Show HN: Generate images from the CLI with a ChatGPT subscription (no API key)

A new open-source Python CLI tool called chatgpt-imagegen allows users to generate images from the command line using a ChatGPT subscription without needing an API key. The tool supports two backends—one driving a logged-in Chrome browser and another using the Codex CLI—and works with free-tier accounts. It provides a zero-dependency, single-file solution for developers and AI agents.

English | 中文 /leeguooooo/chatgpt-imagegen/blob/main/README.zh-CN.md Generate images using your ChatGPT subscription — no OPENAI API KEY needed. A tiny, zero-dependency Python CLI and AI-agent skill — one file, stdlib only — that generates images with your ChatGPT account, on the command line and for any AI agent. ✨ Works on a free ChatGPT account too.The default web backend just drives the normal ChatGPT web chat, whereeven free-tier users get image generation— so no paid plan, no API key, and no Codex required subject to the free tier's daily image limit . Paid plans simply get higher limits. php chatgpt-imagegen "a watercolor cat sitting on a windowsill" -o cat.png - saved: cat.png 812,344 bytes size=1024x1024 quality=medium OpenAI offers image generation in two completely separate ways: | Path | What you pay | How | |---|---|---| Direct API /v1/images/generations | per-image, on top of an OPENAI API KEY | curl / OpenAI SDK / etc. | ChatGPT subscription Plus / Pro / Team | flat monthly fee | ChatGPT web/desktop app, or the Codex CLI's built-in image gen | The subscription path is invisible to people who don't use the Codex CLI. It runs on ChatGPT's internal backend-api/codex/responses endpoint as a Responses-API tool, authenticated by the OAuth token written into ~/.codex/auth.json when you run codex login . chatgpt-imagegen exposes that capability on the command line and to any AI agent — with two backends that hit different parts of your subscription. The same subscription meters two separate buckets, and which one you spend depends on where the image is generated: | Backend | How it generates | Bucket spent | Needs | |---|---|---|---| web | Drives your already-logged-in ChatGPT browser via chrome-use | ChatGPT conversation — does not touch your metered Codex-usage limit. | Any logged-in chatgpt.com browser free tier works + chrome-use . | codex | Headless POST to backend-api/codex/responses , reusing ~/.codex/auth.json . | Codex-usage the metered bucket . | codex login . | Default auto tries web first to spare Codex-usage and falls back to codex when no logged-in browser is reachable. Force one with --backend web / --backend codex or CHATGPT IMAGEGEN BACKEND . Laptop / desktop Chrome open + signed in → web — no Codex-usage spent. Server / headless agent box → codex — no browser there, so auto falls back on its own. web generates under whatever account that browser is logged into , which may differ from ~/.codex/auth.json — sign the browser into the account whose bucket you want. You need Python 3.10+, a ChatGPT subscription, and at least one backend auto uses whichever is set up, preferring web : codex backend — npm i -g @openai/codex then codex login writes ~/.codex/auth.json . web backend — formerly https://github.com/leeguooooo/chrome-use chrome-use agent-browser-stealth ; it drives your real logged-in Chrome via an extension, which is what passes Cloudflare + ChatGPT's anti-bot check connected to a Chrome signed in to chatgpt.com: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leeguooooo/chrome-use/main/install.sh | sh chrome-use extension install then: add the Chrome extension → restart Chrome → sign in to chatgpt.com Extension: Chrome Web Store https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/agent-browser-stealth/knfcmbamhjmaonkfnjhldjedeobeafmk . Older installs exposing the binary as agent-browser / abs keep working — the CLI accepts both names. No chrome-use ? Nothing breaks and nothing gets installed behind your back: auto mode falls back to codex and prints a one-line tip that installing chrome-use makes generation cost no Codex-usage. Install via skills.sh https://www.skills.sh — works with Claude Code, Codex Agent, Cursor, OpenClaw, etc.: npx skills add leeguooooo/chatgpt-imagegen -g This drops both the agent instructions SKILL.md and the CLI itself into your agent's skill directory. Just ask any compatible agent: "画一张 xxx" / "generate a hero banner for the README" . git clone https://github.com/leeguooooo/chatgpt-imagegen cd chatgpt-imagegen chmod +x chatgpt-imagegen ./chatgpt-imagegen "a tiny pixel-art mushroom" Or put it on your $PATH : sudo install chatgpt-imagegen /usr/local/bin/chatgpt-imagegen