What is Pollinations.ai?
Pollinations.ai is an AI infrastructure service and builder community. Through a single API key you can call well over 200 models for text, images, audio, video and embeddings, from official providers and the community. It also hosts agents, MCP tools such as web search and FFmpeg, media storage, and safety checks that can strip personal data or block unsafe prompts before they reach a model.
Usage is paid in one credit called pollen, where 1 pollen equals $1, topped up as you go. You can earn free pollen by completing GitHub Quests, trying models, or building an app or agent. Developers can also let their own users sign in with Pollinations and pay for their own usage, list apps in the community catalogue, and earn a share when others use their published models, agents or apps.
Main Features
- One API for 200+ text, image, audio and video models
- Hosted agents and MCP tools
- Pollinations CLI for humans and AI agents
- Bring-your-own-pollen billing for your app's users
- Media storage and per-request safety checks
- Community app catalogue with earnings
How to Get Started with Pollinations.ai
- Go to pollinations.ai and sign in
- Get an API key from the dashboard
- Follow the quick start or run npx @pollinations/cli
- Earn free Quest pollen or top up to pay as you go
Pollinations.ai Pricing
Pollinations is pay as you go with one credit, where 1 pollen equals $1. Free Quest pollen is available for solving GitHub Quests, trying models or building an app or agent.
Who Should Use It?
- Indie developers adding AI to apps
- Hobbyists experimenting with many models
- Builders of AI agents and MCP clients
- Creators publishing AI apps to a community
- Students learning to work with AI APIs
Pollinations.ai Alternatives
- Replicate: Run open-source AI models through a simple API.
- OpenRouter: One API to reach hundreds of language models.
- Hugging Face: Hub for open AI models, datasets and demos.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Pollinations.ai free?
Partly. Usage is pay as you go (1 pollen equals $1), but you can earn free Quest pollen by solving GitHub Quests, trying models or building an app or agent.
What kinds of models can I use?
Image, text, audio, video, 3D and embedding models, from official providers and the community.
Can my app's users pay for their own usage?
Yes. With bring-your-own-pollen, your users sign in with Pollinations, set a spending limit and pay for their own usage.