MaxAPI vs Replicate
Both Replicate and MaxAPI let developers call hosted image and video models through HTTP APIs. They take different angles: Replicate is a general-purpose model marketplace covering many model families through its own predictions/run API; MaxAPI focuses on production image and video generation behind an OpenAI-compatible interface with multiple price tiers per model.
API surface
Replicate exposes its own predictions API (replicate.run / predictions.create) and an SDK per language.
MaxAPI exposes the OpenAI image/video endpoints (POST /v1/images/generations, /v1/images/edits, /v1/videos/generations). Existing OpenAI SDK code switches by changing the base URL and key.
MaxAPI exposes image and video generation models through the OpenAI-compatible endpoints existing OpenAI SDK code already targets. Each public model also offers multiple route modes (official / official-cheap / mix) so the same request can be billed at different price tiers, and image generation works either through OpenAI's /v1/images/* family or, for Gemini models, through Google's native /v1beta/models/{model}:generateContent path with the same MaxAPI bearer key.
Model coverage on MaxAPI today
- Image: GPT Image 2, Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, Nanobanana Pro, Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview, Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview Beta, Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview Beta, GPT Image 2 Beta
- Video: Seedance 2.0 Fast Beta, Seedance 2.0 Beta, Seedance 2.0 Fast Beta Face, Seedance 2.0 Beta Face, Seedance 2.0 Fast, Seedance 2.0
- OpenAI-compatible /v1/* endpoints are the canonical surface.
- Gemini image models additionally accept Google's native /v1beta/models/{model}:generateContent format.
Pricing model
MaxAPI bills in credits where 1 credit = 1 USD. Failed requests are not charged. Each public model exposes one or more route_mode tiers (official, official-cheap, mix) — pass route_mode in the request body to pick. Refer to maxapi.dev/pricing for the full per-route table.
Replicate's billing is model-specific and per-prediction; check Replicate's own pricing page for current rates.
Migration sketch
From Replicate's Python or JS SDK, swap the SDK for the OpenAI SDK pointed at https://api.maxapi.dev. Image generation becomes openai.images.generate(model="...", prompt="..."); video generation becomes a POST to /v1/videos/generations followed by polling the returned poll_url. Authentication is a MaxAPI bearer key (sk-...) in the Authorization header.
When MaxAPI is the better fit
- You already have OpenAI SDK code and want to keep the same call shape.
- You want a single image/video API with explicit cost-tier choices (route_mode).
- You want Gemini image models reachable through Google's official SDK shape without a Google Cloud project.
When Replicate is the better fit
- You need access to community-published or research models that aren't in MaxAPI's catalogue.
- You're building infra that runs custom open-source models (cog-packaged or otherwise).
Try MaxAPI by creating a key on the homepage, or read the API documentation linked from any model page.