Which plans
API keys need the api_access feature, which is on Studio, Team and Enterprise. Hobby and Creator do not have it. If you try without it you get API access is a Studio feature, upgrade to mint API keys, and the empty list reads API access is part of the Studio plan.
Note that MCP itself is not gated this way. If you only want to connect Claude or ChatGPT, you do not need a key or a Studio plan: use the OAuth connector flow in the MCP article.
Creating a key
Dashboard, API & MCP, give it a name such as claude-code, then Create key.
The key is shown once. Copy it then, because we only store a hash of it and cannot show it to you again. Keys look like vmk_ followed by hex.
You can have 10 active keys. Past that you get Key limit reached (10). Revoke an old key first.
Using it
Send it as a bearer token in the Authorization header. The same key works for the REST API and for MCP over HTTP, so one credential covers both.
A key acts as you: same projects, same plan limits, same credit balance. There is no separate quota for API traffic. Renders started through it obey your watermark and resolution caps exactly as the editor does.
What a key cannot do
An API key cannot manage API keys. Creating and revoking them requires signing in properly, so a leaked key cannot mint more of itself.
Revoking
The Revoke button next to the key on the same page. It stops immediately. Do this the moment you think a key has leaked, then create a new one.
Webhooks
Outgoing webhooks, which notify you when a render completes or fails, are on the same Studio entitlement and are configured at the webhooks page in the dashboard.
Scopes
Keys created from the dashboard page have full access, because that form has no scope picker. Narrower, scoped credentials exist for apps built on the developer platform. If you need a key that can only do one thing, that is the route.