Most "free" AI image generators quietly attach a credit card requirement, a watermark you can't remove, or a free tier so small it dies in ten clicks. NovAI Studio takes a different route: a genuinely free daily quota — 20 images and 5 videos per day — behind nothing more than an email signup.
Studio is the browser playground for NovAI, an AI API gateway that resells Chinese frontier models (ByteDance Seedance & Seedream, Tencent Hunyuan, Zhipu CogView & CogVideoX) at official list prices with zero platform fee. The free tier runs on Zhipu's open models; paid models unlock the moment you top up.
Free generations run on cogview-3-flash (images) and cogvideox-flash (videos) — both of Zhipu AI's free-tier models, so the daily quota doesn't burn any balance.
| Free tier | After top-up | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily quota | 20 images + 5 videos / day | Unlimited (pay-as-you-go) |
| Image models | CogView-3-Flash | + Seedream 5.0 / 5.0-Pro, Hunyuan Image v3.0 / Lite |
| Video models | CogVideoX-Flash | + Seedance 2.0-fast / 2.0 / 2.5 (native audio), Hunyuan Video 1.5 |
| Downloads | Watermarked preview | Watermark-free originals |
| API access | — | Full OpenAI-compatible endpoint |
| Cost to start | $0, no card | From $5 (first top-up +25%) |
Once you top up, Studio pulls from the same models — at the same prices — as the API. No studio markup:
| Model | Type | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| doubao-seedream-5.0 | Image | $0.027/image | Everyday generation, product shots |
| doubao-seedream-5.0-pro | Image | $0.034/image | Multi-reference consistency, small text |
| hy-image-v3.0 (Hunyuan) | Image | $0.028/image | Stylized art, posters |
| hy-image-lite | Image | $0.014/image | High-volume drafts |
| doubao-seedance-2.5 | Video | $0.14/s (480p) · $0.32/s (720p) | Video with synchronized native audio |
| doubao-seedance-2.0-fast | Video | from $0.054/s (480p) | Budget clips, iteration |
| hy-video-1.5 (Hunyuan) | Video | $0.21/generation | Flat-rate short clips |
For context: a 5-second Seedance clip at 480p costs about $0.27 — roughly a quarter of a dollar — and a hundred Seedream images run $2.70. Prepaid balance, billed per image or per second of video, no subscription.
Studio is also the fastest way to evaluate a model before you wire it into code. Every model on the page is exposed on NovAI's OpenAI-compatible endpoint — images on /v1/images/generations, video on /v1/video/generations with task polling — and bills from the same balance:
curl -X POST https://aiapi-pro.com/v1/images/generations \
-H "Authorization: Bearer nvai-your-key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"doubao-seedream-5.0","prompt":"a ceramic teacup on linen, soft window light","size":"1024x1024"}'The daily quota (20 images, 5 videos) is genuinely $0 and resets every day. The catch is deliberate and disclosed up front: free results are watermarked previews. The watermark-free original, premium models and API access unlock with any top-up — from $5, with +25% on the first one.
AI-generated media served from mainland-China infrastructure carries labeling obligations; the watermark on free previews is part of that. Details and scope are on the watermark notice. Text and code models are unaffected.
No. Registration is email-only, and top-ups accept card and USDT (TRC20).
Generation pauses until the next day — or you can top up and continue immediately on the premium models with no quota at all.
20 images + 5 videos a day, email signup only. Upgrade to Seedream 5.0 and Seedance 2.5 whenever you're ready — first top-up gets +25%.
Open NovAI Studio →