Text to Image AI Model & Provider Leaderboard
Analysis and comparison of Text to Image generation models & API providers. Artificial Analysis has analyzed text to image models and hosting providers across quality, generation time, and price. For further details, see our methodology page.
Text to image models & providers compared: Phoenix 0.9 Ultra, Playground v2.5, Stable Diffusion 3 Medium, Stable Diffusion XL 1.0, SDXL Lightning, Stable Diffusion 1.5, Stable Diffusion 2.1, Amazon Titan G1 (Standard), DALLE 2, DALLE 3 HD, DALLE 3, Midjourney v6, Stable Diffusion 1.6, Stable Diffusion 3 Large Turbo, Stable Diffusion 3 Large, Midjourney v6.1, Amazon Titan G1 v2 (Standard), Playground v3 (beta), Ideogram v2, FLUX.1 [pro], FLUX.1 [dev], Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium, Ideogram v2 Turbo, Ideogram v1, FLUX1.1 [pro], Recraft 20B, FLUX.1 [schnell], Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large, Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo, Recraft V3, Luma Photon Flash, Adobe Firefly 3, GPT-4o, Janus Pro, Luma Photon, Lumina Image v2, Phoenix 1.0 Fast, Phoenix 1.0 Ultra, Image-01, Gemini 2.0 Flash Experimental, Reve Image (Halfmoon), Ideogram v2a, Ideogram v2a Turbo, Imagen 3 (v002), Ideogram 3.0, Midjourney v7 Alpha, Sana Sprint 1.6B, HiDream-I1-Dev, and Grok 2.
Highlights
Quality ELO
ELO score in Artificial Analysis Image Arena (relative metric of image generation quality), Higher is better
Generation Time
Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image, Lower is better
Price
Price: USD per 1000 image generations, Lower is better
Summary Analysis
Quality vs. Price
ELO score in Artificial Analysis Image Arena (relative metric of image generation quality), Price: USD per 1000 image generations
Most attractive quadrant
Size represents Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image
DALLE 3 HD, OpenAI
Midjourney v6.1, Midjourney
Playground v3 (beta), Playground
Ideogram v2, Ideogram
FLUX.1 [dev], Replicate
FLUX1.1 [pro], Black Forest Labs
SD 3.5 Large
Recraft V3, Recraft
FLUX.1 [dev], Nebius
FLUX.1 [dev], Leonardo.Ai
FLUX.1 [dev], Prodia
Imagen 3 (v002)
FLUX.1 [schnell], Replicate
FLUX.1 [dev], fal.ai
Intelligence ELO: Relative ELO score of the models as determined by >100,000 responses from users in Artificial Analysis' Image Arena. Some models may not be shown due to not yet having enough votes.
Price: Price per 1k images generated by the model. For detail on how we calculate price per image for providers price based on inference time or steps, see our methodology page.
Note on Midjourney: Midjourney does not have an API. We benchmark Midjourney as an API using ImagineAPI which serves as a tool to access the Midjourney Discord.
Quality vs. Generation Time
ELO score in Artificial Analysis Image Arena (relative metric of image generation quality), Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image
Most attractive quadrant
Size represents Price: USD per 1000 image generations
Playground v3 (beta), Playground
Ideogram v2, Ideogram
FLUX.1 [dev], Replicate
FLUX1.1 [pro], Black Forest Labs
Recraft V3, Recraft
FLUX.1 [dev], Nebius
FLUX.1 [dev], Leonardo.Ai
FLUX.1 [dev], Prodia
Imagen 3 (v002)
FLUX.1 [schnell], Replicate
FLUX.1 [dev], fal.ai
Intelligence ELO: Relative ELO score of the models as determined by >100,000 responses from users in Artificial Analysis' Image Arena. Some models may not be shown due to not yet having enough votes.
Generation Time: Median time the provider takes to generate an image over the past 14 days of measurements. This includes downloading the image from the provider where a URL is provided rather than an image response.
Note on Midjourney: Midjourney does not have an API. We benchmark Midjourney as an API using ImagineAPI which serves as a tool to access the Midjourney Discord.
Generation Time vs. Price
Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image, Price: USD per 1000 image generations
Most attractive quadrant
Playground v3 (beta), Playground
Ideogram v2, Ideogram
FLUX.1 [dev], Replicate
FLUX1.1 [pro], Black Forest Labs
Recraft V3, Recraft
FLUX.1 [dev], Nebius
FLUX.1 [dev], Leonardo.Ai
FLUX.1 [dev], Prodia
Imagen 3 (v002)
FLUX.1 [schnell], Replicate
FLUX.1 [dev], fal.ai
Generation Time: Median time the provider takes to generate an image over the past 14 days of measurements. This includes downloading the image from the provider where a URL is provided rather than an image response.
Price: Price per 1k images generated by the model. For detail on how we calculate price per image for providers price based on inference time or steps, see our methodology page.
