Arcads API (2026): Who Gets Access, How It Works, and the Claude Code Option

Affiliate disclosure: This page includes affiliate links, including one to Arcads. If you subscribe through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. See our Affiliate Disclosure for details. We have not run our own hands-on test of the Arcads API. Everything below comes from Arcads’ help center, its API reference, and third-party pricing breakdowns, read October 14, 2026.

Yes, Arcads has an API: you generate a Client ID and Client Secret under Settings, then Public API, and call endpoints for products, scripts and video generation with HTTP Basic auth. Pricing breakdowns put API access on the Pro plan and above, which is $385 a month with the current discount or $550 at list.

Which Arcads plan includes the API?

Arcads’ own API help article does not say which plan unlocks it. Third-party breakdowns do, and they agree on the entry point: Pro. Our Arcads pricing page lists Starter and Creator without API access, based on Wireflow’s September 2026 plan comparison. A separate October 6, 2026 breakdown from NovoAds reports the billing page showing API access on Pro and up, and also notes that Arcads’ terms describe API access as part of a customized offer negotiated on a call. We checked those terms (in force from October 8, 2026): they say the API is only accessible to customers who subscribe to a Customized offer.

Those statements do not fully match, and the terms are the binding document, so treat Pro as the likely floor, not a guarantee, and expect to talk to Arcads sales. The reliable check is to open Settings in your account and look for Public API before you upgrade for it.

Plan	List price	With 30% monthly discount	Credits per month	API per third-party reports
Starter	$110/mo	$77/mo	8,000	No
Creator	$220/mo	$154/mo	16,000	No
Pro	$550/mo	$385/mo	40,000	Yes

NovoAds reports that API generations draw credits from your plan the ordinary way, so the credit math matches the app.

How do you get an Arcads API key?

Per Arcads’ help center: log in, go to Settings, then Public API, and click Generate credentials. You get a Client ID and a Client Secret. The secret is shown once, so save it right away. If you lose it, you generate new credentials and update everything that used the old ones.

Authentication is HTTP Basic. You Base64-encode clientId:clientSecret and send it in the Authorization header with the prefix Basic. The full reference lives at external-api.arcads.ai/docs.

What can the Arcads API do?

The help center lists these endpoints. The workflow follows the app: create a product, put scripts in a folder, then generate video from a script.

Job	Endpoint
Create or list products	POST and GET /v1/products
Create folders, list a product’s folders	POST /v1/folders, GET /v1/products/:productId/folders
List situations (paginated)	GET /v1/situations
Create, list and update scripts	POST /v1/scripts, GET /v1/folders/:folderId/scripts, PUT /v1/scripts/:scriptId
Generate a video from a script	POST /v1/scripts/:scriptId/generate
Check status and download	GET /v1/scripts/:scriptId/videos

The help article does not state rate limits or per-call credit costs. If you plan to batch hundreds of scripts, ask Arcads support about limits before you build around them.

What does an API-generated video cost?

The same as in the app. 2026 pricing breakdowns put a talking-actor video at 800 credits per minute, per actor, rounded up. Pro works out to the same rate per credit as Starter, so a one-minute single-actor video is about $11 at list price or about $7.70 with the 30% discount. Because length rounds up, a script that runs 61 seconds bills as two minutes.

Automation makes it easy to burn credits fast. A loop that regenerates a failing script ten times costs ten videos. Put a cap in your own code.

Does Arcads work with Claude and Claude Code?

There are two routes, and only one is official.

Arcads MCP (official): Arcads hosts an MCP server at mcp.arcads.ai. In Claude Desktop you add it under Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector, with the name Arcads and that URL. Arcads’ help center says every plan includes the MCP, including the 72-hour free trial, and it spends credits at the same rate as the app. For Claude Code, Arcads’ official repo at github.com/arcads-ai/skills is packaged as a Claude Code plugin that adds the same connector plus skills for spying on competitor ads and cloning a hook or static ad. In Claude Code, run /plugin marketplace add arcads-ai/skills, then /plugin install arcads@arcads. We have not run it against an Arcads account.
The krusemediallc/arcads-claude-code repo (third party): a public, MIT-licensed GitHub project of agent skills that drive the Arcads API from Claude Code or Cursor. It needs Python 3.10 or newer and an Arcads API key. Its README does not present it as official Arcads material, it promotes the author’s paid community, and its Arcads links carry a referral parameter. Read the scripts before you give them your credentials.

For Claude-made Arcads videos with no code, use the MCP connector or the official plugin. Neither needs API access. For a pipeline you control, call the API directly, or fork the repo after reading it.

Is the Arcads API worth it?

Only if you are producing ads at a volume where hand-clicking is the bottleneck. At $385 to $550 a month before any extra credits, it is a team tool, not a way to try Arcads. If you are still deciding whether realistic AI actors work for your ads, start on a lower plan or a cheaper tool and revisit the API later. Our Arcads review covers fit, and Is Arcads legit? covers billing complaints. These are places to start for less:

Creatify: has a free tier to test before paying.
MakeUGC: $1 trial for 72 hours.
Higgsfield: many video models under one plan, from $15 a month.

See Arcads plans

FAQ

Does Arcads have an API?

Yes. You generate a Client ID and Client Secret in Settings, then Public API, and call endpoints for products, scripts and video generation. Third-party breakdowns put access on Pro and above.

How do I get an Arcads API key?

Go to Settings, then Public API, and click Generate credentials. The Client Secret is shown once, so save it immediately.

Does Arcads work with Claude Code?

Yes. Arcads’ official repo, arcads-ai/skills, installs as a Claude Code plugin that connects the Arcads MCP at mcp.arcads.ai, which every plan includes. A separate third-party repo (krusemediallc/arcads-claude-code) calls the Arcads API instead.

Do API calls cost extra credits?

No separate fee is reported. API generations draw on your plan’s credits at the app’s rates, about 800 credits per minute for a one-actor talking video.

Written by Jared Winger. Researched from the vendor’s published documentation and third-party reports. Our own hands-on test of the API is still pending. About this site.