# Primate Vision API — Primate Intelligence > Video scene understanding API. Upload a video (or point at a URL), ask a question in plain English, get a deterministic answer with confidence and clip timestamps — no hallucinations. Zero-touch provisioning: `POST https://api.primateintelligence.ai/v1/sandbox` returns an instant free test key (no email, no card). Start here (agents): [Quickstart for AI agents](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/agents.md) ## Machine-readable surfaces - [OpenAPI 3.1 spec](https://api.primateintelligence.ai/v1/openapi.json): the full API contract — source of truth - [Error registry](https://api.primateintelligence.ai/v1/errors): every error code with retryable/idem flags - [Test fixture](https://api.primateintelligence.ai/v1/test-fixture): stable video + prompt + expected answer for CI self-verification - [Credit pricing](https://api.primateintelligence.ai/v1/credit-pricing): current pricing, public ## Integration contract - Base URL: `https://api.primateintelligence.ai` · Auth: `Authorization: Bearer $PRIMATE_API_KEY` - Env var: `PRIMATE_API_KEY` (both SDKs + MCP server read it; keys never go in URLs or tool arguments) - Core loop: `POST /v1/videos` → `POST /v1/analyses` → `GET /v1/analyses/{id}` (or `Prefer: wait=60` to collapse the poll) - SDKs: `npm install @primate-intelligence/sdk` · `pip install primate-intelligence` - MCP server: `npx @primate-intelligence/mcp` (env: PRIMATE_API_KEY) ## Docs - [Quickstart](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/quickstart.md): First analysis in three curl commands — no signup required. - [Quickstart for AI agents](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/agents.md): The zero-human-intervention integration path — canonical copy served by the API deploy artifact. - [Uploading video](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/uploading.md): Three ways to get video in — presigned upload, URL ingest, SDK helper — and how to choose. - [Prompts & queries](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/prompts.md): Free-text prompts vs structured queries, what's answerable, and how unassessable components behave. - [Waiting for results](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/waiting.md): Poll vs Prefer: wait vs webhooks — pick the right completion strategy. - [Webhooks](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/webhooks.md): Standard Webhooks signing, verification, retries, redelivery, and the integration rules that matter. - [Errors & retries](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/errors-retries.md): The error envelope, the closed registry, and exactly what to retry. - [Rate limits & quotas](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/rate-limits.md): Limit classes, headers, 429 handling, and how quotas differ from rate limits. - [Test mode](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/test-mode.md): pv_test_ keys, deterministic fixtures, and CI verification without burning quota. - [Versioning & deprecation](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/versioning.md): Compatibility guarantees, deprecation process, model sunsets, and service expectations. - [Security model](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/security-model.md): API keys, client tokens, scopes, data handling, and the key-compromise procedure. - [Billing & credits](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/billing.md): Credit-seconds, grants, auto-refill, and handling insufficient_credits in code. - [Streaming](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/streaming.md): Real-time video analysis over WebRTC — create, signal, go live, get per-frame results. - [Tutorial: build from scratch](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/guides/build-from-scratch.md): Zero to a working video-question CLI in ~15 minutes — no account required to start. - [Supported actions](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/supported-actions.md): What Darwin-preview-1.3B can and cannot detect — the honest capability list, including the full action vocabulary and known gaps. - [Error registry](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/errors.md): Every error code with retry semantics — the docs_url targets. - [Changelog](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/changelog.md): Dated API changes, newest-first — canonical copy served by the API deploy artifact. Subscribe via RSS at /docs/changelog.xml. - [API