Checked on October 26, 2026

LaoZhang alternative: image generation API

LaoZhang API is a gateway to Google and OpenAI models with a fixed price per call. Below are the prices for our models from their public pages and the terms that affect your choice.

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A Rendergrid article. We’re one of the parties in this comparison, so the LaoZhang API figures come only from its public pages, each with a link and a date, and below we say separately when LaoZhang API is the better choice. How we check and correct

01Who it is

What LaoZhang API is

Briefly, and only from their own pages. Website: laozhang.ai.

LaoZhang API (laozhang.ai) is a gateway that has been run since 2025 by YingTu Technology Pte. Ltd. (Singapore). One key opens the Google Nano Banana, OpenAI GPT Image, and xAI Grok Imagine models, as well as text and video models. The “About” page says it is not an official service of these companies.

Prices for Nano Banana and GPT Image are a fixed amount per call. The page gives the date of the public price (September 24 or October 7, 2026) and the date it was checked, October 10, 2026. GPT Image also has an “official forwarding” mode billed by tokens; we took the per-call mode.

02Pricing

Prices for our models

How much one image costs at LaoZhang API and at Rendergrid. The LaoZhang API prices are from its public pages, checked on October 26, 2026.

Comparable cells: 11. Cheaper with us: 10, at LaoZhang API: 1, the same: 0.

Image prices: LaoZhang API and Rendergrid
Model	Resolution	LaoZhang API	Rendergrid	Difference
Nano Banana Pro`nano-banana-pro`	1K	$0.09any size¹	$0.04	Cheaper with us by 55%
Nano Banana Pro	2K	$0.09any size	$0.04	Cheaper with us by 55%
Nano Banana Pro	4K	$0.09any size	$0.07	Cheaper with us by 22%
Nano Banana 2`nano-banana-2`	1K	$0.055any size²	$0.025	Cheaper with us by 54%
Nano Banana 2	2K	$0.055any size	$0.04	Cheaper with us by 27%
Nano Banana 2	4K	$0.055any size	$0.06	Cheaper with them by 8%
Nano Banana 2.1`nano-banana-2.1`	1K	$0.045any size³	$0.02	Cheaper with us by 55%
Nano Banana 2.1	2K	$0.045any size	$0.03	Cheaper with us by 33%
Nano Banana 2.1	4K	$0.045any size	$0.04	Cheaper with us by 11%
GPT Image 2`gpt-image-2`	1K	$0.03any size⁴	$0.02	Cheaper with us by 33%
GPT Image 2.5`gpt-image-2.5`	1K	$0.03any size⁵	$0.025	Cheaper with us by 16%

1Nano Banana Pro. $0.09 per call at any size (1K, 2K, 4K); the price as of September 24, 2026. Source: docs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/nano-ban…. Checked on October 26, 2026.
2Nano Banana 2. $0.055 per call, and the price doesn’t depend on size (from 512 to 4K); the price as of September 24, 2026. Source: docs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/nano-ban…. Checked on October 26, 2026.
3Nano Banana 2.1. $0.045 per call at any size; the price as of October 7, 2026. Source: docs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/nano-ban…. Checked on October 26, 2026.
4GPT Image 2. $0.03 per call in the per-call mode; in the gpt-image-2-vip mode, the sizes 1K, 2K, and 4K and the quality levels low, medium, and high cost the same; official forwarding is billed by tokens. Source: docs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/gpt-imag…. Checked on October 26, 2026.
5GPT Image 2.5. Route gpt-image-2.5-web, $0.03 per call; the sizes and five quality levels cost the same. Source: docs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/gpt-imag…. Checked on October 26, 2026.

The difference is measured from the larger of the two prices, rounded down to a whole percent. The “≈” sign is an estimate that the provider’s own page gives. For GPT Image, quality and size differ between providers: each one’s conditions are in the footnote. We compare prices, not image quality. Nano Banana Flash, Nano Banana 2 Lite, and GPT Image 2 HD are not in the table: we haven’t checked the provider’s prices for them. Our own prices and the official Google and OpenAI prices are on the “Pricing” page.

03Terms

Payment, starter credits, and operating mode

What LaoZhang API’s pages say, next to our terms. Where a page is silent, we say so.

Terms: LaoZhang API and Rendergrid

Condition	LaoZhang	Rendergrid
Payment	A bank card through Stripe; for companies, bank transfer through supportsource 1 source 2	USDT (crypto top-up): the full amount sent is credited to the balance
Credits at no charge	not checked: we found no free credits on their pages	There’s no trial balance
Synchronous or asynchronous	Synchronous: a request in the Gemini generateContent format or an OpenAI-compatible chat/completions request returns the image in the responsesource	Asynchronous: POST returns 202 and an ID; the result comes through polling GET /creations/{id} (no more than once every 5 seconds) or a webhook
Webhooks	not checked: we found no webhooks for images on their pages	Yes: webhook_url in every request; the creation.completed and creation.failed events; an HMAC-SHA256 signature over the timestamp and the whole request body
Failed request	It depends on the case: 400, 401, 429, and a server failure before generation are usually not charged; a request Google declines with text and no image (HTTP 200) is charged as one callsource	If a generation fails, the charge is returned to the balance automatically; a declined request is refunded the same way
Limits	There’s no limit on concurrent requests per account; a 429 comes from the models’ limits further up the chainsource	By default for a new account: 120 requests per minute and up to 100 generations queued or running; account limits can be adjusted to match your traffic
Result storage	not checked: the result storage period is not named on the pages (the response returns the image data itself)	Result files are stored for one day

Also on their pages

Sign-up: with a Gmail address; a business has to ask for access by email. source
Prepayment: the balance is topped up in the console and charged per request. source

Our terms in detail are in the documentation.

04Strengths

Where we’re stronger, and where LaoZhang API is

Only what can be verified from public pages and our documentation.

Where Rendergrid is stronger

A declined request and any generation error are returned to the balance automatically. At LaoZhang, according to their page, a request Google declines with text and no image (HTTP 200) is charged as one call.
The result arrives asynchronously and through a signed webhook, so the client doesn’t need to keep a connection open. At LaoZhang the request is synchronous: if the client disconnects early, the server may still finish generating the image and charge for it (this is what their billing-rules page says).
Signing up with us is through Google, GitHub, Telegram, or email. At LaoZhang, according to their page, you sign up with a Gmail address, and a business has to request access by email.
A clear default limit: 120 requests per minute and up to 100 generations queued or running.

Where LaoZhang API is stronger

Card payment through Stripe. Ours is USDT.
The fixed price per call doesn’t depend on size (including 4K) or on the GPT Image quality.
The request is synchronous: you need neither polling nor a webhook, and the image arrives in the same response.
There’s no limit on concurrent requests per account (according to their page; a 429 may come from the models further up the chain).

05Choosing

When to pick LaoZhang API instead

We write this page as a participant in the comparison, so we name separately the cases where LaoZhang API suits you better.

Pick LaoZhang API if

You pay by bank card and USDT doesn’t suit you.
You need a simple synchronous call in the Gemini or OpenAI format, with no polling or webhooks.
You want to pay a fixed amount per call regardless of size.
You need other families (Grok Imagine, text and video models) under one key.

06Migration

Migrating to Rendergrid in three steps

If you decide to give it a try, here is what to change in the code. Parameters and responses are in the documentation.

Key and address
At LaoZhang, requests go to https://api.laozhang.ai (the Gemini format /v1beta/models/<model>:generateContent or the OpenAI-compatible /v1). For us it is https://api.rendergrid.io/api/public/v1 with an Authorization: Bearer header (or X-API-Key). The request and response format is different.
Request
Instead of a generateContent body with imageConfig, call POST /images/generate: model, prompt, aspect_ratio, and resolution at the root of the JSON body; the webhook is webhook_url. Add X-Idempotency-Key.
Result
The answer doesn’t come as an image in the response body but as a 202 response with an ID: poll GET /creations/{id} (queued, processing, completed, and failed; links in result_urls) or accept the creation.completed webhook. Our files are kept for a day, so download them right away.

POST /images/generate · example request

IDEMPOTENCY_KEY="$(uuidgen)"
curl -X POST https://api.rendergrid.io/api/public/v1/images/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RENDERGRID_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Idempotency-Key: $IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "nano-banana-2",
    "prompt": "a ceramic mug on a marble table",
    "resolution": "2K",
    "aspect_ratio": "1:1"
  }'

07FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How much does Nano Banana 2 cost at LaoZhang API and at Rendergrid?

According to LaoZhang API’s page, $0.055 per call at any size (checked on October 26, 2026). At Rendergrid, Nano Banana 2 at 1K costs $0.025 per image. Prices change, so open the provider’s page before you decide: docs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/nano-ban….

How do you pay at LaoZhang API and at Rendergrid?

A bank card through Stripe; for companies, bank transfer through support. At Rendergrid: USDT (crypto top-up): the full amount sent is credited to the balance.

Does LaoZhang API work synchronously or asynchronously?

Synchronously: a request in the Gemini generateContent format or an OpenAI-compatible chat/completions request returns the image in the response. Rendergrid is asynchronous: POST returns 202 and an ID; the result comes through polling GET /creations/{id} (no more than once every 5 seconds) or a webhook.

How do I move from LaoZhang API to Rendergrid?

Three steps: 1) key and address; 2) request; 3) result. The details and an example request are in the “Migration in three steps” section on this page.

Does LaoZhang API charge if the model declines a request?

According to LaoZhang’s billing-rules page, a Google answer that declines in text with no image comes back as HTTP 200 and counts as one call. At Rendergrid, a declined request is refunded to the balance automatically.

Where do these figures come from, and when were they checked?

All the LaoZhang API data comes from its public pages, with links in the “Sources” section. Checked on October 26, 2026. Rendergrid wrote this page, so we give a source for every figure.

08Sources

Sources and check date

All the LaoZhang API data was taken from these pages, checked on October 26, 2026. Prices change: open the provider’s page before you decide.

1
Nano Banana Pro on LaoZhang APIdocs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/nano-banana-pro-image.… · checked on October 26, 2026
2
Nano Banana 2 on LaoZhang APIdocs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/nano-banana2-image.md · checked on October 26, 2026
3
Nano Banana 2.1 on LaoZhang APIdocs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/nano-banana-2-1-image.… · checked on October 26, 2026
4
GPT Image 2 on LaoZhang APIdocs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/gpt-image-2.md · checked on October 26, 2026
5
GPT Image 2.5 on LaoZhang APIdocs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/gpt-image-2-5.md · checked on October 26, 2026
6
LaoZhang API: billing and failure rules for imagesdocs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/image-billing-and-fail… · checked on October 26, 2026
7
LaoZhang API: paymentdocs.laozhang.ai/en/faq/payment-methods.md · checked on October 26, 2026
8
LaoZhang API: operator, routes, paymentdocs.laozhang.ai/en/about.md · checked on October 26, 2026
9
LaoZhang API: concurrent request limitdocs.laozhang.ai/en/faq/api-concurrency.md · checked on October 26, 2026
10
LaoZhang API: Nano Banana, whether a request returns an imagedocs.laozhang.ai/en/api-capabilities/nano-banana-image.md · checked on October 26, 2026

Found an inaccuracy? Write to support@rendergrid.io. The correction process is described in “About the editors”.

Try Rendergrid

One price per image and resolution, signed webhooks, an automatic refund for a failed request.

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