That's the entire setup. No pip install , no virtualenv, no daemon. chatgpt-imagegen "<prompt " options | Flag | Default | Notes | |---|---|---| --backend | auto | auto | web | codex . auto prefers web spares Codex-usage , falls back to codex if no logged-in browser. See CHATGPT IMAGEGEN BACKEND . | --profile | auto | web Which Chrome profile to drive. auto : use your open Chrome if it's logged in, else auto-switch to a profile that is detected offline . relay : only your open Chrome. Or a name like "Profile 3" . | --session | imagegen | web Named chrome-use Chrome tab group reused across runs one stable daemon instead of one per run . Falls back to imagegen-<pid when web concurrency is raised above 1, to isolate parallel runs. | --project | imagegen | web ChatGPT Project to file the conversation under — matched by exact name, created on first use, reused afterwards. Pass --project "" for a plain top-level chat. Also CHATGPT IMAGEGEN PROJECT . Failures degrade to a plain chat with a warning, never block the run. | --keep-tab | off | web Leave the ChatGPT tab open after generating default closes it . Implies --keep-conversation . | --keep-conversation | off | web Keep the ChatGPT conversation after generating. Default deletes it so the run leaves no history filed under the project only transiently . Also CHATGPT IMAGEGEN KEEP CONVERSATION=1 . | --web-model | Instant,Auto | web Comma-separated model/effort candidates; the first one present in the picker is selected before generating. The tier has no native image generator it answers image requests by writing Python , so the web backend switches off it automatically. Pass Pro "" to keep whatever is selected. Also CHATGPT IMAGEGEN WEB MODEL . | -i , --ref PATH OR URL | — | Image-to-image. Reference image to edit repeatable for multiple references . A local path or http s URL. When given, the model edits the reference s instead of rendering from text. Works on both backends. See | --style NAME | — | Apply a saved | --no-style -o , --out PATH assets/generated/<slug .<ext --format disagree e.g. -o foo.jpg --format png . --size auto auto or any WIDTHxHEIGHT . Verified working: 1024x1024 , 1024x1536 , 1536x1024 . Larger sizes are forwarded as-is. --format png png | jpeg | webp --model gpt-5.5 image generation tool --timeout 300 Total wall-clock budget seconds for the whole request. Large/detailed images can take 2–3 min. --stall-timeout 120 stall — caught well before the total budget. Clamped to --timeout . --quiet only the saved path on stdout perfect for agent pipelines . Progress still streams to stderr — use --no-progress to silence it. --no-progress -V , --version chatgpt-imagegen 0.11.0 and exit.Examples: Default → assets/generated/<slugified-prompt .png chatgpt-imagegen "watercolor cat" Pick the path chatgpt-imagegen "logo for a coffee shop, vector style" -o brand/logo.png --size 1024x1024 Landscape hero banner chatgpt-imagegen "moody mountain sunset" -o web/hero.png --size 1536x1024 Use in a shell pipeline OUT=$ chatgpt-imagegen "icon" --quiet echo "saved to $OUT" A style is a named, reusable snippet of prompt text. Apply one with --style NAME and it's appended to your prompt as a suffix — so --style doodle turns a cat into a cat, drawn as a deliberately crude doodle … . Styles live in a small JSON file ~/.config/chatgpt-imagegen/styles.json , honouring $XDG CONFIG HOME , seeded on first use with one built-in style, doodle — the deliberately-awful MS-Paint look the example below image-to-image is drawn in. There is no default style out of the box — nothing changes unless you opt in with --style or set an active default. Manage them with the style subcommand: | Command | What it does | |---|---| chatgpt-imagegen style list | List all styles; the active default if any is marked | chatgpt-imagegen style show NAME | Print one style's full snippet | chatgpt-imagegen style add NAME "snippet" | Create or overwrite a style | chatgpt-imagegen style rm NAME | Delete a style | chatgpt-imagegen style use NAME | Set NAME as the active default — auto-applied to every run | chatgpt-imagegen style clear | Unset the active default | chatgpt-imagegen style reset | Re-seed the built-in styles discards your edits; -y skips the prompt | At generation time: Apply a style for one run chatgpt-imagegen "a robot mascot" --style doodle Save your own house style once, then make it the default chatgpt-imagegen style add brand "flat vector, bold shapes, teal 00b3a4 accent, white background" chatgpt-imagegen style use brand chatgpt-imagegen "a settings icon" → uses the brand style automatically Skip the active default for one run chatgpt-imagegen "a photorealistic forest" --no-style