kie.ai

Runs on: your browser (the kie.ai account), then your Mac, where the content:* skills run.

Used by: content:image (plugins/content/skills/image) and content:video (plugins/content/skills/video). kie.ai is the default provider for both. See media-providers.md for the other providers either skill can use instead (--provider fal or --provider replicate).

kie.ai is a paid API gateway in front of several third-party image and video models (Seedream, Kling, and others). You need a kie.ai key only if you want the content:* skills to make store artwork, landing page images or video with the default provider.

What it costs

You pay in credits. Each generation spends credits, whether or not you like the result.

Checked on 2026-09-28: kie.ai sells credits in packages priced in dollars. The smallest package works out at roughly $0.005 per credit. Larger top-ups get a discount. Each model’s own page states its price per call. For example, kie.ai’s marketing pages quote a Seedream 5.0 Pro still at around $0.075 per image. The creditsConsumed numbers in the API’s own example callbacks do not always match that quote exactly. Treat any number here, and any number in the skill, as a ballpark. Only kie.ai’s dashboard shows your real balance and what a given task cost. Check it there. Do not work it out from an old quote.

Video pricing and credits

Checked on 2026-09-28: video tasks use the same credit system as stills, but cost far more per call. kie.ai’s own market pages put most video models at roughly 100-500 credits per clip (a few cents to around $2). A still costs a few credits. The exact rate varies a lot by model and tier. Kling’s cheaper standard tiers are near the low end. Veo and 4K or longer clips are near the high end. Each model’s own page on kie.ai/market states its rate. media-providers.md lists the model family names, checked against docs.kie.ai on the same date. As with stills, the published credit count and what is really taken from your balance are two different numbers. Check both. The note on stills above applies to video too.

node plugins/content/skills/video/scripts/video.mjs probe reports your credit balance, the same way the image skill’s probe does. Run it before and after a video batch. Video’s --dry-run flag (not available for stills) prints the exact request and a rough cost note for the model. It spends nothing. Use it before you run an unfamiliar model or prompt for real.

Steps

Create an account at kie.ai.
Add credit. A small top-up is enough to test with: a still costs cents.
Find the API key page in your kie.ai account dashboard and generate a key. The menu wording may have changed since this was written. Look for “API key” or “API” in the account settings.
Copy the key. Do not paste it into a prompt, a commit, or anywhere it would get logged.

Where the values go

The content:image and content:video skills read the key the same way every onebox skill reads a secret. See CONFIG.md.

Default: put it in the environment as KIE_AI_API_KEY, or in a .env file anywhere from your project directory up to your home directory.
To use a different variable name or a different secrets tool (doppler, 1password), set these in ~/.config/onebox/config.json:
```
{
  "secrets": { "tool": "env" },
  "media": {
    "imageProvider": "kie",
    "videoProvider": "kie",
    "providers": { "kie": { "keyRef": "KIE_AI_API_KEY" } }
  }
}
```
The older images.provider and images.keyRef keys still work for content:image, but content:video reads only media.
With secrets.tool: "doppler", keyRef is the Doppler secret name. The skill reads it with doppler secrets get <keyRef> --plain -p <project> -c <config>, using secrets.doppler.project and secrets.doppler.config from the same file.
With secrets.tool: "1password", keyRef is a full reference like op://vault/item/field. The skill reads it with op read <keyRef>.

Check it works

node plugins/content/skills/image/scripts/kie.mjs probe

This prints your current credit balance and nothing else. It confirms that the key resolves and is valid, and it spends nothing. If it fails, the message names what it looked for (an environment variable, .env, or the config key). Fix that, then run it again.

Common errors

could not resolve the kie.ai key. Nothing is set. Set KIE_AI_API_KEY, or check media.providers.kie.keyRef and secrets.tool in your config.
401 or unauthorized on probe. The key is wrong or revoked, or you copied it with extra whitespace.
402 on a still or shot call. You are out of credit. Top up, then run probe again to confirm the new balance before you retry.
A field-not-found error from createTask, with no field named. See the troubleshooting section in the content:image skill. It is almost always a missing required field or an unconfirmed aspect ratio, not an account problem.

Wrong or out of date? Fix it on GitHub.