Wan 3.0 Prime API — from $0.051/s (480p)

Alibaba Wan 3.0 Prime is live on ArgoLink: $0.051/s at 480p, $0.11/s at 720p and $0.21/s at 1080p, 21–25% below Alibaba Cloud's international list price. Prime is the faster lane of Wan 3.0: a prompt, optionally with reference images, clips and audio, becomes a 4–30 second video with its own soundtrack.

Wan 3.0 Prime model page → · Prices · Install · Prime vs Wan 3.0 · MCP server · FAQ

A small Python client (wan_api.py), an MCP server for agent tools (mcp_server.py), curl scripts in examples/ and offline tests. It speaks the async /v1/videos protocol: submit, poll, download.

Last checked: 2026-10-07 against the pages linked in the tables.

At a glance

Related MCP server: AI-video-generator-MCP

Price per second

All pages read 2026-10-07 (the Alibaba page was last updated 2026-09-28 and shows list prices without promotions). Against the Singapore list the ArgoLink rate is 25% lower at 480p and 1080p and 21% lower at 720p; against the global-region list it is 20%, 14% and 17% lower.

Install

git clone https://github.com/augustusrenfield6/wan-3-0-prime-api
cd wan-3-0-prime-api
python -m pip install -e .          # client: Python 3.9+, requests
python -m pip install -e ".[mcp]"   # adds the MCP server: Python 3.10+, mcp 2.x
export WAN_API_KEY=your-key         # an ArgoLink API key

WAN_BASE_URL (default https://argolink.io/v1) points the client at any other server with the same protocol.

Quick start

from wan_api import WanPrimeAPI, estimate_cost

api = WanPrimeAPI()
job = api.text_to_video(
    "A cinematic tracking shot of a red fox crossing a snowy forest at sunrise, breath steaming",
    duration=8,
    resolution="720p",
    aspect_ratio="16:9",
)
result = api.wait_for_completion(job["request_id"], on_progress=lambda s: print(s.get("progress"), "%"))
api.download(job["request_id"], "fox.mp4")
print(result["usage"], estimate_cost(8, "720p"))   # 8 billed seconds, $0.88

Reference to video

job = api.reference_to_video(
    "The woman in @Image 1 walks into the café from @Video 1 and orders, in time with @Audio 1",
    reference_images=["https://example.com/woman.jpg"],
    reference_videos=["https://example.com/cafe-6s.mp4"],
    reference_audios=["https://example.com/voice.mp3"],
    duration=10,
    aspect_ratio="9:16",
)
# billed seconds = 10 output + 6 reference video = 16 -> 16 x $0.11 = $1.76 at 720p

Local files go through a free upload ticket first:

media = api.upload_file("woman.jpg", kind="image")      # PUTs to a signed URL, no bearer token
job = api.reference_to_video("@Image 1 waves at the camera", reference_images=[media["media_url"]])

Upload limits: JPEG or PNG up to 20 MiB; MP4 or MOV up to 100 MiB and 1–15 s; WAV or MP3 up to 15 MB and 1–15 s. The upload_url is valid for 15 minutes and the media_url for seven days.

API surface

Every method validates locally first (ratio, duration, tier, counts, HTTPS URLs), so a bad request fails before it reaches the API. Submits are never retried by the client: a POST that timed out may still have created a job, so poll before you resend.

curl

BASE=https://argolink.io/v1
ID=$(./examples/submit-text.sh "Paper lanterns rise over a river at dusk" 6 720p 16:9)
./examples/poll-and-download.sh "$ID" lanterns.mp4

submit-reference.sh and upload-and-submit.sh cover references; all four scripts need curl and jq.

Wan 3.0 Prime vs Wan 3.0

Both are Alibaba Wan 3.0 on the same endpoint; the model ID picks the lane.

Alibaba Cloud's own Prime documentation lists first-frame and first/last-frame input; the wan-3-prime route described here does not accept them, so send frames to wan-3.

MCP server

mcp_server.py runs over stdio and exposes text_to_video, reference_to_video, get_video_status, download_video and price_table. It reads WAN_API_KEY from its own environment and never takes a key as a tool argument.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport stdio --env WAN_API_KEY=your-key wan-3-prime -- python /path/to/wan-3-0-prime-api/mcp_server.py

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wan-3-prime": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/path/to/wan-3-0-prime-api/mcp_server.py"],
      "env": { "WAN_API_KEY": "${env:WAN_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}

Codex (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.wan-3-prime]
command = "python"
args = ["/path/to/wan-3-0-prime-api/mcp_server.py"]
env_vars = ["WAN_API_KEY"]

The server needs the MCP Python SDK 2.x. In 1.x the class was FastMCP (mcp.server.fastmcp), which 2.x renamed to MCPServer.

Billing rules

• Per output second at the tier rate, multiplied by the length.

• Reference video seconds are added, with the fraction of their total dropped: 5 s output with a 2.4 s clip bills 7 s.

• Reference images and audio are free; uploads are free.

• A failed, rejected or expired job is not billed. The finished job's usage holds output_seconds, reference_video_seconds and billed_seconds.

Status values

pending (with progress 0–99 and, once known, estimated_seconds_remaining), done (with video.url and usage), failed (with error.code, error.message, error.retryable) and expired. The content endpoint answers 409 job_video_not_ready until the job is done and 424 job_failed after a failure.

FAQ

Can Wan 3.0 Prime start from my image? Not as a first frame on this route: start_image and end_image return 400. Pass the image as reference_images (it guides the subject without being frame one), or use wan-3 for true first-frame and first/last-frame videos.

Why is 4:3 or adaptive rejected? Prime accepts 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16 only. wan-3 adds 21:9, 4:3, 3:4 and adaptive.

Can I get a silent clip? No, every Prime video carries a generated stereo track. Remove it afterwards with ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -an -c:v copy out.mp4, or use wan-3 with generate_audio: false.

What does a 30-second 1080p Prime clip cost? 30 × $0.21 = $6.30 here, against $8.40 at Alibaba Cloud's Singapore list price.

How long can a reference clip be? 1–15 s each and 15 s in total, and the output plus the reference videos may not exceed 30 s.

The old example used running and api.argolink.io. Which is right? Neither: the documented statuses are pending, done, failed and expired, and the base URL is https://argolink.io/v1.

Tests

python -m pip install -e ".[test]"   # add ",mcp" to also run the MCP server test
python -m pytest

The tests use a fake HTTP session; no key or network is needed.

License

MIT