
Z-Image Turbo API by Alibaba
Z-Image-Turbo is a 6 billion parameter text-to-image model that generates photorealistic images in sub-second time. Ready-to-use REST inference API, best performance, no coldstarts, affordable pricing.
INPUT
OUTPUT
IdleYour request will cost $0.01 per run. For $10 you can run this model approximately 1000 times.
Here's what you can do next:
Code Example
import requests
import time
# Step 1: Start image generation
generate_url = "https://api.atlascloud.ai/api/v1/model/generateImage"
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
"Authorization": "Bearer $ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY"
}
data = {
"model": "z-image/turbo",
"prompt": "A beautiful landscape with mountains and lake",
"width": 512,
"height": 512,
"steps": 20,
"guidance_scale": 7.5,
}
generate_response = requests.post(generate_url, headers=headers, json=data)
generate_result = generate_response.json()
prediction_id = generate_result["data"]["id"]
# Step 2: Poll for result
poll_url = f"https://api.atlascloud.ai/api/v1/model/prediction/{prediction_id}"
def check_status():
while True:
response = requests.get(poll_url, headers={"Authorization": "Bearer $ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY"})
result = response.json()
if result["data"]["status"] == "completed":
print("Generated image:", result["data"]["outputs"][0])
return result["data"]["outputs"][0]
elif result["data"]["status"] == "failed":
raise Exception(result["data"]["error"] or "Generation failed")
else:
# Still processing, wait 2 seconds
time.sleep(2)
image_url = check_status()Install
Install the required package for your language.
pip install requestsAuthentication
All API requests require authentication via an API key. You can get your API key from the Atlas Cloud dashboard.
export ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"HTTP Headers
import os
API_KEY = os.environ.get("ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY")
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"
}Never expose your API key in client-side code or public repositories. Use environment variables or a backend proxy instead.
Submit a request
import requests
url = "https://api.atlascloud.ai/api/v1/model/generateImage"
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
"Authorization": "Bearer $ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY"
}
data = {
"model": "your-model",
"prompt": "A beautiful landscape"
}
response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)
print(response.json())Submit a Request
Submit an asynchronous generation request. The API returns a prediction ID that you can use to check the status and retrieve the result.
/api/v1/model/generateImageRequest Body
import requests
url = "https://api.atlascloud.ai/api/v1/model/generateImage"
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
"Authorization": "Bearer $ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY"
}
data = {
"model": "z-image/turbo",
"input": {
"prompt": "A beautiful landscape with mountains and lake"
}
}
response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)
result = response.json()
print(f"Prediction ID: {result['id']}")
print(f"Status: {result['status']}")Response
{
"id": "pred_abc123",
"status": "processing",
"model": "model-name",
"created_at": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}Check Status
Poll the prediction endpoint to check the current status of your request.
/api/v1/model/prediction/{prediction_id}Polling Example
import requests
import time
prediction_id = "pred_abc123"
url = f"https://api.atlascloud.ai/api/v1/model/prediction/{prediction_id}"
headers = { "Authorization": "Bearer $ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY" }
while True:
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
result = response.json()
status = result["data"]["status"]
print(f"Status: {status}")
if status in ["completed", "succeeded"]:
output_url = result["data"]["outputs"][0]
print(f"Output URL: {output_url}")
break
elif status == "failed":
print(f"Error: {result['data'].get('error', 'Unknown')}")
break
time.sleep(3)Status Values
processingThe request is still being processed.completedGeneration is complete. Outputs are available.succeededGeneration succeeded. Outputs are available.failedGeneration failed. Check the error field.Completed Response
{
"data": {
"id": "pred_abc123",
"status": "completed",
"outputs": [
"https://storage.atlascloud.ai/outputs/result.png"
],
"metrics": {
"predict_time": 8.3
},
"created_at": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z",
"completed_at": "2025-01-01T00:00:10Z"
}
}Upload Files
Upload files to Atlas Cloud storage and get a URL you can use in your API requests. Use multipart/form-data to upload.
