Mark AI images for the EU AI Act and California, in one API call
An invisible watermark and signed, time-stamped Content Credentials (C2PA): the two marking layers of the EU AI Act's Code of Practice and California's latent disclosure, added to your pictures in a single request. Every feature is free for your first 1,000 marks a month.
- No card needed
- Every feature in every plan
- Data stays in Switzerland and the EU
curl https://api.kennmarq.com/v1/mark \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KENNMARQ_API_KEY" \
-F file=@image.png \
-F source=created \
-F model="FLUX.1 schnell" \
-o image.marked.pngHTTP/2 200
content-type: image/png
x-mark-id: mk_4Q8oT1n6mWc2fLr0aZ9eYb
x-watermark-id: 1a2b3c4d5e6f7081
x-marks-used: 1
x-marks-limit: 10002 December 2026: AI systems already on the market must mark what they generate in a machine-readable way (Art. 50(2)). Every picture and clip Kennmarq.com returns carries both layers the Code of Practice names, checked before it leaves.
How it works
Two marking layers, one call
Send a picture; get the same picture back, carrying marks that machines read and people can check.
- 1
Invisible watermark
Adobe TrustMark, open source and on C2PA's soft-binding list, hides an ID in the pixels. It survives when platforms strip metadata, and leads back to the file's stored credential.
- 2
Signed Content Credentials
A C2PA manifest that says the picture was made by AI (IPTC “trained algorithmic media”), with your model and app name, signed with our key and time-stamped by our own RFC 3161 server.
- 3
Plain AI label
IPTC DigitalSourceType in the file's XMP metadata: the field major platforms already read to label AI content.
Marks say how a file was made and, if you send it, by which provider's AI system; never which person made it, or with which prompt. Credentials a file already carries, from an upstream model's API for example, are kept as an ingredient.
What we guarantee, on every call
- Both marks, or no file
- Every picture and clip we return carries a signed, time-stamped credential and, unless you turn it off, an invisible watermark, both read back from the finished file before it leaves. If either fails, you get an error and the mark isn't counted. Songs always carry the credential, and the watermark whenever the sound can hold it; the credential says which.
- California's five items
- Send your name, your AI system's name and version, and whether the file was made or edited, and every mark carries all five items of California's latent disclosure.
- In the public log first
- Every signature and time-stamp is in our public transparency log before the file reaches you, so no one, us included, can backdate one unseen.
- Free to check, for anyone
- Anyone can check a picture at kennmarq.com/check, in their own browser: the picture never leaves their device.
Laws it helps with
One set of marks for the EU, California and beyond
The same watermark and signed credential answer the machine-readable marking rules in force today, and those coming in 2027.
European Union · Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
EU AI Act, Article 50(2)
Providers must mark what their AI systems generate in a machine-readable way; systems already on the market have until 2 December 2026. The Code of Practice asks for two layers, a watermark and signed, time-stamped metadata, and we add both. Providers outside the EU are covered when their output is used there (Art. 2(1)(c)).
California · SB 942, as amended by SB 1000
California AI Transparency Act
Since 30 September 2026, every generative AI system publicly available in California must embed a latent disclosure: the provider's name, the system's name and version, the time and date, a unique ID, and whether the content was created or altered. Our signed credential carries all five when you send your name and your AI system's name and version, and say whether the picture was made or edited.
Washington · HB 1170 · Utah · HB 276
Washington and Utah provenance laws
Both states passed provenance laws in 2026: Utah's applies from 1 January 2027, Washington's from 1 February 2027. They ask large generative AI providers to embed provenance data, a watermark or metadata, in what their systems make. Ours are both.
Switzerland
Swiss company, Swiss law
Switzerland has no AI act yet: it signed the Council of Europe's AI Convention in 2025 and is drafting its rules. Swiss companies whose AI output is used in the EU fall under the AI Act today. Our terms are under Swiss law, and our DPA covers the Swiss FADP and the GDPR.
Name the markets on each call and we refuse one missing what their laws need, and keep a signed receipt of what each file carries. Our guides: EU AI Act and California AI Transparency Act.
Ways to use it
From one API call to files that never leave your machine
The cloud API is live. The rest arrives before launch in November, and every feature comes with every plan.
Cloud API
AvailableSend a PNG, JPEG or WebP picture up to 25 MB and get it back marked, in seconds. Test and live keys, IP allowlists, usage headers.
Safety check
AvailableScreens a picture for sexual content with an apparent minor or a realistic face, the AI Act's Art. 5 bans, before you mark or publish it. Allow, flag or block, with published error rates.
Free public checker
AvailableAnyone can check a file: both layers, and the credential found through the watermark when metadata was stripped. Pictures are checked in the browser; nothing is uploaded.
ComfyUI nodes
Before launchMark & Save nodes that replace ComfyUI's Save nodes, so marks are added before the file is ever written. A free key works out of the box.
Local mode
Before launchThe watermark and the manifest are made on your own machine. Only the claim's bytes (about 1.5 KB, no pixels) and a time-stamp request reach us.
Songs and clips
AvailableSongs (MP3, WAV, M4A) with an inaudible AudioSeal mark, and clips (MP4 at up to 1080p: 2.5 minutes at 30 frames a second) with Video Seal in every frame, each signed and time-stamped. A song counts five marks per started minute, a clip five per started second.
Where your data lives
Run from Switzerland, on three providers
We keep the list of people who touch your data short enough to read in one breath.
- AWS Zurich
- Customer data is stored and marked in AWS's Zurich region. Requests pass through our API's front door in Frankfurt, in memory, and database backups are copied there.
- AWS, Stripe and Proton, nothing else
- Our only sub-processors: AWS runs the service, Stripe takes payments, and Proton, in Switzerland, holds the mail you send us. Time-stamps, the checker and the transparency log run on our own infrastructure, so no other service sees even a hash.
- Files aren't kept
- Pictures and songs are marked in memory and never stored. Uploads are deleted once used, within the hour, and marked clips after the day they wait for you to download them. Our records keep hashes, never contents or file names.
- Encryption and keys
- Signing keys live in AWS KMS and never leave it. Your API keys are stored only as hashes and shown once.
Honest status
What a checker shows today, and why
We'd rather tell you now than have you find out in a validator.
Signer: shown as “unknown” for now
C2PA readers report our signatures as valid, from an unknown signer, until we complete C2PA's conformance programme and our publicly trusted certificate is in place. Our checker will say so too.
Time-stamps: our own server
Validators report our RFC 3161 time-stamps as untrusted, as they did DigiCert's free ones. Every stamp and signature is in our public transparency log before the file reaches you, so nobody, us included, can backdate one unseen.
All three things the Code asks for
The Code asks for signed, time-stamped metadata, a watermark and a free detector. Every mark comes with all three, and anyone can check a file for free.
Built like an enterprise vendor
The controls your security review asks for, in every plan
- Organisations and roles
- Owner, admin, developer, billing and viewer, with invitations by email.
- Test and live keys
- Separate keys and separate allowances per environment, with scopes, so a key can only do its job.
- IP allowlists
- Limit any key to your servers' IPv4 and IPv6 ranges.
- Tamper-evident audit log
- Every sign-in, member, key and setting change, hash-chained so edits show, exportable as CSV or JSON.
Read our trust center and status page. Enterprise adds single sign-on, your own signing identity and private deployment. Talk to sales@kennmarq.com.
Free for 1,000 marks a month. Paid plans from USD 9.
Plans differ by volume and business extras, never by feature.