Pixelfy
Pixelfy was an AI pixel art generator for game developers and illustrators, producing sprites, backgrounds and avatars on 16x16 to 128x128 grids. The hosted service has shut down; only its AGPL-3.0 source code and example galleries remain.
What is Pixelfy?
Pixelfy was a web application that generated pixel art with AI, built by developer David Parks and launched publicly on 3 May 2023. It no longer runs: a permanent banner on every page announces that Pixelfy has shut down, and the README of the official repository confirms that the hosted service is no longer available while the code remains open source for educational purposes and reference.
What it did was narrow and carefully executed. Users described the image they wanted and the application returned pixel art sized to a chosen grid, from 16x16 up to 128x128. Six features were advertised: an AI-powered prompt builder, grid size control, advanced tuning of sampling steps and prompt guidance, background removal to isolate a subject, reference image upload to influence the result, and colour palette control to constrain the output. Twelve specialised style generators covered different registers, from Blocky Cartoon and Cozy World Builder to JRPG Adventure, Fantasy RPG, Pixel Background, Anime Avatar, 16x16 Pixel Portrait and 32x32 Skill Art, each with a public gallery that is still browsable without an account.
The generation was never Pixelfy's own work. Every page credits Powered by Scenario, and the repository states that Pixelfy's APIs interact directly with Scenario, a third-party model platform. Commercially the product ran on credits, the terms specifying that one credit is consumed per successful generation, with payments handled by Stripe.
The project is open source under the GNU AGPL v3 and, as of 16 August 2026, carries 366 stars, 51 forks and 363 commits. Its published stack is unusually complete for a solo product: Next.js 13 with the app directory, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui, PlanetScale MySQL, NextAuth.js, Vercel, Stripe, Postmark, Upstash and Supabase, forked from shadcn's Taxonomy starter. Well-known developers including shadcn, Steven Tey, Hassan El Mghari and Sam Selikoff endorsed it publicly on the homepage.
No company is named anywhere: the footer reads only Built by David Parks. The site itself is tiny, fifteen URLs in total, with no pricing, about, contact or API documentation page.
What it does
- Generate a pixel art image from a written description
- Choose a grid size: 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 or 128x128
- Pick one of twelve specialised style generators
- Compose the prompt with an AI-assisted prompt builder
- Remove the background to isolate the subject of a sprite
- Upload a reference image to steer the generation
- Constrain the result to a specific colour palette
When to use Pixelfy / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Pixelfy is the right fit.
When to use Pixelfy
- Indie game developers who needed sprites, backgrounds, skill icons and 16x16 portraits, and who are able to rebuild the tool from its open-source repository
- Developers comfortable with self-hosting: the AGPL-3.0 repository is still published and can be deployed with your own Scenario API keys
- Next.js engineers studying a complete AI SaaS codebase, which the README says remains open source for educational purposes and reference
- Pixel art illustrators and art directors curious to see what twelve style-specific models produced, through the galleries that stay open to everyone
- Creators who need unambiguous commercial rights over generated images: the terms gave users full ownership with no attribution required
When not to use Pixelfy
- Anyone looking for a working online pixel art generator: the hosted service is shut down and no account can be created
- Non-technical users, since self-hosting the repository is the only remaining way to run anything
- Teams that need a public API or a mobile app: no API documentation exists in the site's fifteen-URL sitemap, and there is no iOS or Android release
- Organisations bound by the GDPR: the site contains no mention of the GDPR, no data processing agreement and no named sub-processors
- Artists after photorealistic, vector or any non-pixelated output, as all twelve generators are pixel art models
How to use Pixelfy
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Start from the fact that the hosted service has shut down: the steps below describe how Pixelfy worked, not what can be done today
- Sign in through the login page, which ran on NextAuth.js, then open the dashboard
- Buy credits through Stripe, one credit being consumed per successful generation
- Choose one of the twelve style generators
- Write the prompt, optionally with help from the AI-assisted prompt builder