/api/v1/model/uploadMediaUpload Example
import requests
url = "https://api.atlascloud.ai/api/v1/model/uploadMedia"
headers = { "Authorization": "Bearer $ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY" }
with open("image.png", "rb") as f:
files = {"file": ("image.png", f, "image/png")}
response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, files=files)
result = response.json()
download_url = result["data"]["download_url"]
print(f"File URL: {download_url}")Response
{
"data": {
"download_url": "https://storage.atlascloud.ai/uploads/abc123/image.png",
"file_name": "image.png",
"content_type": "image/png",
"size": 1024000
}
}Input Schema
The following parameters are accepted in the request body.
No parameters available.
Example Request Body
{
"model": "z-image/turbo"
}Output Schema
The API returns a prediction response with the generated output URLs.
Example Response
{
"id": "pred_abc123",
"status": "completed",
"model": "model-name",
"outputs": [
"https://storage.atlascloud.ai/outputs/result.png"
],
"metrics": {
"predict_time": 8.3
},
"created_at": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z",
"completed_at": "2025-01-01T00:00:10Z"
}Atlas Cloud Skills
Atlas Cloud Skills integrates 300+ AI models directly into your AI coding assistant. One command to install, then use natural language to generate images, videos, and chat with LLMs.
Supported Clients
Install
npx skills add AtlasCloudAI/atlas-cloud-skillsSetup API Key
Get your API key from the Atlas Cloud dashboard and set it as an environment variable.
export ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"Capabilities
Once installed, you can use natural language in your AI assistant to access all Atlas Cloud models.
MCP Server
Atlas Cloud MCP Server connects your IDE with 300+ AI models via the Model Context Protocol. Works with any MCP-compatible client.
Supported Clients
Install
npx -y atlascloud-mcpConfiguration
Add the following configuration to your IDE's MCP settings file.
{
"mcpServers": {
"atlascloud": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"atlascloud-mcp"
],
"env": {
"ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}Available Tools
API Schema
Schema not availableNo examples available
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Log InZ-Image Turbo - Lightning-Fast Text-to-Image Generation
NEW6 Billion Parameter Model by Alibaba TONGYIMAI
Z-Image Turbo is the #1 ranked open-source text-to-image model, surpassing FLUX.2 [dev], HunyuanImage 3.0, and Qwen-Image on the Artificial Analysis Image Arena. Built by Alibaba's Tongyi-MAI team (a separate division from Qwen/Wan), this 6B parameter model achieves sub-second generation through advanced Decoupled-DMD distillation while maintaining photorealistic quality. With only 8 inference steps, it fits within 16GB VRAM and delivers professional results optimized for speed-critical production environments.
- Only 8 inference steps (vs 20-50 for competitors)
- Sub-second generation on H800 GPUs
- 1.31-1.41× faster than Qwen Image per step
- Fits in 16GB VRAM (RTX 3060/4090)
- #1 ranked open-source model on AI Arena
- Bilingual text rendering (English & Chinese)
- Robust instruction adherence
- Beats FLUX.1 [dev] and Qwen in all categories
Alibaba's Strategic Model Portfolio
Alibaba offers three specialized AI image generation systems, each optimized for different use cases
Z-Image Turbo
Tongyi-MAI Team
- ⚡ Fastest: 8 steps, sub-second generation
- 🏆 #1 ranked open-source model
- 💰 Most cost-effective ($0.005/image)
- 🎯 Optimized for rapid iteration
Qwen-Image
Qwen Team
- 🎨 Unmatched photorealism & skin textures
- 💡 Superior lighting interactions
- ⏱️ Slower (20s vs 5-10s for Z-Image)
- 🎯 Best for high-end production work
Wan 2.5/2.6
Wan Team
- 🎬 Text-to-Video + Image-to-Video
- 📹 Multi-resolution support (480P-720P)
- 🔄 Audio-visual synchronization
- 🎯 Cross-modal content generation
Key Insight: Z-Image Turbo is 1.31-1.41× faster than Qwen-Image per step, making it ideal for applications requiring rapid generation. While Qwen-Image offers slightly better photorealism for final renders, Z-Image Turbo provides the best balance of speed and quality for production environments.
