Quora’s Poe just did something that might make developers smile: it opened up its API. And no, this isn’t one of those “Apply for access, wait three weeks, maybe we’ll get back to you” kind of deals. It is plug-and-play. And you do not even need to set up billing from scratch.
Instead, Poe’s API runs on a point-based system, piggybacking off its existing subscription plans. Think of it like arcade tokens, but instead of Skee-Ball, you’re generating images with GPT-4o or building bots with OpenAI-compatible models.
Here’s the math:
- $4.99/mo = 10,000 points per day
- $19.99/mo = 1 million points/month
- $49.99/mo = 2.5 million points/month
- $99.99/mo = 5 million points/month
- $249.99/mo = 12.5 million points/month
Not enough juice? You can buy more: $30 for 1 million points, à la carte. No bundles, no upsell. Just pick your amount and go. Want to generate a low-res image with GPT-4o at 1024×1024? That will be 328 points, please.
Quite a bit. Poe’s API gives devs access to over 100 AI models, spanning voice, text, image, and video. It’s a regular who ‘s-who of AI engines: Imagen 4, GPT Image 1, Veo 3, Seedream 3.0, Runway Gen 4 Turbo, Kling 2.1, ElevenLabs, Lyria… basically, every acronym soup you’ve seen buzzing on Twitter (sorry, X) is here.
This means developers can now power apps like Cursor, Cline, Continue, Roo, or anything else that plays nice with OpenAI-style chat completion APIs
Related: GitHub Copilot Hits 20M Users.
According to Gareth Jones, Poe’s product lead for creators and devs, the team is working on ways to let developers use private bots they’ve built inside Poe through the API. They’re also exploring key management upgrades, because right now, devs are still manually juggling models and tokens like it is 2022.
Budgeting tools aren’t in yet, but Jones says they’re on the roadmap. Basically, if developers ask for it, Poe might build it, imagine that.
If you are not a developer but still AI-curious, Poe has not forgotten you. Earlier this year, they launched AI app builders that let regular folks (read: non-coders) spin up bots using templates, like server bots, prompt bots, and image generation bots. So whether you are building the next-gen productivity tool or just trying to generate weird cat art in a Renaissance painting style, Poe’s trying to give you the keys.
Poe’s API is not trying to out-enterprise AWS or make devs beg for model access. It is trying to make things easy, flexible, and, dare we say, fun. One dashboard. One subscription. 100+ models. If anything, it is a quiet shot at platforms that overcomplicate everything. And here’s the kicker:
If Poe becomes the go-to switchboard for AI models, why bother choosing just one?
This is not just an API drop. It is a challenge to the idea that you need to pick a team in the AI arms race.