- Select the grid size: 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 or 128x128
- Adjust sampling steps and prompt guidance in the advanced options
- Optionally upload a reference image, constrain the colour palette, or remove the background
- Today the dashboard only redirects to the login page, so the sole remaining route is to clone the AGPL-3.0 repository and self-host it with your own Scenario, PlanetScale, Vercel, Supabase, Upstash, Postmark and Stripe keys
- Browse the twelve example galleries, which stay open without an account and show what each generator produced
Pros & Cons
Pros
- The full source code is still published under AGPL-3.0 and genuinely followed, with 366 stars and 51 forks, so the project outlives the service that carried it
- Exceptionally generous terms on output: users own the images they generated, may sell them, and owe no attribution or compensation
- Models specialised in pixel art through Scenario rather than a general-purpose image generator asked to imitate the style
- Fine-grained control over the result through grid size, colour palette, reference image, sampling steps and prompt guidance
- Built-in background removal, directly useful for turning a generation into a usable game sprite
- AI-assisted prompt builder that early testers praised as fast and effective
- A fully documented Next.js 13 stack that works as a teaching reference for a complete AI SaaS application
Cons
- The hosted service has shut down, which outweighs everything else: nothing can be generated, bought or accessed online any more
- No price was ever published; the pricing URL returns a 404 and appears nowhere in the sitemap, so only the principle of credits is known
- No free plan and no free trial are documented anywhere on the site
- No GDPR provision at all: no data processing agreement, no sub-processor list, no Article 27 representative, no data protection officer
- No legal entity and no postal address are published, and the only contact is a personal Gmail address, with no support email and no contact page
- No public API, no mobile application and no browser extension
- Self-hosting is demanding: seven third-party services to provision plus a valid Scenario account, under the copyleft obligations of AGPL-3.0
Pricing & Plans
There is no free plan and no free trial documented, and no price was ever published. The terms describe a credit system in which users purchased credits and one credit was consumed per successful generation, with payments processed by Stripe, but no amount, currency or credit pack was ever stated: the pricing URL returns a 404 and the complete sitemap contains no pricing page. Since the hosted service has shut down, nothing can be purchased today. The only remaining cost is indirect, as self-hosting the open-source repository means paying for your own Scenario, PlanetScale, Vercel, Supabase, Upstash, Postmark and Stripe accounts. Commercial use of the generated images carried no royalty and no attribution requirement.
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Pixelfy handles your data.
GDPR overview
There is no mention of the GDPR anywhere on the site: neither the privacy policy nor the terms use the word, and no data processing agreement, sub-processor list or Article 27 EU representative is published. The framework is strictly American, resting on COPPA for children under 13 and on California Civil Code Section 1798.83, which lets California residents request information about disclosures of personal data to third parties for direct marketing. A Consent to Transfer clause states that the website is operated in the United States and that information collected from users located elsewhere may be transferred to and processed there. No right of access, rectification, erasure or portability is described, and no data protection officer is appointed. The only privacy contact is a personal Gmail address rather than a company one. The policy is dated 30 April 2023.
Who owns the data?
The terms are unusually clear about output. Images produced through the application, called User-Generated Images, are the property of the respective users, and the owners explicitly claim no ownership rights over them. Users may use, modify and distribute those images freely, including commercially, with no attribution and no compensation owed. The application itself is a separate matter: its text, graphics, images and software remain the property of its owners, and because it is open source it must be attributed to its original creators, the code being released under the GNU AGPL v3. On the personal side, the privacy policy states the site collected names, email addresses, form details, IP addresses, operating system, browser type, pages visited, links clicked and searches performed.
