Getting started
This guide takes you from sign-up to your first render in a few minutes.
1. Create your account
- Go to arkia.app and click Sign up.
- Follow the steps to verify your email.
- You land in the app with your free credits.
The free plan
- 200 credits when you sign up.
- Then 75 credits every Monday.
- Nano Banana Pro and Flash, up to 4K, the full template library, and Draft videos.
- GPT Image 2.5 and the Standard and Final video levels come with a paid plan. See Credits.
2. Your first minutes
On your first sign-in, ARKIA asks where you want to start:
| Start | What happens |
|---|---|
| Start from my image | Drop a render, a clay model, a photo or a drone view (or try one of our samples), pick an idea, and render it in the Canvas. |
| Start from a template | A ready-made recipe opens with its sample image: one click renders it. |
| Prefer graphs? Explore Nodes | Build a small graph: Image and Prompt into a Generate node. |
| I'll look around first | Nothing starts: the guide waits in the ? button, top right. |
If a teammate invited you into an organization, the first card offers Open a project image instead: pick an image your team made and change it with words or a brush.
Each start is a short guided tour: a bubble points at the next control and moves on when you use it. Nothing is locked, Back and Skip tour are always there, and each step that renders shows its cost and your balance first. Tours render in 2K (same price as 1K on Nano Banana Pro); your own setting comes back afterwards.
The Getting started checklist
The ? button in the header carries a progress ring. Click it to open Getting started:
| Step | How |
|---|---|
| 1. Create your account | Done when you sign up |
| 2. Render your first image | Canvas: drop an image, describe it, press Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter on Mac) |
| 3. Edit an image | Open an image, then Edit (describe a change) or Erase (brush something away) |
| 4. Run a template | Pick a template and run it |
| Advanced: Build a graph in Nodes | Image and Prompt into Generate, cite the image with @ |
Every step has Show me (or Replay). When all four are done, the ring closes into a check. You can hide the guide from the panel and reopen it any time from ? → Getting started.
Tip: In a prompt, type @ to cite one of your images. In Nodes, only the images a prompt cites are sent.
Keyboard shortcuts
Press ? (or ? → Keyboard shortcuts) to see the shortcuts of the Canvas, the image viewer and Nodes. The full list is also in Canvas and Nodes.
3. Find your way around
| Area | What it does |
|---|---|
| Templates · Canvas · Nodes | The three ways to work, at the top center |
| Project menu | Your projects, top left; the scene picker sits next to it |
| Community | Renders and videos other users published |
| Credits | Your balance; click it to open your wallet |
| ? (Help) | Getting started, keyboard shortcuts and these docs |
| Theme | Light or dark, following your system or your choice |
4. Your first render
With a template (fastest)
- Open Templates and pick a template.
- Add your image (or keep the sample).
- Set the options (season, light, style…).
- Click Generate. The cost shows on the button before you click.
- The result lands in your project. Open it to edit it, upscale it (Free, or Quick up to 4K) or animate it.
More in Templates.
With your own prompt
- Open Canvas and drop your image on the page (or click Images in the prompt bar).
- Describe the result in your own words. The wand in the corner of the field can enhance your prompt.
- Press Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter on Mac) or click Generate.
More in Canvas.
Images you can use
Any common image format (JPG, PNG, WebP…). Very large images are scaled down to 8,192 px on the long side. The Canvas prompt bar takes up to 6 images per run.
5. Teams and organizations
Organizations
An organization puts a team on one shared wallet:
- Invite only: an admin invites members by email. You join from the invitation.
- Team wallet: as a member, you generate on your team's credits. The credits chip in the header shows your team.
- Monthly limits: the admin can set a limit per team and per member. When a limit is set, the chip shows what you have used.
Admins manage teams, members, limits and team billing from the organization console.
Shared projects (Studio)
On the Studio plan, you can invite collaborators into a project from the project menu. They see its images and can work in it.
Next steps
- Templates: the fastest way to a result
- Canvas: models, prompts and edit tools
- Video: animate an image
- Credits: plans and costs
- Best practices: better prompts, better results
Last updated: October 18, 2026