thirds.ai vs Templated
Both tools make a new image or PDF from a saved design and fresh details, from an editor, from ChatGPT or Claude, or from code. Three things differ: your brand, the price of a long PDF, and the free plan. In thirds.ai, a brand kit puts your logo, colours, and fonts on any design in one step, one credit pays for a whole PDF of up to 100 pages, and you get 50 free credits every month. Templated charges one credit per PDF page, so a ten-page report costs ten credits there (vendor claim), and we found no saved brand kit on its site (our reading).
We aren't connected to Templated. Templated is a trademark of its owner.
Watch the comparison
Templated alternative: a PDF generator that charges per file, not per page
Read the transcript
Need a PDF generator that doesn't charge you for every page? Here's how thirds.ai compares with Templated, and a ten-page report for just one credit.
Both tools do the same core job. You save a design once, send new details, and get a finished image or PDF back, from an editor, AI help, or an API.
The first difference is the design itself. In thirds.ai, the whole design is HTML you can open and edit, with a field for each detail that changes. Templated builds designs from layers in its editor, and your call fills each layer by name.
The second difference is the price of a long PDF. Templated says one credit per PDF page, so a ten-page report takes ten credits. On thirds.ai, the whole file is one credit, up to a hundred pages. For one image, it's one credit on both.
So here's that report for real. It's saved once as a template. Send the client and the quarter to the API, and back comes the finished ten-page PDF, for one credit! Next client? Change the details and send it again.
Pick Templated if you need Canva import, video, or an editor inside your own app. Pick thirds.ai for HTML designs you can edit, and PDFs you pay for by the file.
Make your first PDF free at thirds.ai!
- 1 credit
- makes 1 PDF or image
- 50 credits
- free every month, no card
- $29
- a month for Starter, with 2,500 credits
- 4 formats
- PDF, PNG, JPEG, and WebP
Feature by feature
What's different
| What you need | thirds.ai | Templated |
|---|---|---|
| Your brand | Save your logo, colours, and fonts once as a brand kit, or type your website address and the kit builds itself. Pick the kit on any design and the file comes out in your brand. | Custom and Google fonts, and a logo you can add by URL when the AI builds a template (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). We found no saved brand kit with your logo and colours on the pages we read (our reading). |
| PDFs | One credit makes a PDF of up to 100 pages. Long text and tables run across the pages on their own. | One credit per page, so a five-page PDF uses five credits (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). A multi-page template takes a pages list with the layers for each page, and merge joins them into one PDF (vendor claim). |
| How the design starts | Describe it to the AI, upload a picture of a design you like, pick a designer-made gallery template, or paste your own HTML. | Build it in the drag-and-drop editor, describe it to the AI template generator, upload a design for the AI to clone into layers, or import it from Canva (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). |
| Your design as HTML | Every design is HTML you can open and edit yourself, or ask the AI chat to change. | A layered design with text, image, shape, QR code, barcode, and HTML layers (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). We saw no way to use a whole HTML page as the design (our reading). |
| Files from your AI assistant | Connect ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Grok once. Ask for the file in plain words, and the same chat builds the design from a sentence or a picture, puts it in your brand kit, and resizes it to every size. | An MCP server for ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and other tools that makes files, creates templates with layers, and uploads assets, on every plan (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). |
| Every size and every row | Smart resize fits one design to every size you post. Paste a spreadsheet and you get one file per row. | A CSV or Excel upload makes one file per row, with up to 10 rows free and more on paid plans (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). For a new size, Templated only lets you set a fixed width and height, and the layout doesn't refit itself (our reading). |
| Outputs | PDF, PNG, JPEG, and WebP. | JPG, PNG, WebP, MP4, and PDF (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). |
| Price per file | One credit per image up to 32 megapixels, or per PDF of up to 100 pages. Starter is $29 a month for 2,500 credits, and a failed file costs nothing. | One credit per image, one per PDF page, and a formula for video. Starter is $29 a month billed yearly, or $39 billed monthly, for 1,000 credits and 15 templates (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). |
| Free plan | 50 free credits every month, no card, enough for the AI to build your first design. | A one-time free trial with 50 credits and no card (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). We saw no monthly free plan (our reading). |
| For developers | A REST API at /v1/pdf, /v1/image, /v1/carousels, and /v1/templates, webhooks, an MCP server, and apps for Zapier, Make, and n8n. | A REST API at https://api.templated.io/v1/render with a template ID and layers, a webhook_url, Zapier, Make, n8n, and Airtable on every plan, and an embedded editor and delivery to your own S3 or R2 bucket on Scale and above (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). |
Pricing
How much does Templated.io cost compared with thirds.ai?
The cheaper tool depends on how many files you make each month and what kind they are. Here's what Templated and thirds.ai each cost, and how each one counts a file.
- Templated Starter costs $29 a month when you pay for a year, or $39 month by month, for 1,000 credits and up to 15 templates (vendor prices, checked 12 October 2026). thirds.ai Starter costs $29 a month, or $290 a year, for 2,500 credits. So at the same $29, you get two and a half times the credits here.
- The gap grows with PDFs. A ten-page PDF costs ten Templated credits, because each page is one credit, and one thirds.ai credit, because one credit covers up to 100 pages (vendor claim for Templated's rate, checked 12 October 2026). One image costs one credit in both tools.
- Templated Scale is $79 a month billed yearly, or $99 monthly, for 5,000 credits and 100 templates, and Enterprise is $179 or $229 for 25,000 credits (vendor prices, checked 12 October 2026). thirds.ai gives you two months free when you pay for a year.
- When the credits run out, Templated emails you to upgrade to a bigger plan (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). On a paid thirds.ai plan you keep going at $0.015 a credit, up to one month of your plan's credits, and unused plan credits last three months.
