# Photoroom API vs Pixelixe

> Photoroom scores 53.5 (D) to Pixelixe's 37.3 (F) for image editing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-pixelixe
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-pixelixe.md (~5,050 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Photoroom API scores 53.5 (D) on agent readiness against Pixelixe's 37.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Pixelixe leads on maintenance & community. Both do image editing.

- Photoroom API: grade D, 53.5/100, rank #946 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/photoroom.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/photoroom.json
- Pixelixe: grade F, 37.3/100, rank #1377 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pixelixe.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pixelixe.json
- Best programmatic image and design asset APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/design-assets/index.md
- All 153 assets comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/design-assets/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Photoroom API (D)

Good for: Product-photo work at volume, such as cutouts, white backgrounds, shadows, generated scenes and clothing shots, one image a call.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 42 against 15
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 66
- Agent ergonomics, 64 against 49
- Security & auth, 49 against 38
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 41

Watch for: No status page was found on the site or in the docs, so there is no public incident history to read

### Pixelixe (F)

Good for: Template fills and white-label editing for marketing and SaaS teams, with a JSON-to-graphic route for agents.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 19 against 13

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Every error is HTTP 400 with a free-text message, including wrong keys and exhausted credits


## Why the edge

### Transparency & trust: Photoroom API +28

- Photoroom API (69): Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November. Closed hosted service under the Photoroom Terms and Conditions effective 29 July 2026, which name the application programming interface. Sample code is MIT (15). The security page gives retention figures (images discarded after the call, operational logs 15 days, API access logs one year). The statements on training disagree. The privacy policy of March 2026 says model improvement does not apply to API images, the security page says self-serve API plans train by default with an opt-out, and the terms authorise training on user content with an opt-out. A DPA is for Enterprise customers only (14). Preview and alpha functions carry a two-week notice, the 2024 base URL change gave a dated deadline, and the AI Backgrounds v2 model is marked deprecated with no removal date (12). The security page names GCP, AWS, Cloudflare, Datadog and Vercel and says hosting is in the United States. The full list is in the trust centre, which was not read (16).
- Pixelixe (41): Closed service under terms of 19 March 2026 that choose French law but name no company (12 of 30). The privacy policy of 7 April 2026 keeps account data while the account is active and 'as long as reasonably necessary' after, with no periods, and says nothing about AI processing or training (10 of 30). V1 is marked deprecated in the docs with no dates or notice period (5 of 20). Processors are described only by category, with Google Analytics named, and data processed in France, the EEA and other vendor countries (5 of 20). 12 + 10 + 5 + 5 = 32.

### Reliability: Photoroom API +27

- Photoroom API (42): Read with the hosted lines. Photoroom's terms (clause 2.7.a, effective 29 July 2026) bar copying any part of the Services by automated or non-automated scraping, so photoroom.com hosts were not re-read on 4 November and the 9 October readings are kept. No status page was found on photoroom.com, the docs or the security page, and status.photoroom.com did not answer one request, per the 9 October check (0). With no history to read, the incident line takes the floor of 5. The security page states one incident on record, a 30-minute availability disruption in October 2024, which is the vendor's own account (5). Limits are published, 60 images a minute by default and 1,000 a month and 100 a day in sandbox mode (15). The docs say a 429 is returned at the limit, tell callers to back off exponentially and to retry a 500 up to three times, and say failed calls are not billed. No `Retry-After` header or idempotency key is documented, so safe-retry guidance without keys (12). The API page states a 99.9 per cent uptime target on Enterprise accounts, but no SLA document was found and the terms say availability is not guaranteed, so no SLA could be read (0). The Image Editing API left beta on 3 April 2024. Upscale, text-guided segmentation and templating are labelled preview (10).
- Pixelixe (15): Hosted lines. No status page found on the site or in the docs (0). No readable incident history (5). No rate limit is published; the terms only forbid circumventing them (0). No 429, Retry-After or backoff guidance. Every error, a wrong key and exhausted credits included, is a 400 with a message (0). No SLA found; the terms supply the service as is (0). API v2 is current and not labelled beta (10). 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 15.

### Schema & documentation: Photoroom API +20

- Photoroom API (86): Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November. A public OpenAPI 3.1.0 description at image-api.photoroom.com/openapi, read as embedded on the docs reference page, with four operations (25). `llms.txt`, a Markdown twin of every page and a page with a prompt written for coding agents (10). 86 of the 87 parameters of `GET /v2/edit` carry a description, the operation description lists every edit, and the agent page says when to call each of the two APIs (17). 31 of 87 parameters have enums, but booleans are strings, no field of `/v2/edit` is marked required, and the embedded description declares neither the `x-api-key` header nor the `pr-*` model headers (10). Curl examples on every page and 400, 402 and 500 bodies in the description. 401, 403 and 429 are documented in prose only, and the two APIs use different error shapes (11). Paths are `/v1` and `/v2`, models are pinned by dated headers and the changelog is dated back to June 2023, but the description's version is fixed at 1.0.0 and the last changelog entry is 21 April 2026 (13).
- Pixelixe (66): OpenAPI 3.1 (version 2.0.0) at pixelixe.com/pixelixe-openapi.json, but it covers four endpoints, authentication, document search, graphic automation and photo effects, and leaves out the JSON-to-graphic and image processing APIs (18 of 25). llms.txt exists but routes readers to marketing pages; the MCP reference is written for LLMs (7 of 10). The MCP reference says what each of the seven tools maps to, that `pixelixe_generate_graphic_variant` 'is not a free-form layout API', lists common mistakes and how to present outputs (17 of 20). The MCP layer documents canonical field names and refuses legacy aliases; the REST modifications are open structures keyed by element name (10 of 15). Request examples throughout, but errors are one table of message strings all returning 400 (8 of 15). /v2 paths and a deprecated V1, with no changelog (6 of 15). 18 + 7 + 17 + 10 + 8 + 6 = 66.

### Agent ergonomics: Photoroom API +15

- Photoroom API (64): Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November. The response body is the image itself, so an agent saves a file and reads nothing into context. `outputSize`, `maxWidth`, `maxHeight`, `export.format` and the `size` presets set what comes back, and the MCP server has one tool, per Photoroom (18). Nothing to paginate. Output size, format and DPI controls (15). JSON errors with a message and a documented meaning for 400, 401, 403, 402, 429 and 500, but the two APIs use different shapes and `Unauthorized` covers both a missing key and an empty balance (13). No idempotency key. Calls keep no state, failed calls are not billed and `background.seed` repeats a generated background, but a retried success is billed again. The MCP tool's annotations were not read (10). Only the image is required and defaults are sensible. No official SDK, only sample code for four platforms (8).
- Pixelixe (49): Seven compact MCP tools (25). Document and design-set search filters, with no pagination documented (10 of 20). All errors are 400 with free-text messages, so an agent can't branch on a code (6 of 20). No idempotency keys, and annotations couldn't be read on the closed server. The MCP tools only read and create, with nothing that deletes (5 of 20). Few required fields, but no official SDK (3 of 15). 25 + 10 + 6 + 5 + 3 = 49.

### Security & auth: Photoroom API +11

- Photoroom API (49): Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November. A team can hold several API keys and revoke each in the dashboard, with no scopes found. The key travels in the `x-api-key` header only. The hosted MCP server's published OAuth metadata gives an authorisation code grant with PKCE, dynamic client registration and a revocation endpoint, per the 9 October reading, and the connector page says it creates its own key for the connection (20). No read-only key. The API stores nothing to change, a sandbox key cannot spend, and a prepaid monthly allowance bounds spend (8). Returns images, not untrusted text (10). The dashboard shows usage history, `GET /v2/account` returns the balance, and the security page says API access logs are kept for one year on Photoroom's side (6). The security page states a SOC 2 Type 2 attestation scoped to the API with a report of April 2026, held in a trust centre drawn by script that was not read. `security.txt` returns 404 and no disclosure policy or bug bounty was found, so a SOC 2 claim with no readable report or disclosure route (5).
- Pixelixe (38): A bearer API key per account, plus a public key for the embedded editor. The MCP server accepts the key or an OAuth token from studio.pixelixe.com/oauth/mcp with one `pixelixe.mcp` scope. No key scopes, rotation or revocation documented (18 of 30). No read-only mode, though the MCP tools can't delete or change account settings (10 of 20). Tools return the account's own templates and renders (10 of 15). No audit log or per-call record documented (0). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0). 18 + 10 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 38.

### Payments & pricing: Photoroom API +10

- Photoroom API (40): Per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November. No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, the OpenAPI description or the pricing pages (0). Per-image prices are public, $0.02 for background removal and $0.10 for an Image Editing call (20). Sandbox mode gives 1,000 free watermarked calls a month and a new account 10 free production calls on the Remove Background API, with no card, per the pricing page (20). A person has to create an account and activate the API in the dashboard. The MCP server also needs a Photoroom sign-in (0).
- Pixelixe (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices with monthly document counts are public, with no per-image price (10). 10-day trial with no card (20). A person signs up and copies the key, or approves OAuth in a browser (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Photoroom API | Pixelixe | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 42 | 15 | Photoroom API +27 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 66 | Photoroom API +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 49 | Photoroom API +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 38 | Photoroom API +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Photoroom API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 13 | 19 | Pixelixe +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 41 | Photoroom API +28 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **53.5 · D** | **37.3 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Photoroom API | Pixelixe |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Photoroom | Pixelixe |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://image-api.photoroom.com/v2` | `https://studio.pixelixe.com/api` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Price for image editing | $0.10 per image | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Photoroom Terms and Conditions. The sample code repository is MIT | Closed service under the Pixelixe terms of service (last modified 19 March 2026) |
| Tools exposed | 1 | 7 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.pixelixe/pixelixe-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-04-21 | 2026-03-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-29 | 2026-03-19 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-03-01 | 2026-04-07 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |

## How the scores have moved

### Photoroom API

- -2.6 on 4 November 2026 (C to D): correction, time
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist

### Pixelixe

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**Photoroom API.** A call costs $0.02 for background removal or $0.10 for any combination of edits, and a sandbox key gives 1,000 free watermarked calls a month without a card. No status page or official SDK was found, and Photoroom's privacy policy and security page disagree on whether API images train its models.

**Pixelixe.** Pixelixe's seven MCP tools and their LLM-oriented reference make template fills and JSON-to-graphic creation simple to call, with an OpenAPI file for the core endpoints. Every error comes back as a 400 with a message, there are no published rate limits, status page or changelog, and API access starts at $59 a month.

## Before you call either

### Photoroom API

1. Send the key in the `x-api-key` header. Prefix it with `sandbox_` while testing, because calls with the plain key consume paid images
2. Save the response body as a file. A 200 returns image bytes, PNG by default, and any other status returns JSON with `error.message` or `detail`
3. Send model selectors such as `pr-ai-shadows-model-version: 2026-04-15` as HTTP headers, not form fields. They are not in the OpenAPI file
4. Stay under 60 images a minute. On 429 back off with an exponential delay, and set a client timeout of at least 60 seconds for AI edits
5. Use `POST /v2/edit` with `imageFile` for local files and `GET /v2/edit` with `imageUrl` for hosted ones. Each call takes one image

### Pixelixe

1. Call `pixelixe_search_documents` first to find the `document_uid` of the template to reuse
2. Use `pixelixe_generate_graphic_variant` to fill an existing template; it can't change the layout
3. Read the error `message` text, since every failure is a 400
4. Stop and tell the user on 'Not enough Credits'; retrying won't help
5. For a batch, use `pixelixe_create_multiple_images` and summarise counts rather than inlining every image

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Photoroom API or Pixelixe?

Photoroom API scores 53.5 (D) on agent readiness against Pixelixe's 37.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Pixelixe leads on maintenance & community.

### Do Photoroom API and Pixelixe need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Photoroom API and Pixelixe without installing anything?

Yes. Photoroom API has a hosted endpoint at https://image-api.photoroom.com/v2 and Pixelixe at https://studio.pixelixe.com/api.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-pixelixe.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-pixelixe.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "photoroom", "b": "pixelixe"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare photoroom pixelixe`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/photoroom.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pixelixe.json

## Other comparisons with Photoroom API or Pixelixe

- [APITemplate.io vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apitemplate-io-vs-photoroom.md)
- [APITemplate.io vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apitemplate-io-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Bannerbear API + MCP vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bannerbear-vs-photoroom.md)
- [Bannerbear API + MCP vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bannerbear-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Canva REST APIs + MCP vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/canva-vs-photoroom.md)
- [Canva REST APIs + MCP vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/canva-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Contentdrips API and MCP vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contentdrips-vs-photoroom.md)
- [Contentdrips API and MCP vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contentdrips-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Creatomate vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/creatomate-vs-photoroom.md)
- [Creatomate vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/creatomate-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [DynaPictures vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dynapictures-vs-photoroom.md)
- [DynaPictures vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dynapictures-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Layerre vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/layerre-vs-photoroom.md)
- [Layerre vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/layerre-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Photoroom API vs Pictify](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-pictify.md)
- [Photoroom API vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-placid.md)
- [Photoroom API vs PostNitro](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-postnitro.md)
- [Photoroom API vs Robolly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-robolly.md)
- [Photoroom API vs Shotstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-shotstack.md)
- [Photoroom API vs Templated API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-templated.md)
- [Pixelixe vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-placid.md)
- [Pixelixe vs PostNitro](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-postnitro.md)
- [Pixelixe vs Robolly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-robolly.md)
- [Pixelixe vs Shotstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-shotstack.md)
- [Pixelixe vs Templated API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-templated.md)
- [Abyssale vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Osmo CLI vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/osmo-cli-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Pictify vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pictify-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Abyssale vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-photoroom.md)
- [Adobe Photoshop API vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-photoshop-api-vs-photoroom.md)
- [Adobe Photoshop API vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-photoshop-api-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Osmo CLI vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/osmo-cli-vs-photoroom.md)

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