Make your first picture or clip

A picture is the quickest first run. Opening a studio, browsing its templates and typing a prompt are free; you're charged when you press Generate, at the price shown on it.

Make a picture

1. Open Images. It opens on Nano Banana, where a picture is 2 credits.
2. In the bar at the foot of the page, describe the picture: what's in it, the style, the colour, the mood and how it's framed. Or open the Templates tab and pick one: a template fills in the words and the shape, and runs nothing.
3. Open Output, the box beside the model, to set the shape, and the resolution where the model offers more than one. Each resolution shows its price.
4. Check the price on Generate. Hover over it, or move to it with the Tab key, to see how it's worked out.
5. Press Generate, or ⌘ Return (Ctrl Enter on Windows).

The picture appears at the top of My images straight away and shows the stage it has reached. The prompt clears so you can write the next one; your model and settings stay.

To try another model, open the model menu in the bar; each model shows what a picture on it costs. A model that works from pictures you add shows them beside the words, with Add; name them in your words as @Image1, @Image2. The tabs across the top of the bar change a picture of yours (Edit a picture) or make one bigger (Upscale). See Write a prompt that gets what you want.

When it's done

Hover over a finished picture for Download, Copy link, Use this prompt, Use as reference, Edit this picture, Upscale and Delete, or open it to see it full size with the same buttons. On a phone, open it. Under each picture is the model, the shape and what it was charged.

Everything you make also lands in your Library: see Find your work: the Library, folders and downloads.

Make a clip

Clips are made the same way on Video: pick a model, add any frames or references it takes, describe the shot, set the shape, length and resolution, and press Generate. Clips start from 2 credits. See How to make a video.

Your first ad

Home may offer a board under Your first ad: an ad that has already run, one card from finished. Press Finish your first ad, then Run on the finish card, which shows its price first.

If you're short of credits

A new account gets 10 starter credits once its email address is confirmed. When a run costs more than you have, pressing Generate opens a window to choose a plan or add credits instead. Nothing is charged, and what you typed is kept for when you come back from paying. See Plans compared and Buy credits without a plan.

If it doesn't work

• The run fails. Every credit it was charged comes back automatically: see My video failed. Did I lose my credits?
• The prompt is refused. Nothing is charged, and your words are put back to change: see Why was my prompt or result refused?
• It's taking a while. See My generation is stuck.

Each press of Generate is a run of its own and is charged on its own: one press is enough, and the picture shows at once.