Every Apiway account starts on the Free plan: 100 one-time credits on signup, no credit card required. 1 credit = $0.01 USD. Free credits cover all Creative templates and the Creators marketplace; the only difference between Free and paid plans is the monthly credit allowance.
What 100 credits buy you
Per-image cost depends on the model and resolution. As a reference using nano-banano-2 (the most efficient image model): 1K resolution = 10 credits/image; 2K = 14 credits; 4K = 20 credits. So 100 credits get you roughly:
- ~10 images at 1K (nano-banano-2) — ideal for testing.
- ~7 images at 2K — Shopify-ready resolution.
- ~5 images at 4K — print-ready.
Higher-tier models cost more per image (Pro: 25/40 credits at 2K/4K; Flash: 15 at 1K). Marketplace generations also include a small surcharge that pays the photographer + co-authors. See Plans and credits for the full table.
Rate limits on Free
Free accounts share the same rate limits as paid accounts: 60 generation requests per user per minute; heavy templates (White Studio, Ghost Mannequin, Batch) run one at a time per server process. If you hit the heavy queue, you will see a 503 response with a retry in 30 seconds hint. See Heavy queue busy.
Commercial use on Free
Free-plan generations are usable for commercial purposes; we recommend attribution where possible. Paid plans (Starter and above) include explicit commercial-use rights. See Commercial use rights.
When to upgrade
Most brands hit the upgrade decision around 5–10 SKUs / week. Starter ($10/mo) ships 1,000 credits — roughly enough for a weekly catalog refresh on a 20-SKU collection at 2K. See How to upgrade.