Cheaper Gen.

For AI agents · MCP

Hand your agent the camera.

Paste one sentence into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any AI agent. It connects itself; you sign in once. Then just ask for video and images.

Paste this into your agent

Set up Cheaper Gen. for me by following https://cheapergen.com/agents/setup.md

Open in Cursor What your agent reads
Works with any agent that can run a command or edit its MCP settings. It asks before touching global settings and never sees your keys.
  • Sign in once, no keys to paste
  • Price shown before it runs
  • Failed runs are refunded

Or connect it yourself

One command or one file, then sign in once.

Full MCP docs

One command in your terminal

claude mcp add --transport http cheapergen https://cheapergen.com/api/mcp
  1. Run /mcp, pick cheapergen and choose Authenticate.
  2. Your browser opens a Cheaper Gen. page. Sign in and approve, and you're done.

Add --scope user to use it in every project.

See it work

Ask in plain words. Get the shot.

Your agent finds the right model, checks the price with you, then generates. The finished clip lands right in the conversation.

  1. 01

    Quote first, for free

    quote prices the exact request. Nothing runs until you say so.

  2. 02

    Pay per generation

    generate holds the price from your balance and refunds it in full if the run fails.

  3. 03

    Results in the chat

    get_generation brings back the output. Images usually arrive in one call; for video, your agent checks in until it's done.

Your agentcheapergen connected

  1. You: Make a 5-second vertical clip with Seedance 2.0 Fast: a motorcyclist tearing through a rain-soaked neon city at night, low tracking shot. Tell me the price first.

  2. Tool call:cheapergenquoteseedance-2.0-fast/text-to-video · 720p · 5 s · 3:4$0.471$0.609−23%
  3. Agent: That's $0.47 for 5 seconds at 720p — $0.61 at the official price. Want me to go ahead?

  4. You: Yes, go for it.

  5. Tool call:cheapergengeneratemax_cost_usd: 0.50$0.471 held· running
    Tool call:cheapergenget_generationwait_seconds: 50succeeded
  6. Agent:

    Here's your clip. $0.47 came out of your balance. The link expires in a day, so download it if you want to keep it.

    Example output: a motorcyclist racing down a neon-lit city street at nightSeedance 2.0 Fast
Illustrative conversation. The price shown is a live quote from our catalog.

How it works

Three steps. The last is just asking.

No SDK to install and no keys in config files. Connect once, and every model in the catalog is one sentence away.

  1. Step 01

    Connect

    Paste one sentence into your agent and it sets itself up. Or add the URL to any MCP client yourself.

    cheapergen.com/api/mcp
  2. Step 02

    Sign in once

    Your browser opens a Cheaper Gen. page. Sign in and approve the app. There's no API key to copy.

    Claude Code wants to connect

    • Browse models and prices
    • Generate video and images
    • See your balance and generations
  3. Step 03

    Just ask

    Ask for a video or image. You see the price first, pay per generation from your balance, and failed runs are refunded automatically.

    Seedance 2.0 Fast · 720p · 5 s done
    $0.47Official price $0.61−23%

    Refunded in full if it fails

Tools

Six tools. Everything it needs.

Each tool wraps the same code as our REST API, so prices, validation and errors match exactly.

  1. list_models
  2. get_model
  3. quote
  4. generate
  5. get_generation

  • list_models

    Free

    Every video and image model with its endpoints, starting price, official price and discount. Filter by category or lab.

    Arguments: (category?, vendor?)

  • get_model

    Free

    One model's input schema for each endpoint (options, defaults, reference-media limits) plus its full price table.

    Arguments: (model)

  • quote

    Free

    The exact price of a request before it runs, next to the official price. Nothing is charged.

    Arguments: (endpoint, input?)

  • generate

    Paid

    Submits the job and holds its price from your balance, refunded in full if it fails. max_cost_usd refuses anything over budget.

    Arguments: (endpoint, input, wait_seconds?, max_cost_usd?)

  • get_generation

    Free

    Status, output URLs and the final cost. Waits up to 50 seconds for the result in one call.

    Arguments: (id, wait_seconds?)

  • get_account

    Free

    Your prepaid balance, what's held for jobs in progress, and your auto top-up settings.

    Arguments: (none)

Full tool reference

Try asking

Say what you want. It handles the rest.

Every model in the catalog is one sentence away: ByteDance, Kuaishou, Google, Alibaba, MiniMax, Shengshu, xAI, Black Forest Labs, PixVerse and OpenAI video and image models, at below-list prices.

Browse all models

Trust & control

Your account. Your rules.

An agent gets exactly the access it needs to make media for you, and nothing more. You can see what it did and switch it off any time.

  • Scoped sign-in

    OAuth 2.1, approved by you on cheapergen.com. A connected app can only use the six tools above. It can't add funds, change settings or create API keys.

  • Disconnect any time

    Every connected app is listed under Dashboard → API keys. Disconnect one and its access ends immediately.

  • Spend capped by your balance

    Agents spend from the prepaid balance you've added (plus auto top-up, only if you turned it on). max_cost_usd refuses any job over budget.

  • Every run on record

    Generations from agents show up in your dashboard next to everything else, marked with the source MCP.

  • Private to your account

    Your prompts and outputs belong to your account. We don't use them to train models.

  • Deleted after a day

    API data, including prompts and outputs, is deleted automatically 1 day after a generation completes, by default. Download what you want to keep.

Details in our Privacy Policy.

More ways in

Building, not chatting? Same models.

When an agent writes code against Cheaper Gen., give it the skill. When nobody can sign in through a browser, give it a key.

Agent Skill

A single SKILL.md that teaches coding agents our REST API: pick a model, quote, submit, poll or verify webhooks. It prefers the MCP tools when they're connected.

npx skills add CheaperGen/skills
Download SKILL.md

API key for headless use

No browser to sign in from, as in CI? Send a cg_live_ key as a Bearer header. Create one key per agent so you can revoke it on its own.

Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http cheapergen https://cheapergen.com/api/mcp \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer ${CHEAPERGEN_API_KEY}'
Headless setup

llms.txt and the REST API

A machine-readable map of the API, docs and every model with live prices. The catalog (GET /api/v1/models) and quotes need no key.

No key needed
curl https://cheapergen.com/api/v1/models
llms.txt API reference

FAQ

Agents, answered.

Something else? Read the MCP docs or write to support@cheapergen.com.

Yes. Paste the sentence at the top of this page into your agent. It points to a short setup guide written for agents: it tells your agent which command or config file fits its app, to ask before changing global settings, never to handle your keys, and to check the connection at the end. Your part is signing in once in your browser.

Any MCP client that supports remote (HTTP) servers: Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code with GitHub Copilot, and Claude on claude.ai and Claude Desktop, among others. Clients that only run local (stdio) servers can connect through the mcp-remote bridge.

No. The first time your agent connects, it opens a Cheaper Gen. page in your browser: sign in, approve, and you're done. For headless setups such as CI, you can send an API key (cg_live_…) as a Bearer header instead.

The same as the Studio and the REST API, with no extra fee for MCP. Quotes are free. Each generation is paid from your prepaid balance at our catalog price, below the official list price, and refunded in full if it fails.

It sees the exact price before anything runs and is told to share it with you before expensive jobs. Ask it to pass max_cost_usd and any job above that amount is refused without a charge. It can only spend your prepaid balance (and auto top-up, if you turned it on).

Images usually come back within a single tool call. Videos take one to several minutes: your agent submits the job, then checks get_generation (up to 50 seconds per call) until it's done.

Output links come back in the chat and the generations appear in your dashboard. By default, API data including outputs is deleted automatically 1 day after a generation completes, so download what you want to keep. Enterprise accounts can choose other retention periods.

Three things. Official partnerships with the labs give us their lowest channel pricing. For open-source models, we run our own inference engine. And our router sends every request to the fastest, most cost-effective healthy channel.

Use the MCP server when you want your agent to make media for you in a chat. Use the Agent Skill when an agent is writing code that calls our REST API. They work together: the skill tells agents to prefer the MCP tools when they're connected.

Open Dashboard → API keys → Connected apps and disconnect it. Its access ends immediately. If you connected with an API key instead, revoke that key.

Your next video is one sentence away.

Create an account, add any amount of credit, and connect your agent in a minute.

claude mcp add --transport http cheapergen https://cheapergen.com/api/mcp
Get started Read the setup guide