Pika · Video Generation

Pika 2.5 Text to Video

Generate a Pika 2.5 video from a prompt.

image → video
pika/pika-2.5/text-to-video

Capabilities

Best for

  • •Cinematic text-to-video shots
  • •Short social and ad clips
  • •Consistent multi-shot sequences
  • •Look-dev and style exploration

Not for

  • •Frame-exact rotoscoping
  • •Feature-length renders
  • •Pixel-perfect compositing
  • •Precise on-screen text

Authentication

api key header

The Pika API uses API keys to authenticate requests. Send your key in the X-API-Keyheader. Your API key is a secret. Don't expose it in browsers or other client-side code. Instead, call the API from your server. The signed-in playground uses a portal session and never sends your API key.

header
X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY

Endpoint

asynchronous · poll for the result

POSThttps://089e99349ace.pikalabs.app/v1/media/pika/pika-2.5/text-to-videogenerate endpoint
GEThttps://089e99349ace.pikalabs.app/v1/media/jobs/{request_id}poll until completed
GEThttps://089e99349ace.pikalabs.app/v1/media/jobs/{request_id}/contentget the result URL

REST Setup

plain HTTPS

Video generation runs through the REST endpoint shown above. The API is plain JSON over HTTPS, so any HTTP client works. No provider-specific SDK is required.

Generate

POST /v1/media/pika/pika-2.5/text-to-video

Request

curl -X POST https://089e99349ace.pikalabs.app/v1/media/pika/pika-2.5/text-to-video \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "resolution": "720p",
  "duration_s": 5,
  "prompt": "A surreal high-fashion full-figure portrait of a striking model with short cropped spiky black hair, seated on the mossy overgrown limbs of a twisting sculptural branch in a mountain meadow under a vivid blue sky with puffy white clouds. She wears a chartreuse-green knit mini turtleness dress with matching long gloves, layered pearl necklaces, tall white knee socks and silver heeled shoes. Around her float oversized felted-wool flowers in coral, salmon and dusty pink on thorned vines. Clear silhouette, editorial and painterly, saturated and dreamlike. Warm analog film grade, lifted milky blacks, pigmented (not neon) midtones, fine 35mm grain and halation, premium retro-futurist creative-studio look. Square 1:1 composition. No text, no logos, no wordmarks, no watermarks."
}'

Response

{
  "id": "media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0",
  "status": "queued"
}

Request body

resolutionenumdefault: 1080p
Output resolution.
duration_snumberfixed: 5
Video length in seconds (5s only for text-to-video).
negative_promptstring
Text describing what to avoid in the video.
seedinteger
Seed for reproducible generation. Defaults to a random seed.
promptstringrequired
Text prompt describing the video to generate.

Accepted values

resolution

Returns

Returns a job object with status , not the final output. Store the id from the response and poll the job until it completes.

Poll status

GET /v1/media/jobs/{request_id}

Request

curl https://089e99349ace.pikalabs.app/v1/media/jobs/{request_id} \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Response

{
  "id": "media_8f3a2c91-5b7d-4e0a-9c26-31d4f2a8e6b0",
  "status": "running"
}

Poll the job by id until it reaches a terminal state: completed or failed.

The job object

idstring
Unique identifier for the job.
statusenum
The status of the job.One of:
object
The generation output. Present once the job completes.
errorstring
If the job failed, the reason for the failure.

Get result

GET /v1/media/jobs/{request_id}/content

Request

curl https://089e99349ace.pikalabs.app/v1/media/jobs/{request_id}/content \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Response

{
  "url": "https://089e99349ace.pikalabs.app/v1/files/video_8f3a2c91.mp4"
}

Once the job completes, fetch a download URL for the generated media.

Returns

urlstring
Download URL for the generated file.

Errors

shared across calls

Errors use conventional HTTP status codes with a JSON body of the shape {"message": "..."}. The one exception is validation: a request body that fails validation returns 422 with a plain-text body.

StatusWhenBody
401 UnauthorizedThe API key is missing or invalid.{"message":"Invalid API key"}
403 ForbiddenThe key is not active, or the org balance cannot cover the request.{"message":"Insufficient org balance"}
404 Not FoundNo job with that id exists in your org.{"message":"media job not found"}
409 ConflictThe result was requested before the job completed, or an Idempotency-Key header was reused with a different body.{"message":"media job is not ready"}
422 Unprocessable EntityThe request body failed validation: an invalid enum value, a missing required field, a wrong type, or malformed JSON. Returned as plain text, not JSON. A schema-valid parameter combination that cannot be priced returns the same status with a JSON message.Unprocessable entity
429 Too Many RequestsOrg limit reached: requests per minute or day, or concurrent jobs. Check the Retry-After header.{"message":"rate limit exceeded: rpm"}
503 Service UnavailableThe model rail or a backend dependency is temporarily unavailable. Retry with backoff.{"message":"media dispatch unavailable"}

Pricing

only successful runs are charged

TierPrice
720p · 5s$0.040 / second
1080p · 5s$0.090 / second

Per-model pricing

Transparent, usage-based rates for every Pika model.

Pika 3.0 Fast Text to Video

from $0.015 / sec
Text to Video

Pika 3.0 Fast Image to Video

from $0.015 / sec
Image to Video

Pika 3.0 Text to Video

from $0.03 / sec
Text to Video

Pika 3.0 Image to Video

from $0.03 / sec
Image to Video

Pikadditions

$0.03 / request
Video to Video

Pikaswaps

$0.03 / request
Video to Video

Pika 2.5

from $0.04 / sec
Image to Video

Pika 2.5

Current
from $0.04 / sec
Text to Video

Pika 3.0 Reference to Video

from $0.04 / sec
Reference to Video

Pikaffects

$0.05 / request
Image to Video

Pikaffects

$0.05 / request
Video to Video