# Pika API vs Vidu API

> Pika API has a score of 47.8 (D) against Vidu API's 40.4 (E). Both do video generate. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 37 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Pika API has a score of 47.8 (D) against Vidu API's 40.4 (E). Both do video generate. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 37 points.

- Pika API: grade D, 47.8/100, rank #382 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pika.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pika.json
- Vidu API: grade E, 40.4/100, rank #423 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vidu.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vidu.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Pika API for schema & documentation (+35), agent ergonomics (+25), security & auth (+5).

Pick Vidu API for maintenance & community (+37).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Pika API | Vidu API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 35 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 48 | Pika API +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 55 | Pika API +25 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 33 | 28 | Pika API +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 20 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 20 | 57 | Vidu API +37 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 49 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **47.8 · D** | **40.4 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Pika API | Vidu API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Pika (Mellis, Inc.) | ShengShu Technology |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.dev.pika.art` | `https://api.vidu.com/ent/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-15 |
| Popularity | none | 5 stars, 25 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Pika API.** Keyless catalogue with live prices and JSON input schemas for 162 operations. $10 a month membership before any usage, and no free generation.

**Vidu API.** Q3 Turbo from $0.035 a second at 540p, about half that off-peak. No llms.txt, OpenAPI file or error-code reference.

## Before you call either

### Pika API

1. Call `GET /catalog/apis/{api_id}?expand=inputs` first. It's free and returns the path, schema and price
2. Check GET /billing/balance before a submit. A 403 can mean an inactive key or an empty balance
3. Send an Idempotency-Key on every submit, and a fresh one only when you change the body
4. Record cost from `billing.charge_micro_usd` only once `billing.state` is settled

### Vidu API

1. Send `Authorization: Token $VIDU_API_KEY`. The scheme is Token, not Bearer
2. POST the task, then poll the Get Creation endpoint by task id or set `callback_url`
3. Set `off_peak` only for jobs that can wait up to 48 hours. It roughly halves the credit rate
4. Set `audio` to true for dialogue and sound on Q3. It's off by default
5. Keep the AI-generated label on outputs. The terms forbid removing it

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