Video Colorizer Video Colorization API

wavespeed-ai/video-colorizer

Video Colorizer restores natural color to black-and-white, monochrome or faded footage while keeping every subject, the framing and the motion exactly as they are. Ready-to-use REST inference API, best performance, no coldstarts, affordable pricing.

Video Tools
Input

Drag & drop or click to upload

Idle

$0.04per run·~25 / $1

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README

Video Colorizer

Video Colorizer restores natural, believable color to grayscale, monochrome, or heavily faded video while preserving the original subjects, framing, and motion. Colors are inferred from the footage automatically, and you can optionally use a prompt to guide specific color choices.

Why Choose This?

  • Video colorization workflow
    Add natural color to black-and-white, monochrome, or desaturated footage.

  • Content-preserving enhancement
    Preserve the original subject identity, framing, background geometry, and motion while adding color.

  • Automatic color inference
    Let the model infer realistic colors for skin tones, clothing, foliage, sky, water, buildings, and lighting.

  • Prompt-guided color control
    Use prompt to specify colors for important objects, clothing, environments, or lighting.

  • Multiple output resolutions
    Choose 480p, 720p, or 1080p while preserving the original aspect ratio.

  • Seed support
    Set a seed when reproducible colorization results are needed.

Parameters

ParameterRequiredDescription
videoYesGrayscale, monochrome, faded, or desaturated input video URL or uploaded video. Up to 120 seconds is processed.
promptNoOptional color guidance. Name objects and their desired colors, such as green grass, blue sky, or red jacket. Leave empty to infer colors automatically.
target_resolutionNoOutput resolution: 480p, 720p, or 1080p. Default: 720p. Aspect ratio is preserved.
seedNoRandom seed for reproducible results.

How to Use

  1. Upload a video — Provide the grayscale, monochrome, faded, or desaturated footage you want to colorize.
  2. Add a prompt optional — Describe specific colors when you want to guide the result.
  3. Choose target resolution — Select 480p, 720p, or 1080p.
  4. Set seed optional — Use a fixed seed when reproducibility is needed.
  5. Submit — Generate the colorized video output.

Pricing

Pricing is based on input video duration and selected target_resolution.

Billed duration is rounded up to the next whole second, with a minimum billed duration of 3 seconds and a maximum billed duration of 120 seconds.

Output ResolutionPer 5sPer second
480p$0.10$0.02
720p$0.20$0.04
1080p$0.50$0.10

Example Costs

Input DurationBilled Duration480p720p1080p
1s3s$0.06$0.12$0.30
3s3s$0.06$0.12$0.30
5s5s$0.10$0.20$0.50
10s10s$0.20$0.40$1.00
60s60s$1.20$2.40$6.00
120s120s$2.40$4.80$12.00

prompt and seed do not add separate charges.

Best Use Cases

  • Black-and-white video colorization — Add color to monochrome footage while preserving the original video structure.
  • Old footage restoration — Restore believable colors to faded or archival-looking clips.
  • Creative enhancement — Apply guided color direction to stylized or desaturated videos.
  • Social media assets — Prepare colorized clips for posts, reels, ads, and short-form content.
  • Historical and documentary workflows — Colorize older footage for presentation and storytelling.
  • Restoration preprocessing — Use colorization after basic cleanup or restoration when the source is heavily degraded.

Pro Tips

  • Use prompt when specific colors matter, such as red jacket, blue sky, or warm golden street lights.
  • Leave prompt empty when you want the model to infer natural colors automatically.
  • Name both the object and the color for stronger control.
  • Use clean source footage when possible; this endpoint colorizes video and is not primarily a denoiser.
  • Keep the same seed when you want to reproduce a colorization result.
  • Use 480p for quick tests and 1080p when higher-resolution output is needed.
  • For heavily damaged sources, restore or clean the video before colorization.

Limits and Performance

  • Maximum processed video length per job: 120 seconds.
  • Input beyond 120 seconds is not processed or billed.
  • Processing time can vary by resolution and video content.
  • Higher output resolutions generally take longer to process.

Notes

  • video is required.
  • target_resolution defaults to 720p.
  • Aspect ratio is preserved.
  • Billed duration is rounded up and clamped to 3–120 seconds.
  • Very short videos are billed as 3 seconds.
  • This endpoint adds or restores color; it does not intentionally change subject identity, framing, or motion.

Related Models

  • Video Restorer — Restore damaged footage by reducing compression artifacts or improving soft-focus video.
  • Video Colorizer — Add or restore color in video footage for restoration and creative enhancement workflows.
  • Video Cleaner — Clean up video noise, artifacts, and visual imperfections for clearer output.
  • Video Relighter — Adjust or improve video lighting while preserving the original scene and motion.
Note:This website uses AI models provided by third parties. Documentation prices are for reference and may be outdated. The Generate button shows an estimate; the final task charge prevails.

Video Colorizer API — Quick start

Grab a WaveSpeedAI API key, then call POST https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/wavespeed-ai/video-colorizer with your input as JSON. The endpoint returns a prediction id. Start polling the result endpoint around every 2 seconds, increase the interval for long-running tasks, and stop on any terminal status. On completed, read output values from data.outputs. Examples for Video Colorizer below.