Resolution order per run: --no-style wins, else --style NAME , else the active default, else no style. The snippet only affects the text sent to the model — your output filename and the prompt shown in the progress log stay your raw prompt. Pass a reference image with -i / --ref to edit it instead of generating from text — the same mechanism as dragging an image into the ChatGPT composer and asking it to restyle the scene. Still your ChatGPT subscription, still no API key. Works on both backends , and auto picks the right one for you: web default, no Codex-usage : the reference is uploaded into the ChatGPT composer via chrome-use , then the edit prompt is sent on the conversation surface — exactly like doing it by hand. codex --backend codex : the reference is sent as an input image part and the image tool is forced; this bills the metered Codex-usage bucket. Restyle / edit a local image chatgpt-imagegen "make it a warm golden-hour photo, cinematic 35mm" -i photo.jpg -o out.png Reference from a URL chatgpt-imagegen "place this product in a minimalist studio scene" -i https://example.com/item.png -o scene.png Multiple references repeat -i — e.g. several angles of the same subject chatgpt-imagegen "put this rug in a cozy living room" -i front.jpg -i detail.jpg -o room.png --size 1024x1536 Notes: - Supported reference types: PNG, JPEG, WEBP. web: references are uploaded as files; the browser handles sizing. The result is read from the conversation, never confused with the uploaded reference. codex: references are sent as base64; oversized images are auto-downsized to a JPEG under a ~5 MB budget via macOS sips when available no extra dependencies . Real output of the exact example commands above — every image in this README is made by this tool: watercolor cat sitting on a windowsill | logo for a coffee shop, vector style | moody mountain sunset 1536×1024 | |---|---|---| It can also do this — asked to draw its own two-backend architecture as a deliberately awful, mouse-drawn MS-Paint doodle. | Parameter | Subscription path | Notes | |---|---|---| --size | ✅ honoured | auto or any WIDTHxHEIGHT ; backend rejects sizes it doesn't support. Verified working: auto , 1024x1024 , 1024x1536 , 1536x1024 . Larger sizes 2048x , 3840x are forwarded as-is — the backend may accept or reject depending on subscription tier. | --format | ✅ honoured | png / jpeg / webp | | Quality | The script does not expose a --quality flag because the subscription path does not expose reliable quality control — the backend has been observed picking low or medium on its own and ignoring or downgrading any request for high . Use the official /v1/images/generations API with OPENAI API KEY if you need explicit quality control. | | background: transparent | ❌ not supported on subscription | needs API-key path with gpt-image-1.5 | Image edits /v1/images/edits | ❌ not exposed yet | open an issue if you need this | | Speed | typically 15–60 s, occasionally 2–3 min for large/detailed images | streamed end-to-end; a per-phase timeline prints to stderr so you can see it working | Each backend has its own cross-process concurrency cap, because they hit different limits: | Backend | Default cap | Why | Override | |---|---|---|---| web | 1 serialized | Drives the one shared logged-in Chrome, and the chatgpt.com page surface rate-limits aggressively "Too many requests… temporarily limited access to your conversations" . | CHATGPT IMAGEGEN WEB CONCURRENCY | codex | 4 | Independent HTTP POSTs; measured fine at 4 concurrent on a Plus account no 429s, wall time ≈ slowest single . Capped so a big agent fan-out can't trip the per-account limiter. | CHATGPT IMAGEGEN CODEX CONCURRENCY 0 = unlimited | Firing more processes than the cap is safe — excess runs queue on a flock slot pool waiters print a "waiting…" line, and the --timeout budget only starts once a slot is acquired, so queue time is free . Fire 4 in parallel from a shell note: --backend codex : for p in apple sky tree sun; do chatgpt-imagegen "a tiny $p icon, flat vector, white background" \ -o "icons/$p.png" --backend codex --quiet & done wait Why web stays at 1: concurrent runs on the shared Chrome used to cross-contaminate each other's images 7 https://github.com/leeguooooo/chatgpt-imagegen/issues/7 , fixed in v0.6.0 , and the page surface throttles fast bursts regardless. If chatgpt.com does rate-limit the account, the web backend detects the "Too many requests" dialog and fails fast with a clear message — before the prompt is submitted auto mode falls back to codex; after submission it stops cleanly instead of double-spending. Caveat: subscription quota is shared with the ChatGPT