# Photoroom API vs Robolly

> Photoroom scores 53.5 (D) to Robolly's 48.4 (D) for design templates. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-robolly
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-robolly.md (~4,900 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 Robolly's 48.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Robolly leads on reliability and agent ergonomics. Both do design templates.

- 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
- Robolly: grade D, 48.4/100, rank #1127 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/robolly.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/robolly.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:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 13 against 5
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 49

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

### Robolly (D)

Good for: Template-driven images, PDFs and short videos for marketers and developers who want a hosted editor and simple synchronous calls.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 48 against 42
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 64

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

Watch for: No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract found


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: Photoroom API +29

- 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).
- Robolly (57): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract found for the REST API, and the MCP server is closed. The MCP page lists all nine tools and `get_template_modifications` returns each template's keys, constraints and examples at run time (8 of 25, on that partial evidence). llms.txt indexes the docs (10). The MCP page says what each tool does, which tools change templates or spend credits, and that there is no delete tool (14 of 20). Modification keys follow `{element-name}.{modification-key}` with constraints from the template rather than a fixed schema (7 of 15). Request examples throughout and an error code table with eight codes (13 of 15). /v1 paths with no changelog (5 of 15). 8 + 10 + 14 + 7 + 13 + 5 = 57.

### Transparency & trust: Photoroom API +20

- 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).
- Robolly (49): Closed service under terms effective 8 April 2026 from Avantis Innovations LLC in Wyoming. The terms can change without notice (15). The privacy policy of the same date covers Google sign-in and Sheets data, says spreadsheet rows aren't kept beyond a render and account data is deleted with the account, and otherwise names no periods (10 of 30). No deprecation policy or notices (0). Hosting is described only as third-party vendors, with no processors or locations named, while the footer says Made in EU (2 of 20). 15 + 10 + 0 + 2 = 27.

### Agent ergonomics: Robolly +11

- 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).
- Robolly (75): Nine MCP tools (25). The renders list pages with a cursor, and templates are found by name (14 of 20). Errors carry `errorCode` and `developerMessage` with eight documented codes (17 of 20). Identical renders are cached for 45 days, so repeats are free and safe, the MCP server has no delete tool, and annotations couldn't be read on the closed server (12 of 20). Renders return the file synchronously by default, but there's no SDK (7 of 15). 25 + 14 + 17 + 12 + 7 = 75.

### Maintenance & community: Photoroom API +8

- Photoroom API (13): The last dated changelog entry is 21 April 2026 by the 9 October reading, 197 days before 4 November. The changelog sits on a paused host and was not re-read (0, cause time). No dated changelog entry in the 90 days from 6 August by that reading, and no other dated Photoroom source was found (0). A public changelog and a Discourse community where each of the 17 topics dated 30 September to 3 October 2026 had a reply, per the 9 October check. We did not open the topics to see who replied (11). No official SDK, and the official MCP registry search for photoroom returned no entry on 4 November (0). The sample code repository's last commit is a README change on 23 April 2026 and it has no CI, per a clone on 4 November (2).
- Robolly (5): No changelog, release notes or dated API change was found. The sitemap marks every docs page as modified on 4 November 2026, which reads as a site rebuild rather than a change, so it isn't counted (0). No dated changes since 8 August (0). Support by email, with chat on higher plans; not tested (5 of 15). Not in the official MCP registry and no SDKs (0). No public package or repository (0). 0 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 = 5.

### Reliability: Robolly +6

- 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).
- Robolly (48): Hosted lines. The footer links an UptimeRobot status page, but it loads its figures from /api/, which stats.uptimerobot.com's robots.txt disallows, so the page showed no monitors or history (10 of 20 for a page that exists) and no history was read (5). A hard limit of 3 renders a second is published (15). The `rate-limit` error code and advice to send renders one at a time, and identical renders are cached for 45 days at no cost, which makes a retry safe; there's no Retry-After or backoff interval (8 of 15). No SLA found (0). The API isn't labelled beta (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 10 = 48.

### Payments & pricing: Photoroom API +5

- 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).
- Robolly (35): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public and a table gives the credit cost of each format and size (15 of 20). 7-day trial with no card (20). A person signs up, then copies the key or approves OAuth (0). 0 + 15 + 20 + 0 = 35.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Photoroom API | Robolly | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 42 | 48 | Robolly +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 57 | Photoroom API +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 75 | Robolly +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 47 | Photoroom API +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Photoroom API +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 13 | 5 | Photoroom API +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 49 | Photoroom API +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **53.5 · D** | **48.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Photoroom API | Robolly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Photoroom | Avantis Innovations LLC (Robolly) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://image-api.photoroom.com/v2` | `https://api.robolly.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Photoroom Terms and Conditions. The sample code repository is MIT | Closed service under the Robolly terms of use (effective 8 April 2026) |
| Tools exposed | 1 | 9 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-04-21 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-29 | 2026-04-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-03-01 | 2026-04-08 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| 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 | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |

## 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

### Robolly

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.

**Robolly.** Robolly's nine MCP tools, synchronous renders, typed error codes and free cached re-renders keep template rendering cheap and predictable for an agent, and OAuth connections can be revoked per client. There is no OpenAPI file, changelog or dated release, and API access starts at $39 a month after a 7-day trial.

## 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

### Robolly

1. Call `get_template_modifications` before `render` to learn the keys a template accepts
2. Send renders one at a time; the API refuses more than 3 a second with `rate-limit`
3. Repeat an identical render freely; it is cached for 45 days and costs nothing
4. Poll `get_render` after `render_video`, since video renders are queued
5. Stop on `render-limit-exhausted` and tell the user the monthly credits are spent

## Questions

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

Photoroom API scores 53.5 (D) on agent readiness against Robolly's 48.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Robolly leads on reliability and agent ergonomics.

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

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

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

Yes. Photoroom API has a hosted endpoint at https://image-api.photoroom.com/v2 and Robolly at https://api.robolly.com/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Photoroom API or Robolly

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

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp