Head to head · Image generation · October 2026 research run
Recraft API vs SurgePix API
Recraft API scores 52.9 (D) on agent readiness against SurgePix API's 36 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SurgePix API leads on security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do image generation.
Best image generation for AI agents · All 120 image comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Logos, icons and brand-consistent graphics where SVG matters.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 70 against 15
- Schema & documentation, 64 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 62 against 53
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 60 against 28
Watch for
No changelog and no error reference
Best for An agent that needs finished marketing assets, such as posters, slide decks, Xiaohongshu carousels, logos and translated images, as one file from a short request.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 41 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 66 against 48
Watch for
Only background removal and upload are in the public API reference, with no OpenAPI file or llms.txt
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Reliability Recraft API +55
Recraft API 70
Instatus page (status.recraft.ai redirects to recraft.instatus.com) with Website, App and API components (20). No notices in August or September 2026 and 100 per cent shown for the API. The page we read didn't cover July, so two of the three months are seen clean (25). Limits of 100 images a minute and 5 requests a second per user (15). No 429 or backoff guidance found (0). No SLA (0). GA (10).
SurgePix API 15
Read with the hosted lines. No status page was found on surgepix.ai or in the docs, and status.surgepix.ai doesn't resolve (0). With no history to read, the incident line takes the floor (5). No rate limits with numbers are documented. The terms say "non-human continuous or frequent query operations" lead to automatic account suspension, with no threshold given (0). No 429 or backoff guidance. The skill scripts poll every 2 seconds for up to 5 to 15 minutes, but that is client code, not a documented policy (0). No SLA, and the terms disclaim uninterrupted service (0). The API isn't labelled beta or preview, and API keys have been self-serve since 2 June 2026 per the changelog (10). 0+5+0+0+0+10 = 15.
Transparency & trust Recraft API +32
Recraft API 60
Closed API with published terms and a commercial-rights page that bars training on outputs (15). The privacy policy (12 March 2026) says Recraft won't train on AI inputs or outputs without affirmative authorisation, yet also describes an opt-out in account settings, and gives no retention periods. Generated images sit at signed public URLs for about 24 hours (15). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). A subprocessor page at recraft.ai/subprocessors lists outside AI model providers, but data locations are only 'countries outside your home country' (15).
SurgePix API 28
The editorial half. A closed service whose terms name no company or address. They restrict any commercial use of what the service produces without SurgePix's permission, and contain clauses from an unrelated product (a "big data" query platform and "non-resume content"). The skills are MIT. Unclear terms, with a little credit for the open skills (5). The privacy policy is dated both 10 June 2026 and 1 July 2022, describes WeChat and phone registration and "domestic servers", and gives no retention periods. The API reference says uploads go to Tencent Cloud storage in Seoul as public URLs. No DPA. The statements don't agree (5). No deprecation policy or notices, and the terms let changes take effect on publication without notice (0). Tencent Cloud Object Storage in ap-seoul is named in the API reference, and Alipay and WeChat Pay in the privacy policy. No subprocessor list or stated data location (4). 5+5+0+4 = 14.
Schema & documentation Recraft API +24
Recraft API 64
A Swagger UI at external.api.recraft.ai/doc, but no spec file we could fetch (15). llms.txt for the docs (10). The docs say which endpoint returns vectors and which model to use for drafts, raster or SVG (13). Typed inputs with enums for model, style and response format (12). Examples in the docs, no error reference found (7). Model release months on the getting started page, no changelog (7).
SurgePix API 40
No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract was found (0). surgepix.ai/llms.txt returns 404. The docs are HTML pages, but the 15 SKILL.md files in the MIT repository are Markdown written for agents, so half (5). The API reference states the purpose of each of its five operations and the async and session model. The SKILL.md files add trigger phrases and explicit do-not-use routing between skills, but 11 of the task endpoints the skills call appear only in their scripts, with no reference (10). Parameter tables give type and required for the documented operations, with no enums or limits, and the undocumented endpoints have no schema at all (7). JSON examples for every documented operation and an error table with 401, 404 and error.file.sensitive_content (10). A dated public changelog from 11 March 2026, but no version in the API path and no API-specific change notes (8). 0+5+10+7+10+8 = 40.
Maintenance & community SurgePix API +18
Recraft API 48
V4.1 Flash released in September 2026, within 30 days (30). For models we look at churn and notice. Every model back to V2 (February 2024) is still served, so nothing has needed notice, but no policy exists for when it does (15). No public changelog, support not tested (3). No official SDK, the old stdio MCP repo is archived and the hosted server isn't in the MCP registry (0). No packages to assess (0).
