1. Get a key
Sign in to Nouvel, open Settings → API, and create a key.
The key is shown once, at creation. We store a hash, not the key, so a lost key cannot be recovered and has to be replaced.
If you do not see an API tab, your account has not been granted access yet.
2. Add credit
The API is prepaid. Buy credit from Settings → API → Add to balance.
A request against an empty balance returns 402 insufficient_credit before any work is done, so you are never charged for a call that could not run.
3. Make a call
A scan takes roughly 20 to 30 seconds. Set your client timeout to at least 90 seconds.
4. Watch what it cost
Every successful response carries the charge and the balance left:
You never need a second call to check your balance.
Analysis work is genuinely slow. These are the ceilings the API itself enforces, so your client should allow at least as much.
Music is slow the first time it meets an unfamiliar niche, because it has to listen to sounds it has never heard. Those results are cached permanently, so the same niche is much faster afterwards.