Best Professional Headshot Generator API

The best professional headshot generator API for developers and platforms. Upload any face photo, choose a style, and receive a polished professional portrait in under 60 seconds. One HTTP call. Identity-preserving AI that keeps your subject recognisable. $0.08 per portrait — half the price of Secta.ai and 4–10× cheaper than HeadshotPro, BetterPic, and Aragon AI. 500 free credits, no credit card.

Why developers choose PixelAPI for professional headshots

Consumer headshot tools charge per-pack and lock you into a web UI. PixelAPI exposes a full REST API with a per-call billing model, so you can generate one portrait or ten thousand without renegotiating a plan. Key reasons teams switch:

Quick start — generate a professional headshot

Sign up, copy your key from the dashboard, and POST your photo. The endpoint returns a generation_id; poll until status=completed, then download the portrait from output_url.

curl -X POST https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/portrait/studio \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F "[email protected]" \
  -F "style=professional-linkedin" \
  -F "gender=auto"
# Response: {"generation_id":"uuid","status":"pending","estimated_seconds":45,...}

# Poll until status=completed (typically 45-55 seconds)
curl https://api.pixelapi.dev/v1/portrait/studio/UUID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
# Response: {"status":"completed","output_url":"https://...","style":"professional-linkedin"}

pip install pixelapi
---
from pixelapi import PixelAPI

client = PixelAPI(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
result = client.portrait(image="headshot.jpg", style="professional-linkedin")
result.save("professional_headshot.jpg")

npm install pixelapi
---
import { PixelAPI } from "pixelapi";

const client = new PixelAPI({ apiKey: process.env.PIXELAPI_KEY });
const result = await client.portrait({
  image: "./headshot.jpg",
  style: "professional-linkedin",
});
await result.save("professional_headshot.jpg");

composer require pixelapi/pixelapi
---
<?php
use PixelAPI\Client;

$client = new Client(getenv("PIXELAPI_KEY"));
$result = $client->portrait([
    "image" => "headshot.jpg",
    "style" => "professional-linkedin",
]);
file_put_contents("professional_headshot.jpg", $result->getBody());

gem install pixelapi
---
require "pixelapi"

client = PixelAPI::Client.new(api_key: ENV["PIXELAPI_KEY"])
result = client.portrait(image: "headshot.jpg", style: "professional-linkedin")
File.binwrite("professional_headshot.jpg", result.body)

go get github.com/pixelapi/pixelapi-go
---
import "github.com/pixelapi/pixelapi-go"

client := pixelapi.New("YOUR_API_KEY")
result, err := client.Portrait("headshot.jpg", "professional-linkedin")
if err != nil { panic(err) }
result.Save("professional_headshot.jpg")

Portrait styles reference

Pass the style ID as the style form field. List all styles programmatically via GET /v1/portrait/styles.

Pricing — half the price of the cheapest rival

Pricing verified from each rival's public pricing page May 2026. PixelAPI's per-portrait price is set at exactly half the cheapest rival's per-unit price — our standing pricing principle. A batch of 100 portraits costs $8.00 with PixelAPI vs $16.00 with Secta.ai or $29.00–$39.00 with HeadshotPro.

What you get back

Request parameters

Common workflows

The Professional Headshot Generator API powers these production pipelines. Each links to a setup guide:

More industry guides: all industries →

Integrations & SDKs

Comparison vs alternatives

Rate limits & error handling

Default 60 requests/minute on the free tier, 600 requests/minute on paid tiers. Because each portrait takes 45–55 seconds to generate, the free-tier limit is sufficient for high-concurrency batch jobs. Exceeding the request rate returns HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header. The recommended retry strategy is exponential backoff starting at 2 seconds, doubling up to 30 seconds. The Python and Node SDKs handle this automatically.

# Python SDK — auto-retries 429 with exponential backoff
from pixelapi import PixelAPI
client = PixelAPI(api_key="...", max_retries=4)

# Generate 10 portraits concurrently
import asyncio
jobs = [client.portrait_async(image=f, style="professional-linkedin") for f in photos]
results = await asyncio.gather(*jobs)  # auto-retries on 429 per job

For large batches (thousands of headshots), contact [email protected] with your expected volume to discuss elevated limits and batch-pricing invoicing.

Frequently asked questions