selling the whole midjourney api backend!
excited to announce that the original python source code powering mjapi.io’s backend is now available! this release marks a significant pivot in our whole approach to selling access to image gen models.
why
transitioning to a more scalable architecture. the original python backend, though perfect for individual use, faces challenges when scaling to even hundreds of concurrent users.
what’s inside
the package contains our core library with all the essential components:
- the whole saas backend, with payments, user auth, extensive spam detection, job queue etc. probably 50% of this code can be repurposed to any other project
- complete discord wrapper managing the lifecycle of image generation requests. this is the actual “bot” doing the heavy lifting.
- automated captcha solving (via your own api key from a third-party service)
- comprehensive request handling (sending requests, monitoring generation, handling reactions)
- generally robust, well-documented code ready for integration
you can also get the minimal self-contained bot version that you can use directly in your own project, which is cheaper if you’re only interested in that.
a deeper dive into the why
we believe in complete transparency, so here’s what you should know:
- does it work? absolutely! we’ve used this code extensively for our own projects.
- will i get banned? eventually, yes. midjourney typically flags accounts after 2-3 months or ~300 api calls per day. this latter limit might just be a coincidence, but it was somethign we’ve experienced
- how to minimize risks? always use throwaway discord accounts.
- future updates? we’ll try to adapt the lib when midjourney changes their api.
it’s still perfect for individual use
while this backend wasn’t ideal for our scale (we started to have hundreds of concurrent users, and it was a nightmare), it’s perfect for individual developers and small projects. the sweet spot is 1-5 discord accounts per ip address, which covers 99% of use cases.
pricing
for the amount of work we’ve put in? dirt cheap.
what’s next
(man looking at the horizon optimistic 4k sun positive)
we’re evolving! mjapi.io is pivoting to a self-hosted open-source model. we’ll have all of the stuff you’d expect:
- image gen
- inpaint/outpaint
- face swap
- outfit gen
- everything else the current open source models are capable of
it’s exciting that we’ve reached 5k monthly visitors just a few days ago and growing at 10% month-over-month, i can’t wait for this new direction that will allow us to scale “infinitely”, while still keeping a mj-like quality (at least 90% imo), for cheaper and without any constraints. we’re going native baby
dive in
you can get the source code now on gumroad
this pack is the culmination of months of dev and real-world testing.
fun fact: the most frustrating part was fighting the fake email signups and creating a robust email/ip filtering system, hope you’ll find some use for this piece too, i’m definitely using it in all of my upcoming projects.
stay tuned!
ps: i know there’s no easy way to get notified of new posts, but you can join our discord, i’ll be posting there too!