Integrating Midjourney AI Painting API with PHP: A Step-by-Step Guide

With rapid advances in artificial intelligence, AI painting has become a highlight in artistic creation. Midjourney offers a powerful painting API that developers can integrate to generate artwork. This article explains how to connect the Midjourney API using PHP, covering preparation, request creation, sending, response handling, and a complete example.

1. Preparation

Register a Midjourney account and obtain an API key.

Set up a PHP development environment (PHP 5.6+).

Familiarize with basic PHP syntax.

2. Connecting to the Midjourney API

First, create the API request with URL, payload, and headers. Example code:

<?php
$apiUrl = 'https://api.midjourney.com/v1/paint';
$apiKey = 'Your API Key';
$imageUrl = 'https://example.com/image.jpg';

$payload = json_encode([
    'image_url' => $imageUrl,
    'style' => 'picasso'
]);

$headers = [
    'Content-Type: application/json',
    'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey
];

Next, send the request using cURL and decode the JSON response:

<?php
$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $apiUrl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $payload);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$data = json_decode($response, true);

Process the response: if the status is "success", retrieve the generated image URL; otherwise handle the error.

<?php
if ($data['status'] == 'success') {
    $imageUrl = $data['result']['image_url'];
    // Save or display the artwork
} else {
    $errorMessage = $data['error']['message'];
    // Handle API failure
}

3. Full Example

The complete script combines the previous steps into a single runnable example.

<?php
$apiUrl = 'https://api.midjourney.com/v1/paint';
$apiKey = 'Your API Key';
$imageUrl = 'https://example.com/image.jpg';

$payload = json_encode([
    'image_url' => $imageUrl,
    'style' => 'picasso'
]);

$headers = [
    'Content-Type: application/json',
    'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey
];

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $apiUrl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $payload);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$data = json_decode($response, true);

if ($data['status'] == 'success') {
    $imageUrl = $data['result']['image_url'];
    // Save or display the artwork
} else {
    $errorMessage = $data['error']['message'];
    // Handle API failure
}

The guide demonstrates how to use PHP to integrate the Midjourney API, allowing developers to generate AI‑created artworks, customize styles, and explore new creative possibilities.