Get started

Quickstart

This guide runs a first render with a test key: the call is free and returns a sample image within a few seconds.
  1. Create an account and confirm your email address. In the console, create an organization, then a test key with the Renders and Read generations permissions. The key (rt_test_…) is shown only once.
  2. Store it in an environment variable, outside the source code: export RENDERTHINK_API_KEY="rt_test_...".
  3. Send a POST /v1/renders request with the public URL of a draft image (JPEG, PNG or WebP, 10 MB at most) and the quality output resolution.
curl https://api.renderthink.com/v1/renders \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RENDERTHINK_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"image": "https://developers.renderthink.com/assets/scenes/sejour-charpente-export.webp", "quality": "2k"}'
The API responds when the generation ends. In live mode, this usually takes 1 to 3 minutes: set your HTTP client timeout to 5 minutes. In test mode, the generation succeeds in about 3 seconds and the API responds 200 (excerpt):
json
{
  "object": "generation",
  "id": "gen_3Wd8KpQ2xLm7Vb9NcT4hRz",
  "type": "render",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "livemode": false,
  "output": [
    {
      "url": "https://…",
      "url_expires_at": 1791454515,
      "content_type": "image/webp",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 576
    }
  ],
  "cost": { "amount": 23, "currency": "eur", "unit": "cents" }
}
output[0].url is the URL of the output image, valid for 15 minutes; in test mode, it is a watermarked sample image. cost gives the price a live key would have charged. To send a local image, send the file in a multipart/form-data request (see Input images).
To move to live mode, top up the balance and replace the key with an rt_live_… key (see Test mode).

Next steps

  • Generations: synchronous or background response, retrieval and cancellation.
  • Input images: sending by URL or as a file, chaining generations.
  • Errors: error format and list of codes.
  • Idempotency: resend a creation request without risking a double charge.