Last updated: 2026-07-01
Marble is World Labs' generative world model that converts text, images, panoramas, or video into a spatially consistent 3D environment. Its Chisel tool blocks out a scene with simple shapes for the model to detail, and worlds export as Gaussian splats at up to 2 million points, or as meshes for a game engine or 3D tool.
About Marble
Marble is the flagship product of World Labs, the spatial intelligence startup founded in January 2024 by Fei-Fei Li and a team of NeRF, ImageNet, and Gaussian Splatting researchers. Marble launched in limited beta in November 2025 and moved to a formal commercial launch in early 2026, backed by World Labs' $1.23 billion in total funding. It is a multimodal generative world model that converts a photo, written prompt, panorama, or video clip into a spatially consistent environment a user can walk through, edit, and export, rather than a flat image or a fixed video. A built-in tool called Chisel guides the scene layout: a creator arranges rough shapes to define where structures and terrain go, and the model fills in the geometry, materials, lighting, and style around that layout. Generated worlds can be expanded outward from a small starting scene or stitched together with other generated worlds into one larger connected environment, useful for building game levels or large VFX sets piece by piece. Marble's best-fit users are game environment artists and level designers who want to generate base terrain and architecture before hand-finishing in an engine, VFX and previsualization artists who need quick 3D sets built from reference photos, architectural visualization designers turning site photos or layouts into client walkthroughs, and XR/VR developers who prototype spatial experiences directly inside a VR headset. In January 2026, World Labs launched the World API, a separate developer interface that exposes Marble's generation pipeline programmatically for games, simulations, and robotics pipelines. Community-built MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers also let AI assistants like Claude trigger Marble world generation directly from a chat session, though World Labs has not published an official first-party MCP server as of mid-2026.
Pricing
Free: 7,000 credits/month (about 4 world generations). Standard $20/month (20,000 credits, ~12 worlds). Pro $35/month (40,000 credits, ~25 worlds, includes commercial usage rights). Max $95/month. World API billed separately via credits at $1.00 per 1,250 credits (minimum purchase 6,250 credits / $5); a standard world generation costs 1,500 credits (Marble 1.0/1.1) or 150 credits for drafts.
Key Features
- Multimodal world generation: Generates a persistent 3D environment from a text prompt, a single image, multiple photos, a 360-degree panorama, a video, or a rough 3D layout.
- Chisel scene editing: Lets creators block out a scene with simple geometric shapes, then has the model fill in detailed geometry, materials, lighting, and style.
- World expansion and stitching: Extends a small generated scene outward or combines multiple generated worlds into one larger connected environment for game levels or VFX sets.
- Gaussian splat and mesh export: Exports worlds as Gaussian splats (.ply/.spz, full 2-million-point or lightweight 500K resolution) or as OBJ/FBX meshes for Unreal, Unity, Blender, and Houdini.
- WebXR viewing on VR headsets: Generated worlds can be explored in VR via WebXR on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3.
- World API for developers: Launched January 2026, lets developers generate worlds programmatically from text, images, panoramas, multi-view sets, or video through a separate, credit-metered endpoint.
Pros
- Turns a single photo or text prompt into a walkable, spatially coherent 3D scene, something most 2D image and video generators cannot do.
- Output formats slot directly into Unreal, Unity, Blender, and Houdini pipelines without manual retopology or format conversion.
- The free tier lets anyone test world quality before paying, and the Chisel tool makes scene layout approachable for people without 3D modeling experience.
- Backed by $1.23B in funding and strategic partners Autodesk and NVIDIA, signaling long-term investment in 3D tooling integrations.
Cons
- Free tier caps out at about 4 world generations per month and excludes commercial usage rights, which require upgrading to the Pro tier or higher.
- Some users report scenes morph or lose fidelity at the edges, with certain post-launch generations matching prompts less precisely than early beta results.
- World API credits are billed separately from the Marble subscription, so developers integrating Marble programmatically face a second, usage-based cost on top of any subscription.
- No official first-party MCP server or published SOC 2, GDPR, or HIPAA compliance documentation as of mid-2026, limiting enterprise adoption.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Marble cost in 2026?
Marble runs on a credit-based subscription with four tiers: Free (7,000 credits/month, about 4 worlds), Standard ($20/month, 20,000 credits), Pro ($35/month, 40,000 credits, includes commercial usage rights), and Max for the heaviest monthly usage. The separate World API for developers is billed by the credit, with a minimum purchase of 6,250 credits ($5).
Is Marble free to use?
Yes. The free tier includes 7,000 credits per month, enough for about 4 world generations, but it excludes commercial usage rights and is capped too low for regular production work. There is no separate time-limited trial; the free tier itself is the ongoing trial.
What are the best alternatives to Marble?
Runway is the better pick if your deliverable is a 2D video rather than a navigable 3D scene. Midjourney fits better if you need fast 2D concept art or still images instead of 3D geometry. Stability AI's open-weight models suit teams that want to fine-tune or self-host rather than use a closed API.
How does Marble compare to Google DeepMind's Genie 3 in 2026?
Genie 3 generates richly interactive 3D environments in real time, up to 24 frames per second at 720p, reacting live to user input for research and agent-training use. Marble instead outputs a persistent, downloadable 3D asset you can bring into Unreal, Unity, or Blender for further work. Pick Marble when you need an owned, editable export; pick Genie 3 for a live simulated environment.
How do you get started with Marble?
Sign up for the free tier and generate a world from a single photo, a text prompt, or a 360-degree panorama. Use the Chisel tool to block out layout with simple shapes before letting the model fill in detail, then export the result as a Gaussian splat or an OBJ/FBX mesh into Unreal, Unity, Blender, or Houdini.
Top Alternatives
- Runway: Pick Marble if you need persistent, editable 3D environments; choose Runway for fast 2D video generation and editing.
- Midjourney: Pick Marble if you need explorable 3D worlds for games or VR; choose Midjourney for static image and concept art generation.
- Stability AI: Pick Marble for ready-made 3D world generation; choose Stability AI's models if you need open-weight image or video models to fine-tune yourself.