- The AI in thirds.ai uses credits too: 50 to build a design or rebuild one from a picture, 25 for a later change in words or HTML, and 50 for a change with a new picture or for an AI image. A file that fails costs nothing. See credits and billing.
- Templated gives a one-time free trial with 50 credits and no card (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). Prices can change, so check the Templated pricing page and our pricing page before you decide.
Where thirds.ai wins
Your brand kit, applied in one step
Save your logo, colours, and fonts once as a brand kit, or type your website address and thirds.ai builds the kit from what it finds there. Pick the kit on a design and the whole design switches to your brand, with each colour where it looks best. The next design gets the same kit in one click.
In Templated you can upload fonts and add a logo by URL when the AI builds a template (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). After that, as far as we can see, you set colours and the logo layer by layer on each template, and we found no saved brand kit on its site (our reading, 12 October 2026).
Where thirds.ai wins
One credit for a whole PDF, not one per page
In thirds.ai, long text, tables, and lists run across the pages on their own, and one credit covers up to 100 pages. A ten-page client report costs one credit. In Templated, each page is one credit, so the same report costs ten (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026).
Start from a designer-made report, invoice, or certificate in the gallery, or ask the AI chat for one. See HTML to PDF for the developer side.
Where thirds.ai wins
A design you can open as HTML
Paste in a page you already have, and thirds.ai turns it into a design with fields you can fill. Every design stays HTML, so a designer or a developer can open it in the template editor and get the final say on a design the AI started.
Templated's editor has HTML layers inside a layered design, but we saw no way to use a whole HTML page as the design (our reading, 12 October 2026).
Where thirds.ai wins
Every size, every language, and every row
Smart resize fits one design to every size you post, so a story, a square post, and a banner come from one design. Your assistant writes the same card in every language you sell in. Paste a spreadsheet and you get one file for each row.
Templated's spreadsheet upload makes one file per row too (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). For a new size, Templated only lets you set a fixed width and height, and the layout doesn't refit itself (our reading).
Where thirds.ai wins
Free every month, not once
thirds.ai gives you 50 free credits every month with no card, and your free credits can pay for the AI too. That's enough for the AI to build your first design, or to make 50 files from a gallery template, every month. Templated's free trial gives 50 credits once (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). See the plans for what comes next.
No code needed
How do you make certificates in the thirds.ai editor without code?
Start from a designer-made certificate and type in the learner. You can make a certificate for every learner in a few minutes, each one in your brand, and each finished PDF costs one credit.
- Open the Portrait course certificate and click Use this template. You can also upload a picture of your Templated design and let the AI rebuild it.
- Type the learner's name, the course, who's giving it, and the date into the boxes beside the certificate. Pick your brand kit, and the certificate switches to your logo and colours.
- Click Save and export PDF to download it. For the next learner, change the name and export again.
For a whole class, upload or paste your list of names as a CSV file and get one certificate for each learner. The batch page shows the cost before you start, and PDF mail merge from a CSV shows how. Or ask ChatGPT or Claude for the next certificate in plain words.
Switching
Moving from Templated
You move one design at a time, and each design takes two steps. First you rebuild it in thirds.ai, then you point your code, your workflow, or your assistant at it. The design doesn't move as a file, because Templated stores layers and thirds.ai stores HTML. The fastest rebuild is the picture import: download one finished image from Templated, upload it, and the AI rebuilds it as an editable design in your brand kit. You can also paste your own HTML into the template editor or describe the design to the AI chat. The image rebuild guide shows what to check and fix after the import. Then mark the parts that change and save.
For developers, both APIs fill a saved design with data, but the request and the result differ. Templated takes a template ID and a layers object keyed by layer name, answers in about two seconds with a url, or posts the result to a webhook_url when async is set (vendor claim, checked 12 October 2026). thirds.ai takes a template_id, a version, and a data object keyed by the field names in your HTML, returns a job with an id and a status, and a webhook reports render.succeeded, render.failed, or render.cancelled when the job ends. Start with Generate your first PDF with the API, then read Use templates with your data for fields, schemas, and versions.
If Canva import or video output also matters to your team, compare Orshot, Placid, or Bannerbear, or read our ranked list of Bannerbear alternatives, which weighs Templated against the same tools.
Checked and dated
Sources
We checked Templated's home page, pricing page, render API docs, MCP docs, AI template generator page, spreadsheet page, and llms.txt on 12 October 2026. Where we say which tool fits, that's our opinion.
- Templated home page, checked 12 October 2026 for its editor, AI template generator, Canva import, outputs, and the list of integrations
- Templated pricing, checked 12 October 2026 for the Starter, Scale, and Enterprise plans, their monthly and yearly prices, credits and template counts, the credit rules for images, PDF pages, and video, the free trial, what each plan includes, and what happens when credits run out
- Templated create a render, checked 12 October 2026 for the
template,layers,format,pages,merge,webhook_url, andasyncfields, the response, the render time, and one credit per page - Templated MCP integration and Templated MCP page, checked 12 October 2026 for the assistants it connects and what its tools do
- Templated AI template generator, checked 12 October 2026 for text prompts, design cloning, and the logo URL
- Templated spreadsheet integration, checked 12 October 2026 for CSV and Excel uploads and the row limits
- https://templated.io/llms.txt, checked 12 October 2026 for its layer types and the embedded editor
- thirds.ai facts come from our pricing page, API reference, and billing guide.
Free to try
Make your first file free
Make your first PDF free from the Bistro evening menu design: open it, type in tonight's dishes, and download the menu. Then let ChatGPT or Claude make the next one in your brand, or see Use templates with your data to make it from code.
Start from a designer-made template and download a real file for free. Sign up, and ChatGPT or Claude can make the next one in your brand.