Reuse rights
For generated images, no permission was ever required: the terms let users employ, modify and distribute their output as they wish, personally or commercially, without attribution or payment. For personal data, the privacy policy lists the declared purposes as delivering the products and services requested, operating, maintaining and improving the site, sending marketing communications, responding to comments, questions and requests, enforcing contractual rights, and protecting rights, property and safety. Data could be shared with third-party service providers for web hosting, data analysis, email distribution and customer service, none of which is ever named, and with unnamed affiliates and business partners; disclosure is also possible where required by law, court order or legal process. Nothing in either document mentions AI model training on customer data, and no opt-out mechanism is described. The site states that it does not respond to Do Not Track signals. Both documents are dated 30 April 2023 and have never been updated since.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
The privacy policy is brief on this point: the website is operated in the United States, and users located elsewhere are warned that the information collected may be transferred to and processed there. No region, data centre or residency option is named, and no choice of location was ever offered. The official repository fills in the rest of the picture: the application ran on Vercel, its database was PlanetScale MySQL, and generated images were stored on Supabase. DNS resolution for the domain returns 76.76.21.21, a Vercel anycast address geolocated in the United States on Amazon's AS16509. Everything therefore sat under United States jurisdiction, with no European footprint of any kind, and none of the hosting providers involved is named in the privacy policy itself, only in the project's technical documentation.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Pixelfy.
- The service is shut down, yet the site remains complete and fully browsable, so it can easily look active at first glance: no account, no credit and no generation is possible today
- No legal entity is named anywhere, so there is no identifiable party to turn to in case of a dispute, and the only published contact is a personal Gmail address
- The legal documents are frozen at 30 April 2023 and are still online although they describe a service that no longer runs; nothing is said about the fate of former accounts' data
- Generation depended entirely on a third party, Scenario, so a fork is only usable with a valid Scenario account, a reminder of how fragile a product built on someone else's models can be
- AGPL-3.0 is copyleft: self-hosting and exposing the service obliges you to publish your own modifications, and the terms still require the application to be attributed to its original creators
- Leaning on a generator for every asset can quietly erode the hand skills that pixel art rewards, and habits formed on a tool that can disappear overnight leave nothing behind
- The first Wayback capture of the domain, dated 29 February 2016, predates the 25 April 2023 registration by seven years and belongs to a previous occupant, so it should not be read as the project's age
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Two very different answers. While the service ran, difficulty was nil: a browser, an account created through the login page, a credit purchase, and generation started, with no installation of any kind. Today the only possible deployment is self-hosting the repository, and that is a confirmed developer's job: Next.js 13 with the app directory, TypeScript, a PlanetScale database, NextAuth.js, deployment on Vercel, plus Stripe, Postmark, Upstash, Supabase and Scenario API keys. Seven third-party services to provision and configure, with no step-by-step installation guide highlighted in the README.
Deployment
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind Pixelfy
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still use Pixelfy?
What did Pixelfy actually do?
Is there anything left to do with it?
Who owns the images generated with Pixelfy?
How much did Pixelfy cost?
Was there an API or a mobile app?
Is Pixelfy GDPR compliant?
What was the minimum age to use Pixelfy?
Who is behind Pixelfy?
Which engine actually generated the images?
Should you pick Pixelfy?
Pixelfy is a well-made product that no longer exists as a service. A permanent banner on every page announces the shutdown, the official repository confirms that the hosted application is no longer available, and no amount of browsing changes that: there is nothing to sign up for and nothing to buy.
What survives is worth something. The code is published under AGPL-3.0, documented and still followed, with 366 stars and 51 forks, and it makes an unusually complete reference for anyone studying how a full AI SaaS product is assembled on Next.js 13, from authentication to payments to image storage. A developer holding a Scenario account can fork it and run an instance. The twelve example galleries remain open and show honestly what the style generators produced: backgrounds, fantasy RPG scenes, 32x32 skill icons, 16x16 portraits.
One clause deserves to be singled out. The terms give users full ownership of the images they generated, with free commercial use and nothing owed in attribution or compensation, a stance more generous than most image generators offer and one that held even as the service closed.
The gaps are just as clear. No price was ever published. No legal entity is named, the footer crediting only David Parks. There is no GDPR provision anywhere, no data processing agreement, no retention period, and the only contact is a personal Gmail address. The legal documents have not moved since 30 April 2023.
The verdict follows. If you want a working pixel art generator, look elsewhere, because Pixelfy cannot serve you. If you want to read, fork or self-host a carefully built open-source AI application, or simply see what a focused pixel art model could do, the repository and the galleries still repay the visit.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.