diff --git a/modules/shared.py b/modules/shared.py
index 6c6405fd..8b436970 100644
--- a/modules/shared.py
+++ b/modules/shared.py
@@ -74,7 +74,8 @@ parser.add_argument("--disable-console-progressbars", action='store_true', help=
 parser.add_argument("--enable-console-prompts", action='store_true', help="print prompts to console when generating with txt2img and img2img", default=False)
 parser.add_argument('--vae-path', type=str, help='Path to Variational Autoencoders model', default=None)
 parser.add_argument("--disable-safe-unpickle", action='store_true', help="disable checking pytorch models for malicious code", default=False)
-parser.add_argument("--api", action='store_true', help="use api=True to launch the api instead of the webui")
+parser.add_argument("--api", action='store_true', help="use api=True to launch the api with the webui")
+parser.add_argument("--nowebui", action='store_true', help="use api=True to launch the api instead of the webui")
 
 cmd_opts = parser.parse_args()
 restricted_opts = [
diff --git a/webui.py b/webui.py
index 6b55fbed..6212be01 100644
--- a/webui.py
+++ b/webui.py
@@ -95,16 +95,34 @@ def initialize():
     signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, sigint_handler)
 
 
-def api():
+def create_api(app):
     from modules.api.api import Api
     api = Api(app)
+    return api
+
+def wait_on_server(demo=None):
+    while 1:
+        time.sleep(0.5)
+        if demo and getattr(demo, 'do_restart', False):
+            time.sleep(0.5)
+            demo.close()
+            time.sleep(0.5)
+            break
+
+def api_only():
+    initialize()
+
+    app = FastAPI()
+    app.add_middleware(GZipMiddleware, minimum_size=1000)
+    api = create_api(app)
+
+    api.launch(server_name="0.0.0.0" if cmd_opts.listen else "127.0.0.1", port=cmd_opts.port if cmd_opts.port else 7861)
 
 
 def webui(launch_api=False):
     initialize()
 
     while 1:
-
         demo = modules.ui.create_ui(wrap_gradio_gpu_call=wrap_gradio_gpu_call)
 
         app, local_url, share_url = demo.launch(
@@ -120,15 +138,9 @@ def webui(launch_api=False):
         app.add_middleware(GZipMiddleware, minimum_size=1000)
 
         if (launch_api):
-            api(app)
+            create_api(app)
 
-        while 1:
-            time.sleep(0.5)
-            if getattr(demo, 'do_restart', False):
-                time.sleep(0.5)
-                demo.close()
-                time.sleep(0.5)
-                break
+        wait_on_server(demo)
 
         sd_samplers.set_samplers()
 
@@ -142,6 +154,9 @@ def webui(launch_api=False):
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
+    if not cmd_opts.nowebui:
+        api_only()
+
     if cmd_opts.api:
         webui(True)
     else: