AI video generator with no sign-up: what Sume needs before clip one

Sume does not have a no-sign-up video generator. To render a clip you need three things: an account, a Sume API key, and a USD balance in the workspace that owns the key. What you can do without any of them is read: the public API routes let you look at the model list and its pricing metadata before you decide to register.

This page is for the person who typed "ai video generator no sign up" and wants to know exactly where the line is.

What works with no key

The API reference lists the only /v1 routes that do not need a key. Every other /v1 route returns 401 without one.

• GET /v1/health checks that the API is up.
• GET /v1/catalog returns capabilities, endpoints, runtime readiness, models and pricing metadata.
• GET /v1/openapi.json returns the schema.
• GET /v1/bgm/catalog, GET /v1/bgm/categories and POST /v1/bgm/pick cover the background-music catalog.

curl https://api.sume.com/v1/catalog

What stops a keyless video request

Sume limits unauthenticated requests per client IP at the Free-plan rate, and the authentication docs say every other route needs the key. A video submit is a paid write, so it needs one more thing: Sume reserves the estimated cost from the workspace balance before provider work starts. With no balance, the submit fails with 402 insufficient_credits.

Where a plan comes in

The pricing page describes the Free plan as "for trying image generation", with no credit card required. It lists video generation with the paid plans, and describes the wallet as on-demand purchases from $10 to $1000. Check the pricing page for the current plan grid, because plan contents can change.

Sign-up is the cheap part. The first video you render costs cents: at the catalog rate the shortest valid Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 clip, 3 seconds at 360p, bills $0.12 (list $0.03 a second, times 1.25, rounded up to the cent).

A sensible first hour

Read GET /v1/catalog with no key to see which models exist and what each one lists. Then register, create a key, fund a small balance, and send one short clip. The video generation docs show the submit, poll and download steps. Keep the key on a server: the authentication docs say never to put it in frontend JavaScript or a mobile app.

Why video is not offered anonymously

Video generation is paid provider work. Sume reserves an estimated amount from a workspace balance when it accepts a job, captures it on success, and releases it on failure or on a cancel before generation starts. That ledger needs an owner, so every submit is tied to a key and a workspace. The usage docs describe the same lifecycle as reserved, captured and refunded rows.

There is a second reason: the request id in error bodies, the job list and the usage ledger are all scoped to the workspace of the authenticated key. An anonymous caller would have nowhere for those records to live. If a hosted trial without registration matters to you, Sume's docs do not describe one, so none is claimed here.

The practical substitute is a small, capped trial. Register, create a key, buy the smallest top-up the dashboard offers, and cap what you send: pick a short clip, the lowest resolution the model accepts, and one model. Send an Idempotency-Key so a retry cannot double-charge, and read the job's usage.cost when it completes. If you outgrow it, read the catalog again, because the public GET /v1/catalog shows the current models without a key.