reference](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/docs/reference.md): Every endpoint and schema, generated from the OpenAPI 3.1 contract. ## Full corpus - [llms-full.txt](https://www.primateintelligence.ai/llms-full.txt): every docs page in one file ## Product pages - [Home](https://primateintelligence.ai/): Product overview — markdown twin at /index.md - [Pricing](https://primateintelligence.ai/pricing): $0.01/video-second metered credits — markdown twin at /pricing.md - [Performance & latency](https://primateintelligence.ai/performance): Measured production p50/p95 latency, throughput, and accuracy benchmarks — markdown twin at /performance.md - [Use Cases](https://primateintelligence.ai/use-cases): Eight markets, one model — markdown twin at /use-cases.md - [For AI agents](https://primateintelligence.ai/agents): Zero-touch integration for AI agents — markdown twin at /agents-page.md - [Technology](https://primateintelligence.ai/technology): How Darwin (JEPA world model) works — markdown twin at /technology.md - [Technology — How JEPA works](https://primateintelligence.ai/technology/how-jepa-works): Joint-embedding predictive architecture explained - [Technology — Determinism](https://primateintelligence.ai/technology/determinism): Why same-input → same-output matters for production - [Technology — Benchmarks](https://primateintelligence.ai/technology/benchmarks): Action detection, temporal localization, published results - [Technology — Real-time streaming](https://primateintelligence.ai/technology/real-time): WebRTC ingestion and streaming architecture - [Team](https://primateintelligence.ai/team): Founders — markdown twin at /team.md - [About](https://primateintelligence.ai/about): Mission, founders, founding story — markdown twin at /about.md - [Values](https://primateintelligence.ai/values): Seven principles — markdown twin at /values.md - [Careers](https://primateintelligence.ai/careers): Open roles — markdown twin at /careers.md - [FAQ](https://primateintelligence.ai/faq): Frequently asked questions — markdown twin at /faq.md ## Compare Honest, spec-table-driven comparisons of Primate Vision against every major video understanding API. Each comparison has a markdown twin: append .md to the compare URL (e.g. /compare/twelve-labs.md). - [Compare hub](https://primateintelligence.ai/compare): All comparisons — markdown twin at /compare.md - [Primate Vision vs. AWS Rekognition + Bedrock Nova (2026): The Door AWS Closed](https://primateintelligence.ai/compare/aws-rekognition): AWS closed Rekognition streaming to new customers on April 30, 2026 — its own migration advice is to snapshot frames into the image API. Here's what remains, what Bedrock Nova actually offers, and the honest head-to-head against a real-time verdict API. - [Primate Vision vs. Azure Video Indexer (2026): An Insight Catalog vs. a Live Answer](https://primateintelligence.ai/compare/azure-video-indexer): Azure Video Indexer is a genuinely good archive-enrichment product — thirty insight types, far cheaper per hour than us. But it's a catalog, not an answer: no live-stream API, no way to ask your own question of the pixels, no verdict. Here's the honest head-to-head. - [The Best Video Understanding APIs in 2026 (an Honest Roundup)](https://primateintelligence.ai/compare/best-video-understanding-apis-2026): Six video understanding APIs — Google Video Intelligence, Twelve Labs, AWS Rekognition, Gemini, Mixpeek, and ours — scored on the six dimensions buyers actually ask about: accuracy approach, hallucination risk, pricing, streaming, free tier, and agent access. With receipts, and with our bias disclosed in the first sentence. ## Learn - [Blog](https://primateintelligence.ai/blog): Research notes and perspectives — RSS at /rss.xml - Every blog post has a markdown twin: append .md to the post URL (e.g. /blog/jepa-deep-dive.md) - [Darwin: Video JEPA model that outperforms SOTA models while running on edge CPU](https://primateintelligence.ai/blog/darwin-video-jepa-benchmarks): Language models had their GPT moment. Vision, especially video, hasn’t yet! - [Technology](https://primateintelligence.ai/technology): Model releases and capability updates - [Darwin-preview-1.3B](https://primateintelligence.ai/technology/darwin-preview): The Darwin-preview-1.3B model — full supported-actions vocabulary (532 classes) — markdown twin at /technology/darwin-preview.md ## Legal - [Privacy Policy](https://primateintelligence.ai/privacy) - [Terms of Service](https://primateintelligence.ai/terms) - [Cookie Policy](https://primateintelligence.ai/cookie-policy)