Name: ERNIE-Image Turbo API: Fast Text to Image by Baidu
Brand: magicapi
SKU: api-magicapi-text-to-image-generator-prunaai-ernie-image-turbo
Availability: InStock
Author: API Market

Shashank Agarwal

# 🎨 Text-to-Image Generator API (Baidu ERNIE-Image Turbo)

## Overview
ERNIE-Image Turbo generates images from a text prompt. Its developer describes ERNIE-Image as an open text-to-image generation model built by the ERNIE-Image team at Baidu; this listing runs a Turbo version published by Pruna AI.

Send a `prompt` and the API returns a list of 1 to 4 image URLs. You can set the size (`width` and `height`, 64 to 2048 pixels), turn the built-in prompt enhancer on or off, fix a `seed`, and choose the output format.

## Features
- **Text to image**: describe the scene in `prompt` and get images back.
- **Custom size**: `width` and `height` from 64 to 2048 pixels (default 1024 x 1024). The model card's recommended sizes give the best results; the example's 1024 x 1024 is one of them.
- **Prompt enhancer**: `use_pe` (default `true`) runs the prompt enhancer recommended by the model card before generation. Set it to `false` to use your prompt as written.
- **1 to 4 images per request**: set `num_outputs`.
- **Reproducible results**: set `seed` to get the same image again for the same input.
- **Output formats**: `jpg` (default), `png` or `webp`, with `output_quality` 0 to 100.

## Use Cases
1. **Blog and article images**: create a header image from a one-line description.
2. **Concept art and mood boards**: try several takes on a scene with `num_outputs` up to 4.
3. **Product and marketing visuals**: generate backgrounds and scenes for campaigns.
4. **App features**: add text-to-image generation to a design or content tool.

## Visual Examples
### Example Input
Prompt: "a quiet mountain lake at sunrise with mist over the water and pine trees on the shore"

Settings: `width` `1024`, `height` `1024`, `use_pe` `true`, `num_outputs` `1`, `output_format` `jpg`, `output_quality` `80`.

### Example Output
![Mountain lake at sunrise with mist and pine trees, generated by ERNIE-Image Turbo](https://blog.api.market/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ernie-image-turbo-output-ejqkw6bq-api-market.jpeg)

## Input Parameters
| Field | Type | Required | Default | Allowed values | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `prompt` | string | Yes |  |  | Text prompt for image generation |
| `width` | integer | No | `1024` | 64 to 2048 | Width of the generated image. Best results come from the model-card recommended sizes |
| `height` | integer | No | `1024` | 64 to 2048 | Height of the generated image. Best results come from the model-card recommended sizes |
| `use_pe` | boolean | No | `true` |  | Enable the prompt enhancer recommended by the model card |
| `seed` | integer | No | none |  | Random seed. Set for reproducible generation |
| `num_outputs` | integer | No | `1` | 1 to 4 | Number of output images to generate |
| `output_format` | string | No | `jpg` | `png`, `jpg`, `webp` | Format of the output image |
| `output_quality` | integer | No | `80` | 0 to 100 | Quality when saving the output image, from 0 to 100 |

## Pricing
- **Pay As You Go (PAYG) pricing**: you only pay for what you use.
- **Price**: $0.02 per API unit.
- **1 API unit = 1 request with up to 11 seconds of processing.** A request that takes longer is billed one more unit for each started 11-second block (for example, 25 seconds of processing is 3 units, $0.06).
- More images (`num_outputs`) and larger sizes take longer and can add units.
- The example request (1 image at 1024 x 1024 with the prompt enhancer on) took 12.3 seconds of processing, so it was billed 2 units ($0.04).
- **Failed or cancelled predictions are not billed.**
- **GET requests to check prediction status** are free and don't count toward API unit usage.
- **No monthly subscription fee.**

## API Documentation

### Base URL
All API requests go to: `https://prod.api.market/api/v1/magicapi/text-to-image-generator-prunaai-ernie-image-turbo`

### Authentication
Send your api.market API key in the `x-api-market-key` header:
```
x-api-market-key: YOUR_API_MARKET_KEY
```

### Asynchronous Processing
**IMPORTANT**: This API is asynchronous. The flow is:
1. Send a POST request to `/predictions`. A successful request returns **201 Created** with a prediction `id` and a `status` of `starting` or `processing`.
2. Poll GET `/predictions/{id}` with that ID.
3. Keep polling while `status` is `starting` or `processing`.
4. Stop when `status` is `succeeded` (read `output`), `failed` or `canceled` (read `error`).

