/jobs/{request_id}/contentthe output URL, for clients that only kept the id

DELETEhttps://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/jobs/{request_id}erase the stored media and prompt

Reference Uploads

media inputs

Media inputs accept any public URL. To use a local file, POST its content_type and size_bytes to /v1/media/uploads, PUT the file to the returned upload_url, then pass the url.

upload

# 1. Request a presigned upload URL. Send the file's content
#    type and its exact size in bytes.
curl -X POST https://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/uploads \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"content_type": "image/png", "size_bytes": 12345}'

# The response returns two URLs:
#   upload_url: a temporary URL to upload the file to. Expires in 5 minutes.
#   url:        the permanent Pika URL. Pass it to the model as the input.
# {
#   "upload_url": "https://upload.r2.pika.art/...?X-Amz-Signature=...",
#   "url": "https://cdn.pika.art/v2/media/uploads/org_abc/9f8e7d.png"
# }

# 2. Upload the file to upload_url, then pass url to the model.
curl -X PUT "<upload_url>" \
  -H "Content-Type: image/png" \
  --data-binary @input.png

Generate

POST /v1/media/pika/pika-h3-flex/image-to-video

Request

curl -X POST https://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/pika/pika-h3-flex/image-to-video \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "prompt": "Start exactly on the first frame: three people in matching pale-yellow velour tracksuits with white stripes — a man on the left holding one end of a tape measure, a woman at the back holding the other end, and a curly-haired man kneeling at the front right — lining up rows of blue folding chairs in a wood-panelled hall. Soft daylight, muted 1970s film tones, fine grain, deadpan comedy.\n[Shot 1, 00:00–00:04] The same high angle, the camera slowly craning down: the man on the left reads the tape measure and says flatly: \"Forty-two centimetres.\" The woman at the back answers, without looking up: \"It has to be forty.\"\n[Shot 2, at 00:04 cut] Close-up on the floor: the kneeling man's knuckle nudges a chair leg exactly two centimetres to the left; the tape measure snaps into place beside it; he nods once.\n[Shot 3, at 00:08 cut] Directly overhead, top-down: the camera rotates slowly above the now perfect grid of blue chairs; the three of them step back into the corners of the frame at the same time.\nKeep every person, animal, object, outfit and the location exactly as in the first frame; nobody transforms or morphs into anyone else. Real people speak with natural lip-sync. SPEED IS CRITICAL: everything moves at normal real-time speed, like 24fps footage played back at 24fps - natural motion, NO slow motion.\nSound: the zip of a tape measure, metal chair legs scraping on parquet, an echoey empty hall, footsteps, a creaking door, a long awkward silence. Music: a dry, plinky bassoon-and-pizzicato comedy cue.",
  "duration": 15,
  "resolution": "768p",
  "seed": 0,
  "rewrite": true,
  "output_mode": "video",
  "channel_mode": "stereo",
  "image": "https://msaocnoosm1a4.pika.art/v2/media/uploads/b20e8900-95df-4681-9f1b-a6b5c5abc236/9d460296eb6b4e1e8c1154a43959e10c.png"
}'

Response

{
  "id": "media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0",
  "status": "queued"
}

Request body

promptstringrequired

Prompt

durationinteger5 – 15default: 5

Video duration in whole seconds, from 5 to 15.

aspect_ratioenum

Output aspect ratio. Auto selects from the original prompt and reference video, even when rewrite is false; with a keyframe it follows the first supplied keyframe. A fixed ratio always wins. When omitted, rewriting enables Auto; without rewriting, the first supplied keyframe sets the ratio, or 16:9 without a keyframe. Keyframes are resized and center-cropped to fit.

resolutionenum

480p/768p are native. 1080p/2k/4k generates at 768p, then upscales once with the V1 model, preserving audio and frame rate.

seedinteger0 – 9223372036854776000default: 0

Seed

rewritebooleandefault: true

Improve the prompt before generation; disable to use the original prompt.

output_modeenum

audio-stems (Flex in production, every H3 family in staging) returns the original video with audio plus Dialogue, Score, SFX, Foley and Ambience WAV files. Uses standard retention and adds the catalog's separation fee. Flex bills the sum of all decoded output-stem durations, without a channel multiplier. The default returns only the video.

channel_modeenum

Audio stems only: stereo preserves both channels; mono downmixes before separation. The video's audio is unchanged.

imagestring

First-frame image URL (static JPEG, PNG or WebP; up to 24 MiB and 40 million pixels). Validated before acceptance. Large images are automatically prepared for the model; keyframes are resized and center-cropped to the selected canvas.

last_frame_imagestring

Last-frame image URL, with the same format and size limits as image. Provide image, last_frame_image, or both. Output uses aspect_ratio when supplied, otherwise the nearest supported ratio to the first supplied keyframe. Keyframes are resized and center-cropped to the same canvas.

