The kie.ai alternative. Compared model by model.

kie.ai and Zurelay both sell the big labs' models below their list prices. Of the 31 models both sell that we compared, Zurelay is cheaper on 17 and kie.ai on 7. Here's every price side by side, and how the two APIs differ.

Shared models compared
31
Cheaper on Zurelay
17
Cheaper on kie.ai
7
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Prices

kie.ai and Zurelay. Side by side.

kie.ai's prices as its pricing data listed them on October 29, 2026; Zurelay's are live. Prices within 3% count as the same.

Chat models, input / output per 1M tokens

Chat model prices on kie.ai and Zurelay
Modelkie.aiZurelayCheaper
Claude Opus 5.5$1.60 / $8.00$1.40 / $7.00Zurelay
Claude Sonnet 5.5$0.80 / $4.00$0.79 / $3.95About the same
Claude Haiku 5.5$0.06 / $0.30$0.04 / $0.20Zurelay
Claude Fable 5No tool use or Claude Code on kie.ai$4.00 / $20.00$3.50 / $17.50Zurelay
GPT-6 Astra$2.80 / $14.00$2.50 / $12.50Zurelay
GPT-6.1 Sol$0.60 / $3.00$0.50 / $2.50Zurelay
GPT-6.1 Terra$0.30 / $1.50$0.25 / $1.25Zurelay
Gemini 4 Argon$0.80 / $4.00$0.80 / $4.00About the same
Gemini 3.1 Pro$0.50 / $3.50$0.50 / $3.45About the same
Gemini 3.8 Flashkie.ai's half-price offer to Dec 31$0.225 / $1.125$0.22 / $1.10About the same
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash$0.12 / $0.475$0.03 / $0.12Zurelay
Kimi K3$2.40 / $12.00$1.27 / $6.37Zurelay

Image models

Image model prices on kie.ai and Zurelay
Modelkie.aiZurelayCheaper
Nano Banana Pro1K, per image$0.09$0.035Zurelay
Nano Banana Pro4K, per image$0.12$0.065Zurelay
Nano Banana 21K, per image$0.04$0.025Zurelay
Nano Banana 2.11K, per image$0.02$0.03kie.ai
GPT Image 21K, per image$0.03$0.02Zurelay
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1K, per image$0.03$0.026Zurelay
GPT Image 2.5 Flare1K, per image$0.03$0.028Zurelay
Grok Imagine Image 2.01K, per image$0.02$0.045kie.ai

Video models, with sound where there's a choice

Video model prices on kie.ai and Zurelay
Modelkie.aiZurelayCheaper
Veo 3.1 Fast720p, per 8-second clip$0.3$0.2Zurelay
Gemini Omni Flash720p, per 8-second clip$0.525$0.336Zurelay
Seedance 2.0720p, per second$0.205$0.199About the same
Seedance 2.01080p, per second$0.51$0.445Zurelay
Seedance 2.5720p, per second$0.315$0.305Zurelay
Seedance 2.0 Fast720p, per second$0.124$0.159kie.ai
Seedance 2.0 Mini720p, per second$0.041$0.1kie.ai
Kling 4.0720p, per second$0.1425$0.15kie.ai
Kling 3.0720p, per second$0.1$0.185kie.ai
Wan 3.0720p, per second$0.08$0.079About the same
Grok Imagine Video 1.5720p, per second · Sold as a preview on kie.ai$0.0225$0.124kie.ai
PixVerse V6720p, per second$0.048$0.047About the same
MiniMax H3768p, per second$0.04$0.039About the same

kie.ai's figures are from its pricing page and model pages, at 1 credit = $0.005; it mentions regional discounts in some locations. Veo 3.1 Fast and Gemini Omni Flash are compared on an 8-second 720p clip, since kie.ai prices them per clip; Seedance without a video input. kie.ai is a trademark of its owner; Zurelay isn't affiliated with it.

Where Zurelay fits

  • Cheaper on Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Haiku 5.5, Claude Fable 5, GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6.1 Terra and 11 more, at today's prices.
  • One OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions endpoint for every chat model, GPT-6 included, and Anthropic's Messages API for Claude Code.
  • Every route tested before it serves requests and every day after, with checks that catch an older or different model sold under a newer name.
  • A request that fails on one route moves to another, and failed attempts aren't billed.

Where kie.ai fits

  • Cheaper on Nano Banana 2.1, Grok Imagine Image 2.0, Seedance 2.0 Fast, Seedance 2.0 Mini, Kling 4.0, Kling 3.0 and 1 more, at today's prices.
  • Many more kinds of model: music, ElevenLabs voices, Runway, upscalers, lip sync and avatars.
  • More ways to pay than Zurelay's card checkout.
  • Credits that kie.ai says never expire, with bonus credits on large packs.

Switching

One base URL. Every model.

On Zurelay, every chat model takes the same OpenAI SDK call; only the model name changes. Images and video have their own endpoints with the same key, described in the docs.

For Claude Code, set ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL to https://api.zurelay.com; Claude Code pricing has the rest.

any-model.py
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.zurelay.com/v1", api_key="YOUR_ZURELAY_KEY")
for model in ["claude-opus-5-5", "gpt-6.1-terra", "deepseek-v4.1-flash"]:
    reply = client.chat.completions.create(
        model=model,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Say hello"}],
    )
    print(model, reply.choices[0].message.content)

FAQ

kie.ai questions.

Anything else? Ask our team and we’ll answer by email.

Is Zurelay cheaper than kie.ai?

On some models and not others. Of the 31 models both sell that we compared on October 29, 2026, Zurelay was cheaper on 17, including Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Haiku 5.5, Claude Fable 5, GPT-6 Astra and 13 more, and kie.ai on 7, including Nano Banana 2.1, Grok Imagine Image 2.0, Seedance 2.0 Fast, Seedance 2.0 Mini and 3 more. The tables on this page show each one.

Is kie.ai an official API?

Neither kie.ai nor Zurelay is a lab's own API. kie.ai's pages describe its prices as a share below official pricing and say features may differ from the labs' own platforms. Zurelay serves each model through routes run by independent sellers, and tests every route before it serves requests and every day after, with identity and dated-knowledge checks that catch an older or different model sold under a newer name.

Can I use Claude Code with kie.ai or Zurelay?

Both serve Claude through Anthropic's Messages API, so Claude Code works by changing ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL: https://api.kie.ai/anthropic on kie.ai, https://api.zurelay.com on Zurelay. kie.ai's Claude Fable 5 page says it doesn't support tool use or Claude Code.

Does kie.ai have an OpenAI-compatible API?

Partly. kie.ai's docs give Gemini models OpenAI-style chat completion paths, one per model, while GPT-6 models use a Responses-style endpoint and DeepSeek and Kimi are marked chat only. Zurelay serves every chat model on one OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions endpoint, and Claude on Anthropic's Messages API too.

How do kie.ai credits work?

One credit is about half a cent ($0.005). The smallest purchase is $5 for 1,000 credits, larger packs add bonus credits, and kie.ai says credits never expire. kie.ai also mentions regional discounts in some locations, so what you pay there can differ from the figures here.

More pricing

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