Technical Highlights
Adopts Single-Stream Diffusion Transformer (S3-DiT) architecture that unifies processing of various conditional inputs. This 6B parameter design achieves professional results without the computational overhead of larger models while maintaining state-of-the-art quality.
Advanced distillation algorithm with CFG Augmentation and Distribution Matching mechanisms enables 8-step inference (vs 20-50 for competitors). Achieves sub-second generation on H800 GPUs and runs smoothly on consumer RTX 3060/4090 with 16GB VRAM.
Ranked #1 open-source model on Artificial Analysis Image Arena, beating FLUX.2 [dev], HunyuanImage 3.0, and Qwen-Image. Excels at bilingual text rendering (English & Chinese), photorealistic generation, and robust instruction following. Released under Apache 2.0 license for commercial use.
Perfect For
Why Choose Z-Image Turbo
Instant Results
Sub-second generation with zero cold start latency. Get your images immediately without any waiting.Cost-Effective
Affordable pricing at $0.005 per image. Scale your creative projects without breaking the budget.Ready-to-Use API
Simple REST API integration. Start generating images in minutes with our comprehensive documentation.Technical Specifications
Start Creating with Z-Image Turbo
Experience lightning-fast, photorealistic image generation today. No setup required, just call our API and start creating.
Z-Image-Turbo — 6B-parameter, ultra-fast text-to-image
Z-Image-Turbo is a 6B-parameter text-to-image model from Tongyi-MAI, engineered for production workloads where latency and throughput really matter. It uses only 8 sampling steps to render a full image, achieving sub-second latency on data-center GPUs and running comfortably on many 16 GB VRAM consumer cards.
Ultra-fast generation with production-ready quality
Where many diffusion models need dozens of steps, Z-Image-Turbo is aggressively optimised around an 8-step sampler. That keeps inference extremely fast while still delivering photorealistic images and reliable on-image text, making it a strong fit for interactive products, dashboards, and large-scale backends—not just offline batch jobs.
Why it looks so good?
- Photorealistic output at speed Generates high-fidelity, realistic images that work for product photos, hero banners, and UI visuals without multi-second waits.
- Bilingual prompts and text Understands prompts in English and Chinese, and can render multilingual text directly in the image—helpful for cross-market campaigns, posters, and screenshots.
- Low-latency, low-step design Only 8 function evaluations per image deliver extremely low latency, ideal for chatbots, configuration tools, design assistants, and any “click → image” experience.
- Friendly VRAM footprint Runs well in 16 GB VRAM environments, reducing hardware costs and making local or edge deployments more realistic.
- Scales for bulk generation Its efficiency makes large jobs—catalogues, continuous feed images, or auto-generated thumbnails—practical without blowing up compute budgets.
- Reproducible generations A controllable seed parameter lets you recreate a previous image or generate small, controlled variations for brand safety and experimentation.
How to use
- prompt – natural-language description of the scene, style, and any on-image text (English or Chinese).
- size (width / height) – choose the output resolution; supports square and rectangular images up to high resolutions (for example, 1536 × 1536).
- seed – set to -1 for random results, or use a fixed integer to make outputs reproducible.
Pricing
Simple per-image billing:
- Without prompt rewriting (prompt_extend=false): $0.015 per generated image
- With prompt rewriting (prompt_extend=true): $0.03 per generated image
Try more models and see their difference!
- Nano Banana Pro – Text-to-Image – Google’s Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3.0 Pro Image family) delivers high-quality multi-image generation with extremely low cost per image, ideal for large-scale applications.
- Seedream V4 – Text-to-Image – ByteDance’s high-resolution text-to-image model with rich detail and diverse styles, well suited for creative illustration and commercial visuals.
- FLUX.2 [dev] – Text-to-Image – A lightweight FLUX.2-based base model hosted by AtlasCloud, optimised for efficient inference and LoRA-friendly training.






