Z-Image API

Introduction

Z-Image Text to Image turns a written description into a single image, typically in around a second.

Z-Image is Tongyi's compact 6B image family tuned for roughly one-second photoreal output, published as a single text-to-image endpoint. Five aspect ratios, lossless PNG, 1,000-character prompts.

Key features

Twenty iterations instead of one careful prompt

At roughly a second a frame, you stop writing prompts defensively.

Snapshot texture, not studio gloss

Its strongest register is the unglamorous one: phone-camera mirror selfies, fluorescent overhead light, slight motion blur, damp hair. Ask for a snapshot and it delivers something that reads as taken rather than rendered, which is exactly what heavier models tend to over-polish away.

Request parameters

Pricing

Prices are in credits, the same credits you use on the website (1 credit = $0.01). The hold is taken when the task is accepted and settled to the actual charge when it finishes; failed tasks are refunded.

Each task is rounded up to whole credits, so one run at the lowest tier costs 2 credits per image ($0.02).

For an exact number before you run, send the same body to POST /jobs/quote.

Use cases

Start from a written brief

Use this endpoint when you want many quick looks at a written idea: each call returns one lossless PNG in about a second, in one of five aspect ratios. Keep every prompt that lands together with its seed.

Character sweeps at volume

Character portraiture and role-play scene setting explored twenty directions at a time, with nothing to flag and no separate endpoint. Each run draws its own frame, so keep the prompts that land and vary wardrobe and setting one clause at a time.

Concepting before a finishing model

Same photographic vocabulary, no restructuring.

Prompt guide & pro tips

Keep the brief tight and concrete

1,000 characters is a small budget — spend it on light, lens and texture.

Keep the prompt with the keeper

Without a seed, identical requests draw different frames. Save the prompt and the seed beside the asset, and change a single clause at a time while you are hunting for something better; with the seed held, the difference you see comes from that clause.

Adapt the included example

Start with the published example using aspect_ratio: 1:1, output_format: png. Replace the subject and creative direction while keeping the input contract for this mode intact.

A square take on the request behind the published still: a snapshot brief that names the light source, the blur and the framing rather than asking for quality.

Check the result before iterating

The prompt cap is 1,000 characters, and a longer prompt is rejected before the request is sent rather than truncated — this model rewards a tight brief rather than a shot list. Each aspect_ratio maps to a fixed size around the model's native one-megapixel range, so there is no resolution switch and no path to a large delivery frame here. Fine typography and dense small detail are not what a 6B model is for.

API quick start

Call the Z-Image API in three steps

1. Create an API key. Sign in to PopNow and create a key in the API console. Keys start with sk-popnow- and use the same credits as the website.
2. Send the request. POST /jobs/createTask with model alibaba/z-image-turbo/text-to-image and an input object that follows the parameter table. The response returns a task ID straight away.
3. Get the result. Poll GET /jobs/recordInfo with the task ID, or pass a callBackUrl and we post the result to it. Download the output links when the task succeeds.

# 1. Create the task. Keep the Idempotency-Key if you retry after a network error.
export IDEMPOTENCY_KEY="$(uuidgen)"
curl -X POST https://api.popnow.ai/api/v1/jobs/createTask \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POPNOW_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -d '{
  "model": "alibaba/z-image-turbo/text-to-image",
  "input": {
    "prompt": "A ceramic teapot on a linen cloth, soft window light, muted palette",
    "aspect_ratio": "1:1",
    "output_format": "png"
  }
}'

# 2. Copy data.taskId from the response, then poll until state is succeeded, failed, canceled or expired.
TASK_ID="TASK_ID_FROM_RESPONSE"
curl "https://api.popnow.ai/api/v1/jobs/recordInfo?taskId=$TASK_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POPNOW_API_KEY"

Replace the prompt and any links with your own. The API tab has the response, polling and callback reference.

Z-Image API questions

All Z-Image models

Z-Image Turbo LoRA runs the same family with your own LoRAs and adds image to image.

• Z-Image Base LoRA APIZ-Image Base with up to three of your own LoRAsFrom 3 credits per image
• Z-Image APIPhotoreal images in about a secondFrom 2 credits per image
• Z-Image Turbo LoRA API8-step Z-Image Turbo that loads your own LoRAsFrom 2 credits per image

Other image APIs

• Qwen Image 2.1 Pro APIUp to six detailed 2K images from one promptFrom 6 credits per image
• Nano Banana 2.1 APIGoogle's newest Nano Banana, sharp text and 4K outputFrom 8 credits per image
• Qwen Image 2.1 Turbo APIFast 8-step renders, up to six per promptFrom 3 credits per image
• Nano Banana Pro APIPlans the layout first: dense text, diagrams and 4K editsFrom 17 credits per image
• GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst APIOpenAI's quality-first model, up to 4K with clean textFrom 1 credit per image
• Seedream 5.0 Pro APIHigh-detail images and edits from up to ten referencesFrom 6 credits per image

More about Z-Image

Try it

Z-Image AI Image Generator onlineCreate images with Z-Image in PopNow

Docs

Z-Image model ID and input schema in the API docsPopNow API quickstart: your first request in five minutesImage generation guide for the PopNow APIWebhooks: get Z-Image results without polling