Accepted values

aspect_ratio
resolution
output_mode
channel_mode

Input modes

Imageimage

Use a public URL directly, or POST { content_type, size_bytes } to /v1/media/uploads, PUT the image to the returned upload_url with the returned headers, then pass the url.

Last frame imagelast_frame_image

Use a public URL directly, or POST { content_type, size_bytes } to /v1/media/uploads, PUT the image to the returned upload_url with the returned headers, then pass the url.

Returns

Returns a job object with status , not the final output. Store the id from the response and poll the job until it completes.

Poll status

GET /v1/media/jobs/{request_id}

Request

curl https://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/jobs/{request_id} \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Response

{
  "id": "media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0",
  "status": "running"
}

Poll the job by id until it reaches a terminal state: completed or failed. A completed job carries its download URL in output, and GET /v1/media/jobs/{request_id}/content returns that same URL as { "url" } for clients that only kept the id.

DELETE /v1/media/jobs/{request_id} erases the stored media for a job, and the request captured at submit (the prompt and parameters). The job then reports deleted_at and no output, and the content endpoint answers 410.

The job object

idstring

Unique identifier for the job.

statusenum

The status of the job.One of:

object

The generation output. Present once the job completes.

errorstring

If the job failed, the reason for the failure.

deleted_atnumber

When you deleted the job's stored media, in epoch seconds. Null until then, and output is null once it is set.

usageobject

Units the provider reported for the job, such as video_output_tokens or image_output_tokens. Present once the job is terminal, carries only the units the job reports, and is null when nothing was reported.

object

What the job charged. Present once the job is terminal; null on the submit response and on webhooks.

Errors

shared across calls

Errors use conventional HTTP status codes with a JSON body of the shape {"message": "..."}. Validation failures return 422 with a message naming the offending field. Submit rejections after the job row exists (balance, rate limit) return the failed job envelope — branch on error.code.

Status	When	Body
401 Unauthorized	The API key is missing or invalid.	{"message":"Invalid API key"}
403 Forbidden	An inactive key is rejected with a {"message"} body. A submit that the org balance or postpaid cycle limit cannot cover is rejected after the job row exists and returns the failed job envelope. GET /billing/balance separates the two: a 200 means the key is active, so the rejection was the balance or the cycle limit.	{"id":"media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0","status":"failed","error":{"code":"insufficient_balance","message":"Insufficient org balance"}}
404 Not Found	No job with that id exists in your org, or the media path names an unknown vendor/model/function.	{"message":"media job not found"}
409 Conflict	The result was requested before the job completed, or an Idempotency-Key header was reused with a different body.	{"message":"media job is not ready"}
422 Unprocessable Entity	The request body failed validation: an invalid enum value, a missing required field, a wrong type, or malformed JSON. The JSON message names the offending field. A schema-valid parameter combination that cannot be priced instead fails after job creation and returns the failed job envelope with error code invalid_input.	{"message":"duration: Input should be less than or equal to 15"}
429 Too Many Requests	You've hit your per-minute or per-day request limit, or your org's job queue is full. Returned as the failed job envelope. If there's a Retry-After header, wait that long, then retry with a fresh Idempotency-Key.	{"id":"media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0","status":"failed","error":{"code":"rate_limited","message":"rate limit exceeded: rpm"}}
503 Service Unavailable	The model rail or a backend dependency is temporarily unavailable. Returned as the failed job envelope; retry with backoff and a fresh Idempotency-Key.	{"id":"media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0","status":"failed","error":{"code":"provider_unavailable","message":"media dispatch unavailable"}}

Pika H3 Flex

# 1. Request a presigned upload URL. Send the file's content

# type and its exact size in bytes.

curl -X POST https://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/uploads \

-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \

-H "Content-Type: application/json" \

-d '{"content_type": "image/png", "size_bytes": 12345}'

