Square Town vs One Million Pixels (.ai): favicon wall or agent pixel grid?
Both charge $1 and both have an API. One was built so AI agents can buy pixels and place images; the other lets anyone read the wall as JSON but sells squares through a normal checkout, with a game attached.
One Million Pixels (onemillionpixels.ai) is a Million Dollar Homepage-style grid of one million pixels at $1 each, with a free tier, anonymity, and an API so AI agents can buy pixels and decide what image and link to place. Square Town (square.pov.town) is a favicon wall where every square is $1, the favicon is fetched from a URL, and any square can be evicted for double. The difference: One Million Pixels is an agent-first pixel grid with no game; Square Town is a human-first favicon wall with a game and a public read API.
Square Town vs One Million Pixels (.ai) at a glance
| One Million Pixels (.ai) | Square Town | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1 per pixel; 1,000,000 pixels; free tier (as of August 2026) | $1 per square, one-time; Throne starts at $100 |
| What you place | An image and a link — the agent decides | Your website's favicon, fetched from the URL you paste |
| How you pick a spot | Via the site or the API | Click any empty cell in the unlocked area, or evict an occupied one |
| Ownership model | Buy pixels, keep them | Hold the square until someone pays double what you paid |
| Can you lose your spot? | No — no eviction | Yes — evicted for double; the evictor's price doubles again |
| Game mechanics | None noted | Evictions, the Throne, 90-day kiss decay, ring unlocks at 70 % fill, Hall of Clowns |
| Live? | Not noted in our August 2026 check | Yes — WebSockets push every buy, eviction, kiss and unlock |
| 3D? | No | Yes — tilt into a three.js scene where tower height = clicks |
| Analytics | Not noted in our August 2026 check | Views, clicks and kisses per deed; $5 unlocks per-day charts |
| Accounts | Anonymity is a feature; API access | None — a secret deed URL is the only proof |
| Payment | Not noted in our August 2026 check | Stripe (card) |
| Audience | AI agents and the people who run them | Indie developers, small sites, anyone with a URL and $1 — including agents that can drive a checkout |
| API | Purchase API for agents | Public read API (GET /api/state); purchases via checkout (POST /api/buy returns a Stripe Checkout URL) |
| Launched | 2026 | August 2026 |
| Status as of Aug 2026 | Active | Active, central 16×16 live at launch, grows to 1024×1024 |
What One Million Pixels (.ai) does well
Built for agents. The whole premise is that an AI agent can call an API, buy pixels, and choose the image and link. If you are building an agent that promotes things, this is a wall designed to be a tool in its hands. Square Town's API is read-first: anyone can fetch the entire wall as JSON, but buying goes through a Stripe Checkout URL that a human (or a browser-driving agent) completes.
A free tier. As of August 2026 you can place some pixels for nothing. Square Town has no free squares — $1 is the floor.
Anonymity. No identity is asked for. Square Town is close on this: no accounts, no email, a secret deed URL — but a card payment via Stripe is still a card payment.
Your own image. The agent (or you) picks the image; it isn't limited to whatever favicon a site serves. Square Town shows the favicon and only the favicon.
Nothing to defend. No eviction, no decay. Buy pixels, keep pixels.
What Square Town does differently
The unit is a website's favicon. Paste a URL and square.pov.town fetches the icon. There's nothing to generate, upload or size, and every square is a real site: click it and you go there, and the click is counted. That's a smaller canvas than an image block, and a much lower effort.
A wall that fights back. Any square can be taken for double what its owner paid — $2, $4, $8. The evicted site is announced in the live feed. The Throne (the 4×4 centre) starts at $100 and doubles per eviction. Icons not kissed in 90 days fade to grayscale; anyone can kiss any icon, free. The wall starts at 16×16 and unlocks a ring of 8 each way every time it's 70 % full, up to 1024×1024. See how it works — it's short.
Live for everyone. Every buy, eviction, kiss and unlock is pushed to all open browsers over WebSockets, with 30-second polling as a fallback. Tilt into 3D and every favicon is a tower as tall as its click count.
Analytics per square. Every deed shows views, clicks and kisses; $5 one-time unlocks per-day charts.
Readable by anyone, including agents. GET https://square.pov.town/api/state returns the whole wall: grid size, unlocked half-width, sold count, revenue, every listing with domain, x, y, clicks, views and kisses, the Throne owner, recent events, and the clowns. An agent that wants to watch the wall — who got evicted, which ring unlocked, whose icon faded — needs nothing else. See Square Town for AI agents.
Who should pick One Million Pixels (.ai)
- You're building an agent that should be able to buy ad space through an API without a human clicking a checkout.
- You want a free tier to test with.
- You want to place an image of your choosing, not a favicon.
- You want pixels that can't be taken away and don't need attention.
Who should pick Square Town
- You have a URL and want it on a live wall in a minute, by card, no upload.
- You want position to matter and a centre worth holding.
- You want the numbers — views, clicks, kisses, optional per-day charts for $5. See pricing.
- You want a wall that stays alive because it has evictions, kisses and unlocks, not because it's finished.
- You want an agent to be able to read everything (state, events, leaderboards) as JSON, and you're fine with purchases going through Stripe Checkout.
Can you use both?
Yes. They're both $1 walls in the same 2026 wave, but they serve different hands: One Million Pixels is a tool an agent can pay through; Square Town is a wall an agent can read and a human can play. A team running an agent could give it One Million Pixels for autonomous placement and hold a Square Town square for the live, spatial presence. Square Town has no accounts, so the second costs a deed URL to bookmark. For everything else in the category, pixel advertising alternatives ranks the field, and Square Town vs the Million Dollar Homepage covers the 2005 original both descend from.
FAQ
What is One Million Pixels (.ai)?
A Million Dollar Homepage-style grid of one million pixels at $1 each, launched in 2026, with a free tier, anonymity, and an API that lets AI agents buy pixels and decide what image and link to place, as of August 2026.
Does Square Town have an API?
Yes, a public read API: GET https://square.pov.town/api/state returns the whole wall as JSON — grid size, unlocked area, sold count, listings with clicks, views and kisses, the Throne owner, recent events and clowns. Purchases go through the site's checkout (POST /api/buy returns a Stripe Checkout URL). See Square Town API — read the wall, buy a square.
Can an AI agent buy a Square Town?
An agent can read the wall and call POST /api/buy to get a Stripe Checkout URL, but the payment itself is a card checkout, so something has to complete it. One Million Pixels is designed for the agent to pay directly.
Does either have a free tier?
One Million Pixels does, as of August 2026. Square Town doesn't — every square is $1, though kissing icons is free and looking at everything is free.
Can I upload an image to Square Town?
No. Square Town fetches your site's favicon from the URL. If there isn't one you get a clown until you add one.
Can I lose my pixels on One Million Pixels?
No eviction mechanic was noted as of August 2026. On Square Town, any square can be evicted for double its last price, and un-kissed icons fade after 90 days.
Which is better for a human with one website?
Square Town, most likely: paste a URL, click a cell, pay $1, get a deed with analytics, and be on a live wall. One Million Pixels is better if the buyer is software.
Put your favicon on the wall
1 square = $1, one-time, no account. Paste a URL, pick a cell, done. Open the wall →