A polling interval of 1 second and an overall timeout of 600 seconds (10 minutes) work well.

### Endpoints

#### Create a Prediction
```bash
curl -X POST "https://prod.api.market/api/v1/magicapi/text-to-image-generator-prunaai-ernie-image-turbo/predictions" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-market-key: YOUR_API_MARKET_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "version": "fb19aa909fb366cdbdc06a87be3753aea6954346780bac847cccf8f32ad2626f",
    "input": {
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1024,
      "prompt": "a quiet mountain lake at sunrise with mist over the water and pine trees on the shore",
      "use_pe": true,
      "num_outputs": 1,
      "output_format": "jpg",
      "output_quality": 80
    }
  }'
```

Response (201 Created):
```json
{
  "id": "ejqkw6bqd5rnw0d1d9w9a0ebvm",
  "version": "fb19aa909fb366cdbdc06a87be3753aea6954346780bac847cccf8f32ad2626f",
  "status": "starting",
  "created_at": "2026-10-23T20:34:02.418Z"
}
```

#### Check Prediction Status
```bash
curl -X GET "https://prod.api.market/api/v1/magicapi/text-to-image-generator-prunaai-ernie-image-turbo/predictions/{id}" \
  -H "x-api-market-key: YOUR_API_MARKET_KEY"
```

Response when the prediction has finished (200 OK):
```json
{
  "id": "ejqkw6bqd5rnw0d1d9w9a0ebvm",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "output": [
    "https://blog.api.market/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ernie-image-turbo-output-ejqkw6bq-api-market.jpeg"
  ],
  "error": null,
  "created_at": "2026-10-23T20:34:02.418Z",
  "started_at": "2026-10-23T20:34:03.418Z",
  "completed_at": "2026-10-23T20:34:16.418Z"
}
```

`output` is an array of image URLs, one per generated image (`num_outputs`).

### Status Codes
- **201 Created**: prediction created (POST `/predictions`). This is the normal success response.
- **200 OK**: prediction details returned (GET `/predictions/{id}`).
- **400 Bad Request**: invalid input, for example a missing `prompt`, a `width` above 2048 or `num_outputs` above 4.
- **401 Unauthorized**: missing or invalid API key.
- **404 Not Found**: no prediction with that ID.
- **429 Too Many Requests**: rate limit exceeded.
- **500 Internal Server Error** or **503 Service Unavailable**: temporary server problem; retry later.

## Rate Limits
All plans allow 10 requests per second. Requests above that return `429 Too Many Requests`; back off before retrying and honour any `Retry-After` header. Polling a prediction with GET is free but still counts toward the per-second limit, so poll every 1 to 5 seconds rather than in a tight loop.

## Error Handling
- Check the HTTP status code of every request and read the response body for the error message.
- A prediction can also end with `status` set to `failed`; the `error` field then explains why. Failed predictions are not billed.
- Retry 429, 500 and 503 responses with exponential backoff. Fix the input before retrying a 400.