SurgePix API 66
The last dated change is GPT-Image-2.5 on 23 October 2026, 10 days before the check (30). Changelog entries on 15, 22 and 23 October, 16, 9 and 2 September 2026, more than three in 90 days (20). For a closed service, a dated changelog, a Discord server and a contact email. We didn't open Discord or the GitHub issues, so answering isn't confirmed (8). No official SDK. The skills are maintained client scripts with tags from v1.0.0 (4 June 2026) to v1.5.0 (2 September 2026), a judgement call (5). The repository's CI checks SKILL.md front matter only, with no tests, and the skills aren't published as a package (3). 30+20+8+5+3 = 66.
Security & auth SurgePix API +11
Recraft API 30
Bearer API tokens from the profile page, several tokens sharing one balance, no scopes. The hosted MCP server uses OAuth 2.0 (20). No least-privilege mode or spend cap found (0). Returns generated images only (10). No per-call log found (0). security.txt expired on 11 November 2025, and no bug bounty or certification found (0).
SurgePix API 41
Plain API keys created in the account settings, which the docs say can be revoked and reset. The key goes in the authorization header, never in a URL. No scopes found (20). No read-only key or spend cap. The plan's credit allowance bounds spend. Every uploaded file becomes a publicly accessible URL on Tencent Cloud storage, which counts against least privilege (3). The API returns image and file URLs, not untrusted text (10). The billing page's credit statement lists each request with its model and token counts, and sessions group calls in the web app, per the docs (8). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found (0). 20+3+10+8+0 = 41.
Payments & pricing Recraft API +10
Recraft API 30
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-image and per-operation prices published without a login (20). No free API allowance. The web Free plan's credits work through the hosted MCP with no card, but free-plan images belong to Recraft and are public (10). Browser sign-up (0).
SurgePix API 20
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and monthly credits are public, but credits are spent per token with no per-call price for any API task, so plan-only pricing (10). A free plan with 25 credits a day. The pages don't say whether a card is needed or whether a free account can create API keys, so half, a judgement call (10). A person signs up in a browser and creates the key in settings (0). 0+10+10+0 = 20.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Recraft API | SurgePix API | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 15 | Recraft API +55 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 64 | 40 | Recraft API +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 62 | 53 | Recraft API +9 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 30 | 41 | SurgePix API +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 20 | Recraft API +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 48 | 66 | SurgePix API +18 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 60 | 28 | Recraft API +32 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | D 52.9/100 | F 36/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Recraft API | SurgePix API |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Recraft | SurgePix |
| Hosted endpoint | https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1 | https://api.surgepix.ai/api |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary hosted service under the Surgepix User Agreement, which names no company and restricts commercial use without SurgePix's permission. The agent skills repository is MIT |
| Tools exposed | 9 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-11 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-03-12 | 2026-06-10 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | 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 |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |
How the scores have moved
SurgePix API
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Recraft API
Native SVG vector generation, not traced raster. No changelog and no error reference.
SurgePix API
A small, readable API with async tasks and MIT skill scripts that cover posters, decks, edits and translation. Only background removal is documented, the terms name no company and restrict commercial use and automated querying, and uploaded files become public URLs.
Before you call either
Recraft API
- Use
/v1/images/generations/vectorwhen the task must return SVG, so the server rejects raster models - Ask for
b64_jsonormultipartif you can't fetch the URL within a day - Name
recraftv4_1_flashfor drafts at $0.007. The defaultrecraftv4_1costs $0.035 - Stay under 100 images a minute and 5 requests a second per user
- Point the OpenAI SDK at
https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1, but expect some parameters to be ignored
SurgePix API
- Send the key as the raw
authorizationheader value, with noBearerprefix - Don't upload confidential files. The upload flow returns a public URL for every file
- Check
codein the JSON body as well as the HTTP status, since failures come back as a non-zerocodewith amsg - Poll
GET /tasks/{taskId}within 24 hours, after which the task returns 404 - Get written permission before using outputs commercially, since the terms restrict commercial use
Try them: tutorials for agents
Follow a practical guide with either tool, check the result, then share what worked.
- Create an editorial illustration with Recraft, for Recraft API
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Recraft API or SurgePix API?
Recraft API scores 52.9 (D) on agent readiness against SurgePix API's 36 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SurgePix API leads on security & auth and maintenance & community.
Do Recraft API and SurgePix API need an API key?
Recraft API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. SurgePix API needs an API key.
Can an agent call Recraft API and SurgePix API without installing anything?
Yes. Recraft API has a hosted endpoint at https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1 and SurgePix API at https://api.surgepix.ai/api.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/recraft-vs-surgepix.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/recraft.json·/api/v1/tools/surgepix.json - From a terminal
anchor compare recraft surgepix(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "recraft", "b": "surgepix"}at/mcp, no key