Note on Midjourney: Midjourney does not have an API. We benchmark Midjourney as an API using ImagineAPI which serves as a tool to access the Midjourney Discord.
Quality
Artificial Analysis Image Arena Quality ELO
ELO score in Artificial Analysis Image Arena (relative metric of image generation quality), Higher is better
Intelligence ELO: Relative ELO score of the models as determined by >100,000 responses from users in Artificial Analysis' Image Arena. Some models may not be shown due to not yet having enough votes.
Participate in the Image Arena to contribute to the crowdsourced quality evaluations
Generation Time
Generation Time
Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image, Lower is better
Generation Time: Median time the provider takes to generate an image over the past 14 days of measurements. This includes downloading the image from the provider where a URL is provided rather than an image response.
Note on Midjourney: Midjourney does not have an API. We benchmark Midjourney as an API using ImagineAPI which serves as a tool to access the Midjourney Discord.
Generation Time, Variance
Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image, Results by percentile, Lower is better
Median, Other points represent 5th, 25th, 75th, 95th Percentiles respectively
Generation Time: Median time the provider takes to generate an image over the past 14 days of measurements. This includes downloading the image from the provider where a URL is provided rather than an image response.
Boxplot: Shows variance of measurements
Generation Time, Over Time
Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image, Lower is better
Generation Time: Median time the provider takes to generate an image over the past 14 days of measurements. This includes downloading the image from the provider where a URL is provided rather than an image response.
Over time measurement: Median measurement per day, based on 4 measurements each day at different times. Labels represent start of week's measurements.
Price
Price
Price: USD per 1000 image generations, Lower is better
Price: Price per 1k images generated by the model. For detail on how we calculate price per image for providers price based on inference time or steps, see our methodology page.
Summary of key metrics & further information
| Provider | Model | Footnotes | Model Quality ELO | Median Generation Time (s) | Price per 1k Images (USD) | Further Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 OpenAI | GPT-4o | 1159 | $ | |||
| OpenAI | GPT-4o | 1159 | $ | |||
 Replicate | Recraft V3 | 1111 | 6.8 | $40.00 | ||
 fal.ai | Recraft V3 | 1111 | 9.0 | $40.00 | ||
 Recraft AI | Recraft V3 | 1111 | 6.5 | $40.00 | ||
 Vivago AI | HiDream-I1-Dev | 1108 | $ | |||
| Reve | Reve Image (Halfmoon) | 1100 | $0.00 | |||
 Ideogram | Ideogram 3.0 | 1095 | $40.00 | |||
 Google | Imagen 3 (v002) | 1088 | 8.0 | $40.00 | ||
![FLUX1.1 [pro] logo](/img/logos/blackforestlabs_small.svg) Black Forest Labs | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 1083 | 4.3 | $40.00 | ||
| fal.ai | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 1083 | 3.7 | $40.00 | ||
| Replicate | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 1083 | 3.0 | $40.00 | ||
![FLUX1.1 [pro] logo](/img/logos/togetherai_small.svg) Together.ai | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 1083 | $40.00 | |||
![FLUX1.1 [pro] logo](/img/logos/prodia_small.png) Prodia | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 1083 | 2.5 | $40.00 | ||
| Replicate | FLUX.1 [pro] | 1068 | 7.2 | $55.00 | ||
| Black Forest Labs | FLUX.1 [pro] | 1068 | $ | |||
| Together.ai | FLUX.1 [pro] | 1068 | $50.00 | |||
| Prodia | FLUX.1 [pro] | 1068 | 7.9 | $49.00 | ||
| fal.ai | FLUX.1 [pro] | 1068 | 8.3 | $50.00 | ||
 MiniMax | Image-01 | 1051 | 26.5 | $3.50 | ||
 Midjourney | Midjourney v6.1 | 1047 | $82.50 | |||
| Replicate | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | 3.4 | $25.00 | ||
| Black Forest Labs | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | $ | |||
![FLUX.1 [dev] logo](/img/logos/fireworks_small_revised.png) Fireworks | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | $14.00 | |||
![FLUX.1 [dev] logo](/img/logos/nebius_small.png) Nebius | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | 9.8 | $7.00 | ||
![FLUX.1 [dev] logo](/img/logos/leonardoai_small.png) Leonardo.Ai | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | 8.3 | $14.95 | ||
| Prodia | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | 7.3 | $24.00 | ||
| fal.ai | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | 3.2 | $25.00 | ||
![FLUX.1 [dev] logo](/img/logos/wavespeed_small.png) WaveSpeed | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | 6.0 | $12.00 | ||
| WaveSpeed | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1045 | 4.3 | $6.00 | ||