# The response returns two URLs:

# upload_url: a temporary URL to upload the file to. Expires in 5 minutes.

# url: the permanent Pika URL. Pass it to the model as the input.

# {

# "upload_url": "https://upload.r2.pika.art/...?X-Amz-Signature=...",

# "url": "https://cdn.pika.art/v2/media/uploads/org_abc/9f8e7d.png"

# }

# 2. Upload the file to upload_url, then pass url to the model.

curl -X PUT "<upload_url>" \

-H "Content-Type: image/png" \

--data-binary @input.png

curl -X POST https://api.dev.pika.art/v1/media/pika/pika-h3-flex/image-to-video \

-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \

-H "Content-Type: application/json" \

-d '{

"prompt": "Start exactly on the first frame: three people in matching pale-yellow velour tracksuits with white stripes — a man on the left holding one end of a tape measure, a woman at the back holding the other end, and a curly-haired man kneeling at the front right — lining up rows of blue folding chairs in a wood-panelled hall. Soft daylight, muted 1970s film tones, fine grain, deadpan comedy.\n[Shot 1, 00:00–00:04] The same high angle, the camera slowly craning down: the man on the left reads the tape measure and says flatly: \"Forty-two centimetres.\" The woman at the back answers, without looking up: \"It has to be forty.\"\n[Shot 2, at 00:04 cut] Close-up on the floor: the kneeling man's knuckle nudges a chair leg exactly two centimetres to the left; the tape measure snaps into place beside it; he nods once.\n[Shot 3, at 00:08 cut] Directly overhead, top-down: the camera rotates slowly above the now perfect grid of blue chairs; the three of them step back into the corners of the frame at the same time.\nKeep every person, animal, object, outfit and the location exactly as in the first frame; nobody transforms or morphs into anyone else. Real people speak with natural lip-sync. SPEED IS CRITICAL: everything moves at normal real-time speed, like 24fps footage played back at 24fps - natural motion, NO slow motion.\nSound: the zip of a tape measure, metal chair legs scraping on parquet, an echoey empty hall, footsteps, a creaking door, a long awkward silence. Music: a dry, plinky bassoon-and-pizzicato comedy cue.",

"duration": 15,

"resolution": "768p",

"seed": 0,

"rewrite": true,

"output_mode": "video",

"channel_mode": "stereo",

"image": "https://msaocnoosm1a4.pika.art/v2/media/uploads/b20e8900-95df-4681-9f1b-a6b5c5abc236/9d460296eb6b4e1e8c1154a43959e10c.png"

Status

When

Body

401 Unauthorized

The API key is missing or invalid.

{"message":"Invalid API key"}

403 Forbidden

An inactive key is rejected with a {"message"} body. A submit that the org balance or postpaid cycle limit cannot cover is rejected after the job row exists and returns the failed job envelope. GET /billing/balance separates the two: a 200 means the key is active, so the rejection was the balance or the cycle limit.

{"id":"media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0","status":"failed","error":{"code":"insufficient_balance","message":"Insufficient org balance"}}

404 Not Found

No job with that id exists in your org, or the media path names an unknown vendor/model/function.

{"message":"media job not found"}

409 Conflict

The result was requested before the job completed, or an Idempotency-Key header was reused with a different body.

{"message":"media job is not ready"}

422 Unprocessable Entity

The request body failed validation: an invalid enum value, a missing required field, a wrong type, or malformed JSON. The JSON message names the offending field. A schema-valid parameter combination that cannot be priced instead fails after job creation and returns the failed job envelope with error code invalid_input.

{"message":"duration: Input should be less than or equal to 15"}

429 Too Many Requests

You've hit your per-minute or per-day request limit, or your org's job queue is full. Returned as the failed job envelope. If there's a Retry-After header, wait that long, then retry with a fresh Idempotency-Key.

{"id":"media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0","status":"failed","error":{"code":"rate_limited","message":"rate limit exceeded: rpm"}}

503 Service Unavailable

The model rail or a backend dependency is temporarily unavailable. Returned as the failed job envelope; retry with backoff and a fresh Idempotency-Key.

{"id":"media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0","status":"failed","error":{"code":"provider_unavailable","message":"media dispatch unavailable"}}

Pika H3 Flex

Capabilities

Authentication

Endpoint

Reference Uploads

Generate

Poll status

Errors

Join the club

Pika H3 Flex

Capabilities

Authentication

Endpoint

Reference Uploads

Generate

Poll status

Errors