Image Generation API · decision tool
Which image generation API should I use?
GPT Image, FLUX (BFL/fal/Replicate), Stability, Gemini, Ideogram and Recraft priced at your monthly image volume — standard-quality 1MP tier per vendor, prices verified.
Prices verified 2026-07-17 against official pricing pages · fit weights are our estimates (see methodology) · share the URL to share your configuration
As of Jul 2026, with 5,000 images/month at standard quality (~1MP), a $150 budget for this slot, fal.ai ranks first for these inputs at 82% fit and a StackSays-estimated $125.00/month (Replicate: 82% fit, $125.00/month). Fit weights are our estimates; prices trace to official pages. Change any input below and the verdict recomputes.
Your situation
The verdict updates as you move these.
Toss-up — your priorities decide, not the tools
Inference marketplace with the cheapest FLUX rates and per-megapixel billing
vs Replicate: fit 82% against 82%, est $125.00 against $125.00 per month — genuinely close; read both risk lists below
The decision, in plain words
For a solo builder at 5,000 images/month at standard quality (~1MP) and a $150.00/mo budget for the image API slot, fal.ai leads at 82% fit and $125.00/mo. The two rules doing the work: budget fit (~$125/mo is 83% of your $150/mo budget); batteries included (Bundles editing/inpainting, reliable text-in-image — fewer services to glue at team size 1).
Replicate is a genuine coin-flip here (82% fit, $125.00/mo) — read both risk lists and pick the failure mode you prefer.
Honest weak spot of the pick: closed model — style/quality don't transfer to a replacement.
Generated from the calculation above — every number traces to the sourced data; nothing here is written by an AI making things up.
Why fal.ai scores 82%
How the $125.00/mo estimate is calculated
What could change this verdict
Cost risk
Official prices verified 2026-07-17; calculation is deterministic code over those prices.
At a glance
| Tool | Free tier | Paid entry | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI GPT Image | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.053/image at medium quality 1024×1024 (vendor's own per-image estimate; billing is per token, so reference-image prompts cost more); low quality is $0.006, gpt-image-1-mini medium is $0.011; Batch API halves rates | 2026-07-17 |
| Black Forest Labs (FLUX) | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.03 for the first output megapixel (≈1024×1024); higher resolutions bill extra per MP; FLUX.2 klein is $0.014-0.015/image, FLUX 1.1 [pro] legacy is $0.04/image | 2026-07-17 |
| fal.ai | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.025 per megapixel, rounded UP to the nearest MP; flux-schnell is $0.003/MP for drafts; FLUX.2 [pro] $0.03 first MP + $0.015/extra MP | 2026-07-17 |
| Replicate | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.025/image for flux-dev; flux-schnell $0.003/image; flux-1.1-pro $0.04/image; community models (e.g. SDXL) bill per GPU-second instead — no fixed per-image rate | 2026-07-17 |
| Stability AI | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.065/image (6.5 credits); SD3.5 Large Turbo is $0.04, Medium $0.035, Flash $0.025; Stable Image Core $0.03; 25 free credits (~$0.25) at signup | 2026-07-17 |
| Google Gemini Image | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.039/image standard output ($0.0195 on Batch tier); input tokens bill separately at $0.30/1M; do NOT build on Imagen 4 (deprecated, shuts down 2026-08-17) | 2026-07-17 |
| Ideogram | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.06/image (3.0 or 4.0 Default); Turbo/Flash tiers are $0.03; Quality $0.09-0.10; character reference jumps to $0.15-0.20/image | 2026-07-17 |
| Recraft | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.035/image raster; vector (SVG) output is $0.08/image; v4.1 Pro raster $0.21; units are prepaid, never expire, non-refundable | 2026-07-17 |
Data sources
| Tool | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI GPT Image | OpenAI API pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Black Forest Labs (FLUX) | BFL pricing docs | 2026-07-17 |
| fal.ai | fal.ai pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Replicate | Replicate pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Stability AI | Stability AI platform pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Google Gemini Image | Gemini API pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Ideogram | Ideogram API pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Recraft | Recraft API pricing docs | 2026-07-17 |
A monitor re-checks these pages for changes; when a vendor moves a price, the date updates and every verdict recomputes.