Last updated: 2026-10-31
Palette is a Y Combinator Summer 2026 media engine from Palette Technology that turns a single prompt into finished images, video or music. Its model router chooses among seven listed models including Veo 3, Kling 3 Pro and Seedance 2.5, and it offers programmatic access through API keys and MCP.
About Palette
Palette is a media engine from Palette Technology, Inc., a Y Combinator Summer 2026 company founded by MIT computer science graduates and multimodal AI researchers. Instead of asking you to pick a generator, it plans, makes and edits images, video and music from one conversation, and the homepage lists seven models it can route to: Seedance 2.5, Google Veo 3, Kling 3 Pro, MiniMax H3, Flux 3, Wan 3 and Google Omni Flash.
The idea is different from a single-model generator such as Runway or Pika. Palette says it checks which models can do the job, then picks the cheapest one it trusts, and improves the prompt before generating. You can still choose a model yourself. Character sheets, storyboards and edits by plain-language instruction sit in the same workspace, which is closer in spirit to Higgsfield than to a timeline editor like CapCut or Descript.
The product family has five parts. Flow is a marketing workflow that learns a brand, creates, posts, measures and improves the next batch. Cut is an editing assistant that prepares footage for Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. Trace searches hours of footage by what happens on screen and what is said, returning timecodes. Brush renders finished video from a prompt inside Palette Studio. API/MCP exposes the same credits to your own apps and to assistants such as Claude Code.
Individuals pay per credit, with no subscription listed, while teams get custom plans for the products they choose. That suits solo creators and marketing teams that want Canva style ease with video generation behind it, and developers who would otherwise wire together several vendor APIs. Compared with VEED, Palette puts generation and routing first and editing second. Other tools in the same space include Synthesia and HeyGen for avatar video, and Midjourney and Adobe Firefly for stills. It is a new product, so independent reviews are thin and security certification is still on the roadmap.
Pricing
Individuals pay $0.01 per credit, billed only when they create, and the same credit balance covers Studio, the REST API and MCP. The vendor says 1,000 credits can produce a character reel: a character sheet, a storyboard and 15 seconds of character-consistent video. Failed generations are refunded automatically.
Teams get custom plans per product (Flow, Cut, Trace, API/MCP) through a sales call. No free tier or subscription plan is listed.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | $0.01 per credit, pay as you go | Studio, REST API and MCP draw on one credit balance; failed generations are refunded automatically. |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | Custom plans per product: Flow, Cut, Trace and API/MCP, arranged through a sales call. |
Key Features
- Model routing: Each request is routed to one of the seven models named on the homepage, or you can pick a model yourself.
- Character consistency: Define a character once and carry the same look across shots and stills, with character sheets and storyboards in the same workspace.
- Prompt-based editing: Restyle a scene, replace an object or revise a sequence by describing the change in plain language while the source stays connected.
- REST API: Endpoints for images, videos, music and upscale or vectorize tools, with async jobs polled by id and a credits balance call.
- Hosted MCP server: Any MCP client that supports Streamable HTTP, including Claude Code and Codex, can create and collect media using the same credits as the web app.
- Trace footage search: Describe a moment and Trace returns matching clips from long footage with timecodes and a source preview, for review before they become selects.
- Automatic credit refunds: A failed generation returns its credits automatically, and the vendor says you also get the difference back when a cheaper model does the job.
Pros
- One credit balance covers the Studio app, the REST API and the MCP server, so a prototype built in Studio moves to code without a second billing relationship.
- Seven listed generation models sit behind one prompt, which saves comparing separate vendors for each clip.
- Failed generations are refunded automatically, per the vendor FAQ, so experiments do not burn credits on errors.
- The vendor reports on its homepage that routing is 35 percent faster and 50 percent cheaper than its baseline, from an internal benchmark that is not independently published.
Cons
- No subscription or free plan is listed, so a new user cannot tell what a typical month costs before buying credits.
- SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 are on the roadmap only, per its security page, which rules it out for buyers who need a certificate today.
- No public changelog, user reviews or third-party benchmark was found, so quality claims rest on the vendor homepage.
- Cut, Flow and Trace are sold only through a sales call, so teams cannot trial them self-serve.
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Per the vendor security page, prompts and context are not used to train public foundation models, and model providers receive only the data needed for a task under contracts that prohibit training on it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Palette cost per video?
Individuals pay $0.01 per credit and only when they create. The vendor gives 1,000 credits as its example for one full character reel, so a short clip stays in the tens of dollars at most. Per-model credit costs come from the models endpoint, and teams negotiate custom plans.
Does Palette have a free plan?
No free plan or trial is listed on the pricing section. The Try now button leads to Palette Studio, where credits are bought as you go. If a generation fails you get the credits back automatically.
Which tools should I weigh Palette against?
Runway suits you if you want one mature model with a full editor. Higgsfield fits creators who want a large preset effects catalog. VEED is the better pick for subtitles and quick browser edits without generation as the core.
Is Palette better than Runway for ad creative?
They solve different problems. Runway is a single-vendor generator and editor, while Palette routes one brief to several third-party models and adds a marketing workflow product called Flow. Palette has no public reviews yet, so Runway is the lower-risk choice today.
How do I connect Palette to Claude Code?
Create a key under Profile, then API access, and copy it once because it is not shown again. Add the hosted MCP server to any client that supports Streamable HTTP and send the key as a bearer header. Reconnect the client to load the tools.
Top Alternatives
- Runway: Pick Runway if you want one mature video model and editor; pick Palette if you want several models behind one prompt.
- Higgsfield: Choose Higgsfield for its preset effects library; choose Palette when API and MCP access matter.
- VEED: Pick VEED for browser-based editing and subtitles; choose Palette when generation and routing come first.
- CapCut: Choose CapCut for low-cost social editing; pick Palette when you need generated footage and an API.