Shorts API

Typical render

About 100 s

97 s for a 60 s short in our tests

Price

$0.25

per short up to 60 s, $0.35 for shorts up to 90 s

Length

15 to 90 s

4 to 24 scenes

Example#

A short takes longer than the default 60 second wait, so create it with Prefer: respond-async, then wait on the job. The loop below holds each request open for up to 60 seconds, so it only makes two or three calls. The curl version uses jq to read the JSON.

body=$(curl -sS "https://api.reelsdk.com/v1/shorts" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSDK_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Prefer: respond-async" \
  -d '{
    "topic": "Why octopuses have three hearts",
    "duration_s": 30,
    "style": "cinematic"
  }')
JOB_ID=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r ".job.id")

# We wait on the job, up to 60 s per call, until it finishes
while :; do
  state=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r ".job.status")
  [ "$state" = queued ] || [ "$state" = running ] || break
  body=$(curl -sS "https://api.reelsdk.com/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID?wait=60" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSDK_KEY")
done

printf '%s' "$body" | jq ".error // .job.outputs"

The create call answers 202 Accepted right away, with a Location header pointing at the job and Retry-After: 5. A webhook saves you the polling.

{
  "job": {
    "id": "job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp",
    "op": "shorts",
    "status": "queued",
    "stage": null,
    "created_at": "2026-10-26T01:15:26.166Z",
    "finished_at": null,
    "outputs": {},
    "result": null,
    "duration_s": null,
    "error": null,
    "usage": {
      "output_seconds": 0,
      "audio_seconds": 0,
      "tts_characters": 0,
      "images": 0
    },
    "poll_url": "https://api.reelsdk.com/v1/jobs/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp"
  }
}

Parameters#

Send topic, script or both. Everything else is optional, and fields we don't recognize are ignored.

Topic or script#

With only a topic, we write narration to fit duration_s, opening with a hook. With a script, we read your text word for word and the script sets the length. You can still send a topic next to it to steer the images.

A script must read in 90 seconds or less at the voice's pace, which is about 250 words with the default English voice. A longer one returns 400 with an estimate, such as script reads as about 143 s of narration at this voice's pace, over the 90 s limit.

Styles#

A style sets the look of the images, plus a default music mood and caption preset. Send music or captions to override either one.

With music: "auto", the script writer picks one of 8 moods for your topic and we pick a track for it from our royalty-free library. The music sits under the voice.

Languages and voices#

Shorts speak English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. The script, voiceover and captions all use the language you send, and any other language returns 400 UNSUPPORTED_LANGUAGE.

Progress and timing#

Most shorts finish in about 100 seconds: we measured 97 s for a 60 second short and 103 s for a 30 second one. While the job runs, job.stage tells you what it's doing.

stage is null while the job is queued and once it finishes.

Response#

A finished short answers 200. Besides the files, result holds a title, a post_caption with hashtags to paste into TikTok, Reels or Shorts, and the narration and image URL of every scene. This one is trimmed to 2 of its 8 scenes.

{
  "job": {
    "id": "job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp",
    "op": "shorts",
    "status": "succeeded",
    "stage": null,
    "created_at": "2026-10-26T01:15:26.166Z",
    "finished_at": "2026-10-26T01:17:07.802Z",
    "outputs": {
      "video": "https://api.reelsdk.com/f/out/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp/video.mp4",
      "transcript": "https://api.reelsdk.com/f/out/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp/transcript.json",
      "srt": "https://api.reelsdk.com/f/out/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp/captions.srt",
      "vtt": "https://api.reelsdk.com/f/out/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp/captions.vtt",
      "poster": "https://api.reelsdk.com/f/in/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp/scene-01.jpg"
    },
    "result": {
      "title": "The Octopus Heart Secret",
      "post_caption": "Three hearts and a stopping beat? The octopus is a biological masterpiece. #octopus #oceanlife #naturefacts #marinebiology #wildlife",
      "scenes": [
        {
          "narration": "An octopus does not rely on just one heart.",
          "image": "https://api.reelsdk.com/f/in/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp/scene-01.jpg"
        },
        {
          "narration": "They actually possess three distinct hearts beating inside.",
          "image": "https://api.reelsdk.com/f/in/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp/scene-02.jpg"
        }
      ]
    },
    "duration_s": 28,
    "error": null,
    "usage": {
      "output_seconds": 28,
      "audio_seconds": 27.384,
      "tts_characters": 405,
      "images": 8
    },
    "poll_url": "https://api.reelsdk.com/v1/jobs/job_x5wepdaqkop4tepq05xp"
  }
}

usage.output_seconds is the video length, usage.audio_seconds the voiceover length, usage.tts_characters the characters read aloud and usage.images the scene images. All files stay up for 7 days.

Errors and retries#

If something fails on our side, we retry the job once on our own and pick up from the last finished step, so the script, images and voice aren't made twice. When you see a 500, that retry has already happened, except for TIMEOUT. Sending the request again starts a new short from scratch.

Other 500 codes come from the render workers and are listed in Errors.

Tips#

• Create shorts with Prefer: respond-async or a webhook_url, since they take longer than the default 60 s wait.
• Your topic is the brief: "why octopuses have three hearts" makes a better short than "octopus".
• Pick the style for the topic: dark-documentary suits true crime and mysteries, 3d-cartoon and watercolor suit kids' stories.
• Back off before you retry a 500, since we already retried it once. For CONTENT_REJECTED, change the topic or script first.
• result.title and result.post_caption are written for posting, and outputs.poster makes a ready thumbnail. Download what you keep within 7 days.

Last updated 26 October 2026