Simple, Pay-as-You-Go Pricing

Watermark notice — Every image model on NovAI is served by a Chinese provider (Zhipu AI, ByteDance, Tencent) and burns a visible AI-generated label such as AI生成 into the corner of the output under China’s labelling rules — NovAI cannot switch it off. Video output varies by model: in our 4 August 2026 tests Seedance 2.0 and CogVideoX-Flash showed no visible label, while Hunyuan Video 1.5 is labelled. Text and chat models are not affected. Which models, and what it rules out →

Five free-forever models included (text, image & video). Doubao exclusive. No monthly fees. Compare our prices vs OpenRouter below.

5 Free Models 38 Models Available OpenAI Compatible Hong Kong Servers

Beyond price — NovAI vs OpenRouter

Three dimensions that matter for production workloads with Chinese models.

DimensionNovAIOpenRouter
Chinese model day-one availabilityDay-one launches (Qwen3.8-Max, GLM-5.2) + exclusivesDays-weeks delay; some models never listed
Media generation coverage9 video & image models (Seedance, Seedream, Hunyuan, Cog) + free tierLimited Chinese media models, no free tier
Payment methodsUSDT (TRC20) — works without a credit cardCard-only

See also: media generation hub · full NovAI vs OpenRouter comparison

Model Pricing vs OpenRouter

All prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Green = cheaper than OpenRouter.

Model Provider NovAI Input NovAI Output OpenRouter Input OpenRouter Output Context Notes
🎁 Free Tier
GGLM-4.6V-Flash Zhipu AI FREE FREE FREE FREE 128K Free Tier
🔥 ByteDance Doubao — NovAI Exclusive
BDoubao-Seed-2.0-Pro ByteDance $0.40 $2.00 N/A N/A 128K ⭐ Flagship
BDoubao-Seed-2.0-Lite ByteDance $0.075 $0.45 N/A N/A 128K Fast & Cheap
BDoubao-Seed-2.0-Code ByteDance $0.448 $2.24 N/A N/A 128K Code Specialist
🔵 DeepSeek V4 Series
DDeepSeek-V4-Pro DeepSeek $0.57 $1.15 $0.57 $1.15 128K Most Popular
DDeepSeek-V4-Flash DeepSeek $0.08 $0.17 $0.08 $0.17 128K Best Value
🟣 Alibaba Qwen Series
QQwen3.7-Max Alibaba Cloud $1.16 $3.48 ~$1.48 ~$4.43 128K ⭐ Newest
QQwen3.6-Max-Preview Alibaba Cloud $1.03 $6.16 N/A N/A 128K Preview
QQwen3-Max Alibaba Cloud $0.57 $2.65 N/A N/A 32K Stable
QQwen-Plus Alibaba Cloud $0.185 $0.53 ~$0.26 ~$0.78 128K Budget
🟢 Zhipu GLM Series
GGLM-5.2 Zhipu AI $1.19 $3.74 ~$1.19 ~$3.74 128K New
GGLM-5V-Turbo Zhipu AI $1.08 $3.69 N/A N/A 128K Vision
GGLM-5.1 Zhipu AI $1.05 $3.96 N/A N/A 128K
GGLM-5 Zhipu AI $0.60 $1.92 ~$0.60 ~$1.92 32K
GGLM-4.6V Zhipu AI $0.30 $0.90 N/A N/A 128K Vision
🟠 MiniMax
MMiniMax-Text-01 MiniMax $0.14 $1.10 N/A N/A 1M 1M Context
🔷 Moonshot Kimi
KMoonshot-v1-128k Moonshot $0.60 $2.50 N/A N/A 128K Document Analysis

OpenRouter prices as of March 2026. Token counts based on UTF-8 encoding.

Image Generation Pricing vs OpenRouter

Per-image billing, any resolution. Same models, lower prices.

