Image · segment

Open-weights

Open model licence — self-hostable.

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

5 eligibledata as of 2026-07-04
Qwen-Image Alibaba C live
API & price
public via Alibaba Cloud Model Studio; per-image price not published; also self-host
official
Max resolution
up to ~3584² multi-ratio
secondary
Control
class-leading text (Latin + Chinese), style transfer, object insert/remove, in-image text edit
official
Weights
open · Apache-2.0
official
Free tier
open self-host (Apache-2.0 weights)
official
Quality 1192LMArena Text-to-Image (qwen-image-2.0-pro) ↗
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
official
Max resolution
megapixel-based (multi-MP); ceiling not stated
official
Control
multi-reference editing, image combination, text-instruction editing, inpaint, Kontext in-context editing
official
Weights
open · FLUX Non-Commercial License ([dev]); [pro]/[max] closed
official
Free tier
open self-host ([dev] weights, non-commercial); API paid
official
Quality 1194Artificial Analysis Image Arena (FLUX.2 [max]) ↗
Best freeBest for APIOpen-weights ✓ 2026-07-04
Ideogram (4.0) Ideogram B live
API & price
public · $0.03 (Turbo) / $0.06 (Default) / $0.10 (Quality) per image
official
Max resolution
flexible aspect + Reframe; upscale to 2K/4K/8K
official
Control
inpaint/Edit, Remix, Reframe, background replace, transparent BG, character ref, class-leading text
official
Weights
open · Ideogram commercial licence (4.0 open-weight; ≤3.0 closed)
official
Free tier
limited (free web tier)
secondary
Quality 1207LMArena Text-to-Image (ideogram-4.0-quality) ↗
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
secondary
Max resolution
I1 1024²; O1-Image up to 2048²
official
Control
instruction editing, multi-reference personalization, long-text (EN+ZH), layout conditioning
official
Weights
open · MIT
official
Free tier
open self-host (MIT weights)
official
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
official
Max resolution
Large ~1MP native; Medium 0.25–2MP
official
Control
ControlNets (Blur/Canny/Depth); broad ComfyUI inpaint/img2img ecosystem
secondary
Weights
open · Stability Community License (free commercial under $1M/yr)
official
Free tier
open self-host (weights on Hugging Face)
official
Quality 938LMArena Text-to-Image (SD3.5 Large) ↗
Best freeBest for APIOpen-weights ✓ 2026-07-04