How to access Kling's AI video via code

If you want a program to generate AI video automatically instead of clicking around a website, you can use Kling's API. An API is a kind of digital order window where one program can send orders to another. Here are the main points according to Kling's own documentation.

From key to first video

The developer platform is at kling.ai/dev, and keys are created in the console at kling.ai/dev/api-key. You click "Create a new API Key" and give the key a name. The key is shown only once, so it must be stored securely right away.

Before you can use the service, you need to buy resource packages for video or image generation. According to an independent guide from Puter, creating the key is free, but every generated video costs money. The price depends on the model and clip length. The console shows how many calls you have made, how much you have spent and what your balance is.

In Kling's official documentation, the API domain is https://api-singapore.klingai.com. Other sources also mention api.klingai.com, so the address may vary.

Two ways to authenticate

The current default method is to include the key in every request as "Authorization: Bearer <key>".

There is also an older method using an Access Key and a Secret Key. Here the program has to create a so-called JWT, a kind of temporary digital access ticket. It is valid for 1,800 seconds from issuance. Third-party guides describe only the older method.

According to Puter, Kling has no official SDK, that is, a ready-made software library. The community-developed npm package "kling-api" does, however, handle JWT and status tracking.

How an order unfolds

A video request does not return an answer immediately. According to documentation from the reseller CometAPI, you send a POST to /v1/videos/text2video, and later you query the task via GET /v1/videos/text2video/{task_id}. The task can have the status submitted, processing, succeed or failed, where the last two are final states. The paths come from a reseller and may differ from Kling's direct API.

You can either check continuously (polling) or specify a callback_url so that Kling sends the result to an HTTPS address you control. Polling is still recommended as a safety net in case a callback never arrives.

Protect the key

Kling's documentation calls the key highly sensitive. If it leaks, others can use up your call quota. Keys should therefore be kept in environment variables and not written directly into the code.