Pollinations.ai API (Quest Pollen)
Pollinations.ai Trial credit
The catch: No more keyless use: you need an account and key, and the free part is a few one-time Quest Pollen rather than a recurring allowance (Pollinations APIDOCS and quest catalog).
| Access | Trial credit |
|---|---|
| Free limits | Anonymous generation is gone: every generation endpoint needs a key (only the model catalogue and media reads are keyless). Free usage comes from one-time Quest Pollen (README: $1 ≈ 1 Pollen), e.g. 0.25 Pollen for creating your first API key, 0.25 each for a first text, image and audio request, 1 for joining Discord, 2 for connecting Polli CLI, 2 for a GitHub account at least three years old. Quest Pollen cannot be spent on paid_only models. Secret sk_ keys: 'No rate limits' (README). Legacy raw pk_ keys: 1 pollen per IP per hour. |
| Modality | text, code, image, video, audio, embeddings |
| Credit card | Not required |
| Commercial use | – |
| Trains on your data | – |
| Licence or terms | Pollinations service terms (not read); platform code MIT |
| Context window | 400,000 tokens |
| Model id | openai/gpt-5.4-nano |
| Base URL | https://gen.pollinations.ai/v1 |
| Last checked | 2 Oct 2026 |
How to use Text, image and audio models
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://gen.pollinations.ai/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
curl https://gen.pollinations.ai/v1/chat/completions -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"model":"openai/gpt-5.4-nano","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'I want to use the free AI model "Text, image and audio models" from Pollinations.ai (model id: openai/gpt-5.4-nano) in my project. Please: 1. Check the provider docs and give me the exact steps to get a free API key. 2. Give me a minimal working example that reads the key from an environment variable. 3. Tell me the real free limits and any catch (commercial use, card, data use). Listed limits: A few one-time “Pollen” rewards. 4. If the same provider has a more generous free option, mention it.
Before you ship on it
- No more keyless use: you need an account and key, and the free part is a few one-time Quest Pollen rather than a recurring allowance (Pollinations APIDOCS and quest catalog).
- Service terms not confirmed (pollinations.ai pages are JavaScript-rendered). Platform source code is MIT on GitHub.
- Free tiers are shared capacity: treat the limits as a ceiling, not a promise, and keep a paid fallback.
Questions
Is Pollinations.ai API (Quest Pollen) free?
Yes. Pollinations.ai offers it as trial credit, with these limits: A few one-time “Pollen” rewards. No credit card is needed.
Can I use Pollinations.ai API (Quest Pollen) commercially?
The provider’s terms do not say. Ask them before you build a product on it.
How do I start with Pollinations.ai API (Quest Pollen)?
It speaks the OpenAI API at https://gen.pollinations.ai/v1, so the OpenAI SDK you already use works once you change the base URL and key.
Source: github.com/pollinations/pollinations/blob/main/APIDOCS.md, checked 2 Oct 2026.