web app and Codex CLI. Don't run sustained batches 10 images/min — you'll eventually hit per-day rate limits. For bulk batches, use the official /v1/images/generations API with an OPENAI API KEY . If any of these apply, this tool is the wrong fit: - You want true or quality=high native transparent backgrounds — both require the official /v1/images/generations API with an OPENAI API KEY . - You're building a production service that serves images to end users — using your personal ChatGPT subscription for that violates OpenAI's ToS and burns the quota you use for actual ChatGPT. - You need deterministic per-call billing that you can pass through to customers — the API has that, the subscription doesn't. - You want 10 images per minute sustained — subscription rate limits are tighter than the API. For those cases, just call OpenAI's official endpoint: curl https://api.openai.com/v1/images/generations \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI API KEY" \ -d '{"model":"gpt-image-2","prompt":"...","size":"1024x1024"}' Need an HTTP API? exposes the same tool as an OpenAI-compatible agent-cli-to-api /v1/chat/completions server — pick it for network-callable, multi-client, or team-shared use. This repo is for local / agent-driven use. Deep dives blog : why this exists + OAuth/SSE walkthrough https://blog.misonote.com/zh/posts/chatgpt-subscription-image-api/ · visual guide https://blog.misonote.com/zh/posts/chatgpt-imagegen-visual-guide/ zh; EN/JA under /en/ and /ja/ . Drives your logged-in browser via chrome-use so generation runs on the consumer ChatGPT surface — which a headless client can't reach. The gate has three layers: Cloudflare's edge check and a sentinel proof-of-work backend-api/sentinel/chat-requirements + an in-page sentinel/sdk.js are both passable by a bare client, but a Cloudflare Turnstile token isn't — that interactive token can only come from a real browser, and it's single-use, so there's no "grab the token then go headless" shortcut. The flow: chatgpt-imagegen --backend web │ ├── chrome-use open https://chatgpt.com/ a regular chat — Temporary Chat disables the image tool ├── resolve the ChatGPT Project --project in-page fetch: list via gizmos/snorlax/sidebar, │ and open chatgpt.com/g/<g-p-id /project create via POST /backend-api/projects if absent ├── type the prompt with real keystrokes ProseMirror/React composer ignores DOM-only fill ├── poll the page: wait until streaming stops AND a new <img asset is stable └── fetch the asset bytes in-page credentials:'include' → base64 → save the signed estuary/content URL is authorized by the browser's own cookies No tokens leave the browser. Each run's chat lands inside the imagegen Project auto-created instead of the top-level history; pass --project "" to opt out. The Codex CLI's built-in image gen skill is implemented as a native Responses-API tool: // Codex CLI's request to chatgpt.com/backend-api/codex/responses: { "model": "gpt-5.5", "tools": {"type": "image generation"} , "input": {"role": "user", "content": {"type":"input text","text":"draw a cat"} } , // ... } The server replies with an SSE stream whose response.output item.done events carry an item.type === "image generation call" payload, where item.result is base64 PNG. chatgpt-imagegen does exactly that: chatgpt-imagegen │ ├── reads ~/.codex/auth.json OAuth access token, account id, refresh token ├── reads ~/.codex/version.json codex CLI version → matches server expectations │ └── POST https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/codex/responses headers: Authorization, version, originator, session id, … body: tools: image generation │ └── SSE stream ├── response.image generation call.in progress → "queued" ├── response.image generation call.generating → "generating" ├── response.image generation call.partial image → "receiving image partial N " ├── response.output item.done ← item.result = base64 PNG └── response.completed If the OAuth token has expired the script auto-refreshes via https://auth.openai.com/oauth/token using the refresh token already stored by codex login and persists the new token back to ~/.codex/auth.json . MIT — see LICENSE /leeguooooo/chatgpt-imagegen/blob/main/LICENSE . This tool calls ChatGPT's internal backend-api/codex endpoint, which is the same endpoint the official Codex CLI uses. It is not a documented public API. OpenAI could change or restrict it at any time. Use is at your own risk and within the OpenAI Terms of Use https://openai.com/policies/row-terms-of-use/ — in particular, do not use your ChatGPT subscription to power a public-facing image generation service . 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