## Implementation Guide
### Example Code

#### JavaScript
```javascript
const apiKey = "YOUR_API_MARKET_KEY";
const baseUrl = "https://prod.api.market/api/v1/magicapi/text-to-image-generator-prunaai-ernie-image-turbo";

async function createAndWaitForPrediction(input) {
  const response = await fetch(`${baseUrl}/predictions`, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "x-api-market-key": apiKey
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({ version: "fb19aa909fb366cdbdc06a87be3753aea6954346780bac847cccf8f32ad2626f", input })
  });

  if (response.status !== 201) {
    throw new Error(`API error: ${response.status} ${await response.text()}`);
  }

  const prediction = await response.json();
  return pollForResults(prediction.id);
}

const delay = (ms) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));

async function pollForResults(predictionId) {
  const maxTimeout = 600000;
  const pollInterval = 1000;
  const startTime = Date.now();

  while (Date.now() - startTime < maxTimeout) {
    const response = await fetch(`${baseUrl}/predictions/${predictionId}`, {
      headers: { "x-api-market-key": apiKey }
    });

    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`API error: ${response.status} ${await response.text()}`);
    }

    const prediction = await response.json();

    if (prediction.status === "succeeded") {
      return prediction.output;
    }

    if (prediction.status === "failed" || prediction.status === "canceled") {
      throw new Error(`Prediction ${prediction.status}: ${prediction.error || "Unknown error"}`);
    }

    await delay(pollInterval);
  }

  throw new Error("Prediction timed out after 10 minutes");
}

createAndWaitForPrediction({
  width: 1024,
  height: 1024,
  prompt: "a quiet mountain lake at sunrise with mist over the water and pine trees on the shore",
  use_pe: true,
  num_outputs: 1,
  output_format: "jpg",
  output_quality: 80
}).then((output) => output.forEach((url) => console.log(url)));
```

#### Python
```python
import time
import requests

API_KEY = "YOUR_API_MARKET_KEY"
BASE_URL = "https://prod.api.market/api/v1/magicapi/text-to-image-generator-prunaai-ernie-image-turbo"


def create_and_wait_for_prediction(input_data):
    headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json", "x-api-market-key": API_KEY}
    response = requests.post(
        f"{BASE_URL}/predictions",
        headers=headers,
        json={"version": "fb19aa909fb366cdbdc06a87be3753aea6954346780bac847cccf8f32ad2626f", "input": input_data},
    )

    if response.status_code != 201:
        raise Exception(f"API error: {response.status_code} {response.text}")

    return poll_for_results(response.json()["id"])


def poll_for_results(prediction_id):
    max_timeout = 600
    poll_interval = 1
    headers = {"x-api-market-key": API_KEY}
    start_time = time.time()

    while time.time() - start_time < max_timeout:
        response = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/predictions/{prediction_id}", headers=headers)

        if response.status_code != 200:
            raise Exception(f"API error: {response.status_code} {response.text}")

        prediction = response.json()

        if prediction["status"] == "succeeded":
            return prediction["output"]

        if prediction["status"] in ("failed", "canceled"):
            raise Exception(f"Prediction {prediction['status']}: {prediction.get('error') or 'Unknown error'}")

        time.sleep(poll_interval)

    raise Exception("Prediction timed out after 10 minutes")


output = create_and_wait_for_prediction({
    "width": 1024,
    "height": 1024,
    "prompt": "a quiet mountain lake at sunrise with mist over the water and pine trees on the shore",
    "use_pe": True,
    "num_outputs": 1,
    "output_format": "jpg",
    "output_quality": 80,
})
for url in output:
    print(url)
```

## FAQ
- **What does `use_pe` do?**
  - It runs the prompt enhancer recommended by the model card on your prompt before the image is generated. It is on by default; set it to `false` if you want your prompt used exactly as written.
- **What image sizes can I request?**
  - `width` and `height` each from 64 to 2048 pixels, default 1024 x 1024. The model card's recommended sizes give the best results.
- **How many images does one request return?**
  - Between 1 and 4, set by `num_outputs` (default 1). `output` is always a list of URLs.
- **How can I get the same image again?**
  - Send the same input with the same `seed`.
- **How much does a request cost?**
  - $0.02 for each started 11 seconds of processing. The example (1 image at 1024 x 1024) took 12.3 seconds, so it cost 2 units ($0.04). More images or larger sizes take longer.
- **What if my prediction fails?**
  - Failed predictions are not billed. Read the `error` field, adjust the input and try again.

## Contact Us
If you have any questions, reach out to us through the chat on the bottom right of the page. You can also email our support team at hello@magicapi.com.


Generate images from text with Baidu's ERNIE-Image Turbo: 1 to 4 images per request, 64 to 2048 pixel sizes, prompt enhancer and seed control.