HTTP example
set -euo pipefail

: "${WAVESPEED_API_KEY:?Set WAVESPEED_API_KEY}"

REQUEST_BODY=$(cat <<'JSON'
{
    "video": "https://interactive-examples.mdn.mozilla.net/media/cc0-videos/flower.mp4",
    "target_resolution": "720p"
}
JSON
)

# 1. Submit the prediction.
SUBMIT_RESPONSE=$(curl --silent --show-error --fail-with-body \
  -X POST "https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/wavespeed-ai/video-colorizer" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $WAVESPEED_API_KEY" \
  -d "$REQUEST_BODY")

TASK=$(printf '%s' "$SUBMIT_RESPONSE" | jq 'if has("data") then .data else . end')
PREDICTION_ID=$(printf '%s' "$TASK" | jq -r '.id')
if [ -z "$PREDICTION_ID" ] || [ "$PREDICTION_ID" = "null" ]; then
  printf 'Submission response did not contain a prediction id
' >&2
  exit 1
fi
RESULT_URL="https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/predictions/$PREDICTION_ID/result"

# 2. Poll until the prediction finishes.
while true; do
  RESPONSE=$(curl --silent --show-error --fail-with-body "$RESULT_URL" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $WAVESPEED_API_KEY")
  RESULT=$(printf '%s' "$RESPONSE" | jq 'if has("data") then .data else . end')
  STATUS=$(printf '%s' "$RESULT" | jq -r '.status')
  case "$STATUS" in
    completed) printf '%s\n' "$RESULT" | jq '.outputs'; break ;;
    failed|cancelled|timeout|deleted) printf '%s\n' "$RESULT" | jq . >&2; exit 1 ;;
    *) sleep 2 ;;
  esac
done
Node.js example
const submitUrl = "https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/wavespeed-ai/video-colorizer";
const apiKey = process.env.WAVESPEED_API_KEY;
if (!apiKey) throw new Error('Set WAVESPEED_API_KEY');

async function requestJson(url, options = {}) {
  const response = await fetch(url, options);
  if (!response.ok) throw new Error(await response.text());
  return response.json();
}

// 1. Submit the prediction.
const body = await requestJson(submitUrl, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
        "video": "https://interactive-examples.mdn.mozilla.net/media/cc0-videos/flower.mp4",
        "target_resolution": "720p"
}),
});
const task = body.data ?? body;
if (!task.id) throw new Error("Submission response did not contain a prediction id");
const resultUrl = `https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/predictions/${task.id}/result`;

// 2. Poll until the prediction finishes.
while (true) {
  const resultBody = await requestJson(resultUrl, {
    headers: { "Authorization": `Bearer ${apiKey}` },
  });
  const result = resultBody.data ?? resultBody;
  if (result.status === "completed") {
    console.log(result.outputs);
    break;
  }
  if (["failed", "cancelled", "timeout", "deleted"].includes(result.status)) throw new Error(JSON.stringify(result));
  await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 2000));
}
Python example
import json
import os
import time
from urllib.request import Request, urlopen

api_key = os.environ["WAVESPEED_API_KEY"]
headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}", "Content-Type": "application/json"}
payload = {
    "video": "https://interactive-examples.mdn.mozilla.net/media/cc0-videos/flower.mp4",
    "target_resolution": "720p"
}

def request_json(url, data=None):
    request = Request(url, data=data, headers=headers, method="POST" if data else "GET")
    with urlopen(request) as response:
        return json.load(response)

# 1. Submit the prediction.
body = request_json("https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/wavespeed-ai/video-colorizer", json.dumps(payload).encode())
task = body.get("data", body)
if not task.get("id"):
    raise RuntimeError("Submission response did not contain a prediction id")
result_url = f"https://api.wavespeed.ai/api/v3/predictions/{task['id']}/result"

# 2. Poll until the prediction finishes.
while True:
    result_body = request_json(result_url)
    result = result_body.get("data", result_body)
    status = result.get("status")
    if status == "completed":
        print(result.get("outputs", []))
        break
    if status in {"failed", "cancelled", "timeout", "deleted"}:
        raise RuntimeError(result)
    time.sleep(2)

Video Colorizer API — Frequently asked questions

What is the Video Colorizer API?

Video Colorizer is a WaveSpeedAI model for video processing, exposed as a REST API on WaveSpeedAI. Video Colorizer restores natural color to black-and-white, monochrome or faded footage while keeping every subject, the framing and the motion exactly as they are. Ready-to-use REST inference API, best performance, no coldstarts, affordable pricing. You can call it programmatically or try it from the playground above.

How do I call the Video Colorizer API?

POST your input parameters to the model's REST endpoint (shown in the API tab of this playground) with your WaveSpeedAI API key in the Authorization header. Submission returns a prediction ID. Poll the result endpoint starting around every 2 seconds, increase the interval for long-running tasks, and stop on any terminal status. The playground generates Python, JavaScript, and cURL examples for submitting requests and polling results. Full request/response shape is documented at https://wavespeed.ai/docs/docs-api/wavespeed-ai/video-colorizer.

How much does Video Colorizer cost per run or per second?

Video Colorizer starts at $0.04 per run or per second. That figure is the base price — the final charge scales with the parameters you set in the form (output size, length, count, references, or whatever knobs this model exposes), so a higher-quality or larger output costs more than a minimal one. The exact cost for your current input is shown live next to the Generate button before you submit, and the actual per-call charge is recorded on the prediction afterwards.

What inputs does Video Colorizer accept?

Key inputs: `prompt`, `video`, `seed`, `target_resolution`. The full JSON schema (types, defaults, allowed values) is rendered above the Generate button and mirrored in the API reference at https://wavespeed.ai/docs/docs-api/wavespeed-ai/video-colorizer.

How do I get started with the Video Colorizer API?

Sign up for a free WaveSpeedAI account to claim starter credits, copy your API key from /accesskey, then call the endpoint shown in the API tab of the playground. The playground also auto-generates a code sample in Python, JavaScript, or cURL for the parameters you've set.

Can I use Video Colorizer outputs commercially?

Commercial usage rights depend on the model's license, set by its provider (WaveSpeedAI). Check the provider's applicable terms and WaveSpeedAI's Terms of Service before commercial use.

llms.txt — wavespeed-ai/video-colorizer for AI agents and LLMs