Image · segment

Best free

Real free output — not a trial.

No independent measure ranks this whole set, so no crown. Shortlist ordered by Free tier; the basis is stated, not hidden.

14 eligibledata as of 2026-07-04

Reve (Reve 2.0) Reve AI B live

API & price: public (beta) · ~$0.007/image base credits
Max resolution: native 2048² with 4K upscale (Reve 2.0 native 4K)
Control: typography engine (strong text), layout-aware editing, remix/edit modes
Weights: closed
Free tier: limited (~20 daily free web credits)

Quality 1280Artificial Analysis Image Arena (Reve 2.0, #2) ↗

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

Leonardo AI (Lucid Origin) Leonardo.Ai (Canva) B live

API & price: public · REST API (credit-based, ~$0.007/image); plans from ~$9/mo
Max resolution: Lucid Origin up to 2500²; flexible aspect
Control: Canvas inpaint, Image Guidance, Style Reference, Character Reference
Weights: closed
Free tier: limited (~150 credits/day)

Quality 1118Artificial Analysis Image Arena (Lucid Origin Ultra) ↗

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

Seedream (4.0/4.5) ByteDance B live

API & price: public · ~$0.03/image via BytePlus ModelArk
Max resolution: up to 4K (~4096px), flexible aspect ratios
Control: multi-image editing, reference consistency, strong dense-text rendering, img2img stylization
Weights: closed
Free tier: limited (200-image BytePlus trial)

Quality 1190Artificial Analysis Image Arena (Seedream 4.0) ↗

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

Luma Photon Luma AI B live

API & price: public · Luma Platform API (credit-based); per-image price not published
Max resolution: aspect ratios 1:1–21:9; 4K tier
Control: Image Reference (up to 4), Style Reference, Character Reference, Modify Image
Weights: closed
Free tier: limited (free app tier; paid from $30/mo)

Quality 1067Artificial Analysis Image Arena (Luma Photon) ↗

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

GPT Image (gpt-image-2) OpenAI B live

API & price: public · $0.011–$0.25/image (tiered); gpt-image-2 ~$0.21/image high
Max resolution: up to 1536×1024
Control: text+image input; inpaint/edit; strong text rendering
Weights: closed
Free tier: limited (free in ChatGPT with caps; API paid)

Quality 1339Artificial Analysis Image Arena (gpt-image-2, #1) ↗

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

Google Gemini Image (Nano Banana) Google B live

API & price: public · Gemini 3 Pro Image $0.134/image (1K–2K), $0.24 (4K); 2.5 Flash Image $0.039
Max resolution: up to 4K (4096²); aspect-ratio control
Control: inpaint/localized edit; up to 14 reference images; character consistency; high-fidelity text
Weights: closed
Free tier: limited (free in Gemini app/AI Studio); SynthID watermark

Quality 1218Artificial Analysis Image Arena (Gemini 3 Pro Image) ↗

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

Adobe Firefly Image (Model 5) Adobe A live

API & price: public (enterprise) · Firefly Services API, credit-based
Max resolution: native ~4MP (2K-class), layers, flexible aspect
Control: Generative Fill (inpaint), style/structure refs, strong text, lighting/camera control, layers, custom models
Weights: closed
Free tier: limited (free plan; no IP indemnity on free tier)

Quality no independent measure

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

Microsoft MAI-Image (2.5) Microsoft AI B live

API & price: public · token-billed (~$0.048/image); via Azure AI Foundry
Max resolution: not published
Control: image-to-image editing, localized edits, identity/face consistency, strong text
Weights: closed
Free tier: limited (free trial in MAI Playground; production paid)

Quality 1271Artificial Analysis Image Arena (MAI-Image-2.5, #3) ↗

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

Recraft (V4.1) Recraft B live

API & price: public · $0.04/raster, $0.08/vector image (V3)
Max resolution: flexible; native vector/SVG output
Control: style references / brand styles, inpaint/edit, precise text placement, vector output
Weights: hosted closed; 20B 'Red Panda' open-weight sibling exists
Free tier: limited (free web credits; API paid)

Quality 1203Artificial Analysis Image Arena (Recraft V4.1) ↗

Best freeBest for API ✓ 2026-07-04

Ideogram (4.0) Ideogram B live

API & price: public · $0.03 (Turbo) / $0.06 (Default) / $0.10 (Quality) per image
Max resolution: flexible aspect + Reframe; upscale to 2K/4K/8K
Control: inpaint/Edit, Remix, Reframe, background replace, transparent BG, character ref, class-leading text
Weights: open · Ideogram commercial licence (4.0 open-weight; ≤3.0 closed)
Free tier: limited (free web tier)

Quality 1207LMArena Text-to-Image (ideogram-4.0-quality) ↗

Best freeBest for APIOpen-weights ✓ 2026-07-04

FLUX.2 Black Forest Labs C live

API & price: public · [pro] from $0.03/MP, [flex] $0.05, [max] $0.07, [klein] ~$0.015
Max resolution: megapixel-based (multi-MP); ceiling not stated
Control: multi-reference editing, image combination, text-instruction editing, inpaint, Kontext in-context editing
Weights: open · FLUX Non-Commercial License ([dev]); [pro]/[max] closed
Free tier: open self-host ([dev] weights, non-commercial); API paid

Quality 1194Artificial Analysis Image Arena (FLUX.2 [max]) ↗

Best freeBest for APIOpen-weights ✓ 2026-07-04

Qwen-Image Alibaba C live

API & price: public via Alibaba Cloud Model Studio; per-image price not published; also self-host
Max resolution: up to ~3584² multi-ratio
Control: class-leading text (Latin + Chinese), style transfer, object insert/remove, in-image text edit
Weights: open · Apache-2.0
Free tier: open self-host (Apache-2.0 weights)

Quality 1192LMArena Text-to-Image (qwen-image-2.0-pro) ↗

Best freeBest for APIOpen-weights ✓ 2026-07-04

HiDream (O1-Image) HiDream.ai C live

API & price: public via third-party hosts; official per-image price not published; self-host
Max resolution: I1 1024²; O1-Image up to 2048²
Control: instruction editing, multi-reference personalization, long-text (EN+ZH), layout conditioning
Weights: open · MIT
Free tier: open self-host (MIT weights)

Quality 1264Artificial Analysis Image Arena (HiDream-O1-Image-1.5, #4) ↗

Best freeBest for APIOpen-weights ✓ 2026-07-04

Stable Diffusion 3.5 Stability AI C live

API & price: public · Large $0.065, Large Turbo $0.04, Medium $0.035 per image
Max resolution: Large ~1MP native; Medium 0.25–2MP
Control: ControlNets (Blur/Canny/Depth); broad ComfyUI inpaint/img2img ecosystem
Weights: open · Stability Community License (free commercial under $1M/yr)
Free tier: open self-host (weights on Hugging Face)

Quality 938LMArena Text-to-Image (SD3.5 Large) ↗

Best freeBest for APIOpen-weights ✓ 2026-07-04