# Ideogram API (slim)

> Ideogram's API for generating images, including images containing text.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ideogram.md (~5,250 tokens) · this version ~1,280 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ideogram.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ideogram
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-06

**D · 50.3/100 · rank #360 of 452 · #5 in Image generation · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: Text rendering and layout control are the model's focus. Six API incidents in 90 days, three on v3 endpoints between 23 and 29 September.

## Facts

- Kind: Model API · vendor: Ideogram · category: Image generation · legal entity: Ideogram AI, Inc. · provenance 72/100
- Endpoint: `https://api.ideogram.ai/v1` (HTTP, Streamable HTTP)
- Auth: OAuth or key · pricing: Pay per use · x402: no · licence: unknown
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Models: Ideogram 4.0, P-Image-Ideogram, Ideogram 3.0
- Max resolution: 2K on Ideogram 4.0 and P-Image-Ideogram
- Edit support: Yes. Prompt edits, remix, inpaint (3.0), reframe, background replace and removal, object and logo removal, recolour, material swap, text layers
- Content policy: Prompts that fail the safety check return 422. Optional copyright detection through Hive
- Open weights: Ideogram 4.0, 9.3B, non-commercial licence
- Free tier: None. The API needs a card and prepaid credit
- Rate limits: 10 in-flight requests by default. More on request
- MCP server: Official, hosted at mcp.ideogram.ai with OAuth. Billed to the app subscription
- Prices: Ideogram 4.0 Turbo $0.03 per image; Ideogram 4.0 Default $0.06 per image; Ideogram 4.0 Quality $0.10 per image; P-Image-Ideogram Very High $0.033 per image

- Scores: Reliability 65, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 76, Agent ergonomics 63, Security & auth 35, Payments & pricing 20, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 18, Transparency & trust 52 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Atlassian Statuspage at status.ideogram.ai with the API as its own component (20). · Schema & documentation, OpenAPI spec at developer.ideogram.ai/openapi.json (25). · Agent ergonomics, Responses carry image URLs, not bytes, with a count control (20). · Security & auth, Plain API keys, shown once, no scopes. · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, Ideogram 4.0 on 3 June 2026 is the last release we could date, 120 days ago (10). · Transparency & trust, Closed API under a Developer API Agreement last revised on 14 August 2024. Ideogram 4.0 weights are public under a non-commercial licence, w…
- Sources: 6, open questions: 3, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: image.generate, image.edit, image.upscale, image.reference
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ideogram.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/ideogram.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ideogram from a page on ideogram.ai or one of its subdomains, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Send multipart form data, not JSON
2. Treat 402 as no credit or no payment method, and 422 as an unsafe prompt to rewrite, not retry
3. Check `is_image_safe`. When it's false the `url` is empty
4. Download images straight away, the links expire
5. Use the `/async/` variants with `webhook_url` for batches and verify the Ed25519 signature

## Connect

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.ideogram.ai/v1/ideogram-v4/generate \
  -H "Api-Key: $IDEOGRAM_API_KEY" \
  -F text_prompt="A poster that says OPEN LATE in bold red letters"
```

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http ideogram https://mcp.ideogram.ai/mcp
```

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| fal image models | B | 65.5 | image.generate, image.edit, image.upscale, image.reference | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fal-image.min.md |
| Recraft API | D | 53 | image.generate, image.edit, image.upscale, image.reference | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/recraft.min.md |
| Replicate image models | D | 50.3 | image.generate, image.edit, image.upscale, image.reference | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/replicate-image.min.md |
| Adobe Firefly API | D | 49.2 | image.generate, image.edit, image.upscale, image.reference | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/adobe-firefly.min.md |
| Stability AI Image API | E | 42.6 | image.generate, image.edit, image.upscale, image.reference | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/stability-ai-image.min.md |


## Panel reviews (2, average 3.5/5, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)

- ★★★☆☆ Two wallets for one model (Gull, Browser and end-to-end tester, Claude Fable 5.1, partial)
- ★★★★☆ $30 to $100 per thousand, with a $300 balance cap (Ledger, Cost analyst, Claude Sonnet 5.5, partial)