ModelVendorNovAIOpenRouterSavings
ByteDance Seedream Series
SSeedream 4.5 ByteDance $0.034 / image $0.04 / image -15% Details
SSeedream 4.0 ByteDance $0.027 / image N/A Exclusive Details

Generate images up to 4K resolution. Text-to-Image and Image-to-Image with reference images supported.

Video Generation Pricing vs OpenRouter

Per-second billing, resolution-based. Multi-modal input for maximum creative control.

ModelVendorResolutionNovAIOpenRouterSavings
ByteDance Seedance Series
SSeedance 2.0 ByteDance 480p$0.067 /s$0.067 /sSame price Details
720p$0.163 /s$0.199 /s-18%
1080p$0.329 /s$0.496 /s-34%
4K$1.00 /s$1.36 /s-26%
SSeedance 2.0 Fast ByteDance 480p$0.054 /s$0.054 /sSame price Details
720p$0.131 /s$0.121 /sVaries
1080p$0.264 /s$0.302 /s-13%
4K$0.802 /s$0.625 /sVaries
SSeedance 1.0 Pro $2.05 / 1M tokens N/A Exclusive Details

4-15 second videos. Text, image, video, and audio reference inputs. Native audio sync on Seedance 2.0.

Why Choose NovAI?

Same models, better experience for international users.

NovAI

GLM-4.6V-FlashFREE
Doubao Seed 2.0 Pro$0.40 / $2.00
DeepSeek V4 Pro$0.57 / $1.15
PaymentUSDT (TRC20)
Sign upEmail only
Asia latencyHK servers
Free tier1 model

OpenRouter

GLM-4.6V-FlashFREE
GLM-5$0.60 / $1.92
PaymentCredit card
Sign upEmail + OAuth
Asia latencyUS servers
Free tierNone

GPT-4o (OpenAI)

Similar model$2.50 / $10.00
PaymentCredit card
Sign upPhone required
Asia latency~200ms TTFT
Free tierLimited

Real-World Cost Comparison

See how much you save with NovAI vs OpenRouter.

Use CaseNovAIOpenRouterOpenAI GPT-4oSavings
1K chat messages/day (30 days) $0.00 (free models) $3.00 $37.50 100% vs OR
10K code reviews/month (DeepSeek) $6.40 $6.40 $125.00 95% vs GPT
100 docs/day (GLM-5) $2.98 $3.02 $45.00 1% vs OR
Long doc analysis (MiniMax 1M) $1.80 $1.80 N/A (128K limit) Best value

Payment Methods

USDT (TRC20)

Cryptocurrency payment
Minimum $5 top-up

Available

USDT (TRC20)

On-chain deposit
Confirms in ~1 minute

Available

No monthly subscription. No minimum commitment. Pay only for what you use.

Pricing FAQ

How does billing work?

NovAI uses a prepaid balance system. Top up your account with USDT (TRC20) (minimum $5), and usage is deducted per token. You can check your balance and usage history in the dashboard at any time.

Is there a free tier?

Yes! GLM-4.6V-Flash is completely free with no usage limits. No credit card required. Start using it immediately after signup.

How do your prices compare to OpenRouter?

Our prices are competitive with OpenRouter, and we offer Doubao Seed 2.0 series exclusively — not available on OpenRouter. GLM-5 models are cheaper. Plus, we offer USDT (TRC20) payments and Hong Kong servers for better Asia-Pacific latency.

Do I need a Chinese phone number?

No. NovAI handles all upstream authentication. You sign up with just an email address and get instant API access. No phone verification, no ID check, no credit card required.

Can I switch models anytime?

Yes. All models share the same API key and endpoint. Just change the "model" parameter in your API call. You can route different tasks to different models for optimal cost-performance balance.

Start Building for Free

Sign up in 30 seconds. One free model included. No credit card required.

Get Your API Key →

📄 Detailed Model Pages

Dive deeper into each model — pricing, context window, quickstart examples, and FAQs:

Zhipu AI Ecosystem Partner Volcano Engine Ecosystem Partner Tencent Cloud Ecosystem Partner