Self-serve access
Everything needed to build against Layer is self-serve. There is no application to review, no waitlist, no demo call, and no form between you and a working API call.
A machine-readable version of this page is published at
/api/onboarding.json — an automated client can read
it instead of this prose.
1. Create a workspace
Section titled “1. Create a workspace”- Go to next.app.layer.ai.
- Sign up and a workspace is created immediately.
- Invite as many members as you like — seats are free.
No payment method is required to create a workspace. Billing is opted into later, from Workspace Settings → Billing.
2. What costs nothing
Section titled “2. What costs nothing”A free account includes a one-off grant of Creative Units, enough to run real generations before subscribing. It is not time limited and it does not expire into a locked account. Layer has no plans and no feature gates either — every capability is reachable from a new workspace, and you pay only for generation, in Creative Units.
Free of charge:
- Creating a workspace and inviting unlimited members ($0 per seat)
- The starter grant of Creative Units
- Browsing the full model catalog and every documented endpoint
- Creating Personal Access Tokens and connecting MCP clients
- Cost estimates — the estimate endpoints price a run and consume no CUs
Once the starter units run out, continued generation needs a subscription (from $10/month for 300
CUs) or a standalone CU pack. See pricing — or
/pricing.json for the machine-readable table.
3. Get a credential yourself
Section titled “3. Get a credential yourself”Two paths, both self-serve:
4. Test without spending Creative Units
Section titled “4. Test without spending Creative Units”There is no separate sandbox host — https://api.app.layer.ai/api is the only environment, and
there are no test keys. Instead, every generation family has an estimate operation that
validates the request and returns its CU cost plus has_sufficient_creative_units, without starting
a run or consuming any CUs:
curl -X POST https://api.app.layer.ai/api/v1/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/inferences/estimate \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $LAYER_TOKEN" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"model_id": "MODEL_ID", "parameters": {"prompt": "a castle at sunset"}}'That single call exercises authentication, workspace access, the model id, and the parameter shape
end to end — the whole integration except the generation itself. The current list of estimate
operations is in /api/onboarding.json under
test_environment.dry_run.operations.
5. Build before you have an account
Section titled “5. Build before you have an account”These endpoints need no credential at all, so a client can be written and its requests validated before any account exists:
| Endpoint | What it is |
|---|---|
/openapi.json |
Full OpenAPI 3.1 description of the REST API |
/api/index.json |
Every Layer interface: REST, both MCP servers, auth, permissions, limits, policy |
/api/onboarding.json |
This page, machine-readable — including the full list of endpoints below |
/pricing.json |
Per-model CU prices |
/.well-known/api-catalog |
RFC 9727 API catalog |
/.well-known/ai-catalog.json |
APIs, auth, policy, and the readable content surface in one document |
/.well-known/mcp |
Both MCP servers, their transport, OAuth discovery, and tool lists |
/llms.txt |
Site index for LLM clients |
The REST API itself has no anonymous operations: every endpoint requires a bearer token, and an
unauthenticated request answers 401 with an RFC 9457 problem document — so a
client can detect a missing credential rather than guess.
When to talk to a human
Section titled “When to talk to a human”Only for enterprise procurement — volume commitments, security review, MSAs. Nothing on this page requires it.