Z Image Base
alibaba/z-image/baseZ Image Base by Alibaba - generate stunning images from text prompts with state-of-the-art AI. Supports multiple aspect ratios, styles, and high-resolution output for creative and commercial use.
- Base price
- $0.01USD / run
- Execution
- async
- Model type
- image
- Input fields
- 4
Try the model
Playground
Examples
Select an example to load its inputs and result into the playground.
Model card
Specifications
Pricing
- Base price
- $0.01 / run
Context & modalities
- Input
- Schema-defined
- Output
- image
Capabilities
- Chat
- Not supported
- Vision
- Not supported
- Reasoning
- Not supported
- Structured output
- Not supported
- Function calling
- Not supported
- Audio input
- Not supported
Access
- Provider
- Alibaba
- Model ID
- alibaba/z-image/base
- Execution
- async
- Base URL
- https://api.sandbase.ai
- API
- Unified Run API
- Endpoint
- /v1/run
Human preference
Arena
Elo ratings from blind side-by-side votes, compared with other image and video models.
Rankings sourced from Artificial Analysis Arena
- Leaderboard
- Text to Image
- Rank
- #87 of 106
- Elo
- 891 ±17
- Gap to #1
- −331
Text-to-image arena: people pick the better of two images generated from the same prompt, without seeing the model names.
- #82ERNIE Image907±10
- #83Qwen Image903±18
- #84P-Image900±18
- #85FLUX.1 Krea [dev]896±39
- #86Vidu Q2896±17
- #87Z-Image Base891±17
- #88GLM-Image885±18
- #89Lucid Origin Ultra877±17
- #90FLUX1.1 [pro]870±19
- #91Lucid Origin Fast860±18
API README
Z Image Base
Z-Image Base is Alibaba's 6B open text-to-image model: photorealistic results and bilingual text rendering at a low per-image cost.
Fields
| Field | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
prompt | string, required | — | Text instruction. |
aspect_ratio | 21:9 / 16:9 / 3:2 / 4:3 / 5:4 / 1:1 / 4:5 / 3:4 / 2:3 / 9:16 | — | Output shape. |
output_format | jpeg / png | png | Output file format. |
seed | integer | random | Fix it to compare prompt changes. |
Billing
$0.01 per image.
| Request | Price |
|---|---|
| One image | $0.01 |
Failed runs are not charged.
Prompting
- Write subject, setting, style, then light and color.
- Quote text that must appear.
Limits
- One image per request.
Also on SandBase
Related: alibaba/z-image/turbo/edit, z-image/turbo.
Start building
Send your first request
OpenAI-compatible endpoint with unified authentication and usage tracking.
# The quoted heredoc keeps Unicode and shell metacharacters unchanged.
result=$(curl --fail-with-body --silent \
-X POST "https://api.sandbase.ai/v1/run" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SANDBASE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-binary @- <<'SANDBASE_JSON'
{
"model": "alibaba/z-image/base",
"prompt": "Grandmother knitting by a window, an empty chair by her",
"output_format": "png"
}
SANDBASE_JSON
)
run_id=$(printf '%s' "$result" | jq -r .id)
for attempt in $(seq 1 120); do
status=$(printf '%s' "$result" | jq -r .status)
case "$status" in completed|failed|timeout) break ;; esac
sleep 2
result=$(curl --fail-with-body --silent \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SANDBASE_API_KEY" \
"https://api.sandbase.ai/v1/run/$run_id")
done
status=$(printf '%s' "$result" | jq -r .status)
[ "$status" = completed ] || { echo "Generation ended: $status" >&2; exit 1; }
printf '%s\n' "$result"Choose your model
Compare models
| Model | Type | Default price | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
Z Image BaseThis model Alibaba | Image | $0.01 / run | Jan 27, 2026 |
Alibaba | Image | $0.04 / run | Jul 21, 2026 |
Alibaba | Image | $0.04 / run | Jul 21, 2026 |
Alibaba | Image | $0.07 / run | Apr 1, 2026 |
Alibaba | Image | $0.03 / run | Apr 1, 2026 |
Alibaba | Image | $0.03 / run | Apr 1, 2026 |
Questions
FAQ
How do I call Alibaba Z Image Base through SandBase?
Create a SandBase API key, then send requests with the model ID "alibaba/z-image/base" to Unified Run API (/v1/run) at https://api.sandbase.ai. The request examples on this page show the exact payload.
Do I need a separate Alibaba account?
No. One SandBase API key and balance gives you access to Alibaba Z Image Base and the other models in the catalog; you do not need to sign up with Alibaba separately.

