Text to Video API: Generate AI Videos from Text Prompts

What is a Text to Video API?

A text to video API is a cloud service that takes a natural language description and returns a generated video clip. You send an HTTP request with a prompt like “A drone shot flying over a tropical beach at sunset” and receive an MP4 video in response.

The API handles all the heavy computation on cloud GPUs. Your application just needs to make an HTTP request and handle the response — no ML frameworks, no model weights, no GPU infrastructure required.

How Text-to-Video Generation Works

Modern text-to-video models use diffusion transformers to generate video frame by frame. The process starts with noise and progressively refines it into coherent video frames that match your text prompt. Here's the typical API workflow:

Available Models

Renderful provides access to the leading text-to-video models through a single API:

Quick Start Code Example

Here's how to generate a video from a text prompt using Renderful's API:

curl -X POST https://api.renderful.ai/api/v1/generations \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "openai/sora-2",
    "input": {
      "prompt": "A drone shot flying over a tropical beach at golden hour, cinematic",
      "aspect_ratio": "16:9",
      "duration": 5
    },
    "webhook": "https://your-app.com/webhook"
  }'

Python

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.renderful.ai/api/v1/generations",
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "model": "kuaishou/kling-v2-master",
        "input": {
            "prompt": "A cat sitting on a windowsill watching rain, cozy atmosphere",
            "aspect_ratio": "16:9",
            "duration": 5,
        },
        "webhook": "https://your-app.com/webhook",
    },
)

generation = response.json()
print(f"Generation ID: {generation['id']}")
print(f"Status: {generation['status']}")

JavaScript

const response = await fetch("https://api.renderful.ai/api/v1/generations", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    model: "wan-ai/wan2.1-t2v-turbo",
    input: {
      prompt: "A timelapse of a flower blooming in a garden, macro shot",
      aspect_ratio: "9:16",
      duration: 5,
    },
    webhook: "https://your-app.com/webhook",
  }),
});

const generation = await response.json();
console.log("Generation ID:", generation.id);

Pricing

Renderful offers pay-as-you-go pricing for all text-to-video models with no monthly minimums:

Use Cases

Text-to-video APIs are being used across industries to automate video content creation:

Frequently Asked Questions

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