| Ideogram | Ideogram v2 | 1043 | 20.0 | $80.00 | ||
| Midjourney | Midjourney v6 | 1040 | $82.50 | |||
| Midjourney | Midjourney v7 Alpha | 1038 | $ | |||
| fal.ai | Luma Photon | 1034 | 13.6 | $19.00 | ||
| Ideogram | Ideogram v2 Turbo | 1034 | 11.1 | $50.00 | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo | 1032 | 1.6 | $40.00 | ||
 Stability.ai | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo | 1032 | $40.00 | |||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large | 1028 | 18.2 | $65.00 | ||
| Stability.ai | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large | 1028 | $65.00 | |||
| fal.ai | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large | 1028 | 15.1 | $65.00 | ||
| Leonardo.Ai | Phoenix 1.0 Ultra | 1026 | 22.9 | $97.18 | ||
| Ideogram | Ideogram v1 | 1021 | 15.5 | $60.00 | ||
| Stability.ai | Stable Diffusion 3 Large | 1014 | $65.00 | |||
| Ideogram | Ideogram v2a | 1004 | 11.7 | $40.00 | ||
| Together.ai | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | 1.4 | $3.00 | ||
| Fireworks | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | $1.40 | |||
| Nebius | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | 5.3 | $1.30 | ||
| Leonardo.Ai | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | 3.6 | $3.74 | ||
| Prodia | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | 1.3 | $2.50 | ||
| Prodia | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | 1.2 | $ | ||
| Replicate | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | 1.3 | $3.00 | ||
| fal.ai | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | 0.7 | $3.00 | ||
| WaveSpeed | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1000 | 4.6 | $3.00 | ||
| Ideogram | Ideogram v2a Turbo | 1000 | 8.2 | $25.00 | ||
 Playground AI | Playground v3 (beta) | 997 | 16.7 | $0.70 | ||
| Leonardo.Ai | Phoenix 0.9 Ultra | 992 | 22.6 | $ | ||
| Leonardo.Ai | Phoenix 1.0 Fast | 982 | 9.4 | $22.43 | ||
| Recraft AI | Recraft 20B | 975 | 5.2 | $ | ||
| Google | Gemini 2.0 Flash Experimental | 963 | 4.0 | $0.00 | ||
| fal.ai | Luma Photon Flash | 963 | 9.6 | $5.00 | ||
| fal.ai | Playground v2.5 | 951 | 4.3 | $5.13 | ||
| Replicate | Playground v2.5 | 951 | 24.7 | $10.67 | ||
| Fireworks | Playground v2.5 | 951 | 1.7 | $6.50 | ||
| Playground AI | Playground v2.5 | 951 | 6.5 | $0.70 | ||
| fal.ai | Lumina Image v2 | 949 | 47.7 | $ | ||
 Adobe | Adobe Firefly 3 | 936 | $ | |||
| OpenAI | DALLE 3 HD | 936 | $80.00 | |||
| fal.ai | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium | 930 | 2.4 | $20.00 | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium | 930 | 46.6 | $35.00 | ||
| Stability.ai | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium | 930 | $35.00 | |||
| Fireworks | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium | 930 | $ | |||
 xAI | Grok 2 | 925 | $70.00 | |||
| OpenAI | DALLE 3 | 922 | $40.00 | |||
| fal.ai | Stable Diffusion 3 Medium | 897 | 2.5 | $35.00 | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 3 Medium | 897 | 54.7 | $35.00 | ||
| Stability.ai | Stable Diffusion 3 Medium | 897 | $35.00 | |||
 Amazon Bedrock | Amazon Titan G1 v2 (Standard) | 893 | 11.6 | $10.00 | ||
| Stability.ai | Stable Diffusion 3 Large Turbo | 890 | $40.00 | |||
| Replicate | Sana Sprint 1.6B | 879 | 1.0 | $1.50 | ||
| Stability.ai | Stable Diffusion 1.6 | 878 | $10.00 | |||
| Amazon Bedrock | Amazon Titan G1 (Standard) | 873 | 10.7 | $10.00 | ||
| fal.ai | SDXL Lightning | 866 | 1.3 | $1.01 | ||
| Replicate | SDXL Lightning | 866 | 1.8 | $2.65 | ||
| fal.ai | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | $3.50 | |||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | 4.8 | $9.04 | ||
| Amazon Bedrock | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | 6.1 | $40.00 | ||
| Fireworks | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | 1.2 | $3.90 | ||
 Deepinfra | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | $3.18 | |||
| Stability.ai | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | $6.00 | |||
| Together.ai | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | $20.00 | |||
| Nebius | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | 6.7 | $ | ||
| Leonardo.Ai | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | 7.3 | $20.56 | ||
| Prodia | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 840 | 2.0 | $2.50 | ||
| OpenAI | DALLE 2 | 694 | $20.00 | |||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 2.1 | 692 | 6.0 | $6.71 | ||
| Together.ai | Stable Diffusion 2.1 | 692 | $20.00 | |||
| fal.ai | Janus Pro | 679 | 17.7 | $ | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 1.5 | 587 | 89.6 | $8.56 | ||
| Together.ai | Stable Diffusion 1.5 | 587 | $10.00 | |||
| Prodia | Stable Diffusion 1.5 | 587 | 12.8 | $10.00 |