Venice API Overview

Venice.ai is an OpenAI-compatible inference platform for text, image, audio, video, and embeddings. One API — two ways to pay: a traditional API key (Pro account), or a wallet (x402, USDC on Base, no account required).

Use when

You're writing code against
```
api.venice.ai
```
for the first time.
You need to decide between API-key and x402/wallet authentication.
You want a quick map of which endpoint to call for which task.
You need to understand the common response headers (
```
X-Balance-Remaining
```
,
```
PAYMENT-REQUIRED
```
, etc.).

Base URL

All endpoints live under:

https://api.venice.ai/api/v1

The OpenAPI spec is distributed at

outerface/swagger.yaml

(current version

20260420.235001

Authentication (pick one per request)

Scheme	Header	Best for
`BearerAuth`	`Authorization: Bearer <VENICE_API_KEY>`	Server-side apps, dashboards, usage analytics, bundled credits
`siwx` (x402)	`X-Sign-In-With-X: <base64 SIWE JSON>`	No account, pay-as-you-go with USDC on Base, serverless / agents

Every inference endpoint accepts either — see

venice-auth

bash

# Bearer
curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY"

# x402 / SIWE (one-liner via the SDK)
import { VeniceClient } from 'venice-x402-client'
const v = new VeniceClient(process.env.WALLET_KEY)
await v.models.list()

Endpoint map

Inference

Category	Endpoints	Skill
Chat	`POST /chat/completions`	`venice-chat`
Responses (Alpha)	`POST /responses`	`venice-responses`
Embeddings	`POST /embeddings`	`venice-embeddings`
Image gen	`POST /image/generate` , `POST /images/generations` , `GET /image/styles`	`venice-image-generate`
Image edit	`POST /image/edit` , `POST /image/multi-edit` , `POST /image/upscale` , `POST /image/background-remove`	`venice-image-edit`
TTS	`POST /audio/speech`	`venice-audio-speech`
STT	`POST /audio/transcriptions`	`venice-audio-transcription`
Music (async)	`POST /audio/quote` , `/audio/queue` , `/audio/retrieve` , `/audio/complete`	`venice-audio-music`
Video (async)	`POST /video/quote` , `/video/queue` , `/video/retrieve` , `/video/complete` , `/video/transcriptions`	`venice-video`

Catalog

Category	Endpoints	Skill
Models	`GET /models` , `/models/traits` , `/models/compatibility_mapping`	`venice-models`
Characters	`GET /characters` , `/characters/{slug}` , `/characters/{slug}/reviews`	`venice-characters`

Account, billing, wallet

Category	Endpoints	Skill
API keys	`GET	POST
Billing	`GET /billing/balance` , `/billing/usage` , `/billing/usage-analytics`	`venice-billing`
x402 wallet	`GET /x402/balance/{wallet}` , `POST /x402/top-up` , `GET /x402/transactions/{wallet}`	`venice-x402`

Utility

Category	Endpoints	Skill
Crypto RPC proxy	`GET /crypto/rpc/networks` , `POST /crypto/rpc/{network}`	`venice-crypto-rpc`
Augment	`POST /augment/text-parser` , `/augment/scrape` , `/augment/search`	`venice-augment`

Response headers to watch

Header	When	Meaning
`X-Balance-Remaining`	x402 inference success	USDC credits left, e.g. `"4.230000"`
`X-RateLimit-Limit-` / `X-RateLimit-Remaining-`	all inference	your current per-minute/day caps
`PAYMENT-REQUIRED`	`402` on x402 inference	base64 JSON with top-up + SIWX challenge (x402 v2)
`Content-Encoding`	`200` when client sent `Accept-Encoding: gzip, br`	compression (embeddings, chat)

Pricing model at a glance

Pricing is dynamic per request, metered in USD.
Paid inference endpoints in the spec carry an
```
x-payment-info
```
block with
```
min
```
and
```
max
```
bounds in USD (typically
```
min: 0.001
```
,
```
max: 10.00
```
; higher for bulk video/audio). Read-only discovery routes like
```
GET /models
```
,
```
/models/traits
```
, and
```
/models/compatibility_mapping
```
do not.
Pro (Bearer) accounts draw from DIEM (staked credits), USD balance, and bundled credits in priority order.
x402 (wallet) users draw from a prepaid USDC credit balance on Base.
The authoritative per-model price is on
```
GET /models
```
→
```
model_spec.pricing
```
(when present — video models omit it; use
```
/video/quote
```
for video pricing) (see
```
venice-models
```
).

Standard error shape

Every error body follows one of:

json

{ "error": "Human-readable message" }

or, for 400 validation errors:

json

{ "error": "...", "details": { "fieldName": { "_errors": ["Field is required"] } } }

on x402 adds structured

topUpInstructions

and

siwxChallenge

. See

venice-errors

for the full table and retry strategy.

OpenAI compatibility — what works and what doesn't

Drop-in:

/chat/completions

/embeddings

/images/generations

/audio/speech

/audio/transcriptions

/models

Ignored but accepted for compat:
```
user
```
,
```
store
```
.
Venice-only extensions live under:
- ```
venice_parameters
```
  (chat completions)
- ```
venice_parameters
```
  is rejected on
```
/responses
```
  — use headers / native fields instead

Model feature suffixes (e.g.

zai-org-glm-5-1:enable_web_search=on

kimi-k2-6:strip_thinking_response=true&disable_thinking=true

) flip

venice_parameters

via the model ID — see

venice-chat

Versioning

```
info.version
```
in
```
swagger.yaml
```
is a timestamp (
```
YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS
```
). There is no
```
/v2
```
; features roll forward on the single
```
/api/v1
```
surface and are guarded by:
- Alpha/Beta tags in endpoint descriptions (e.g.
```
/responses
```
  , Billing).
- ```
x-guidance
```
  / model capability flags on
```
/models
```
  .

Always check the model's

model_spec.capabilities

from

GET /models

for feature flags (

supportsWebSearch

supportsReasoning

supportsE2EE

supportsXSearch

supportsMultipleImages

supportsFunctionCalling

supportsAudioInput

supportsVideoInput

, …) before relying on a feature.

Fast start checklist

Read
```
venice-auth
```
and choose Bearer vs x402.

GET /models

— pick a model and note its

model_spec.constraints

and

model_spec.pricing

Wire up one happy-path call from the matching skill.
Add error handling using
```
venice-errors
```
(402, 422, 429).

Hook up observability via

X-Balance-Remaining

/billing/usage

/x402/transactions

venice-api-overview

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content