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: Playground v2.5, Stable Diffusion 3 Medium, SDXL Lightning, Stable Diffusion 1.5, Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion XL 1.0, Amazon Titan G1 (Standard), DALLE 2, DALLE 3 HD, DALLE 3, 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], FLUX.1 [schnell], Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large, Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo, Recraft V3, Luma Photon Flash, Janus Pro, Luma Photon, Lumina Image v2, and Imagen 3 (v002).
Highlights
Quality ELO
Intelligence ELO: ELO score of model in Image Arena, 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
Intelligence ELO: ELO score of model in Image Arena, Price: USD per 1000 image generations
Most attractive quadrant
Size represents Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image
SD 3 Medium, fal.ai
SDXL 1.0, Replicate
DALLE 3 HD, OpenAI
SDXL 1.0, Fireworks
Playground v3 (beta), Playground
Ideogram v2, Ideogram
FLUX.1 [dev], Replicate
FLUX1.1 [pro], Black Forest Labs
FLUX1.1 [pro], fal.ai
Recraft V3, Recraft
FLUX.1 [dev], Nebius
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
Intelligence ELO: ELO score of model in Image Arena, Generation time: Seconds to generate 1 image
Most attractive quadrant
Size represents Price: USD per 1000 image generations
SD 3 Medium, fal.ai
SDXL 1.0, Replicate
DALLE 3 HD, OpenAI
SDXL 1.0, Fireworks
Playground v3 (beta), Playground
Ideogram v2, Ideogram
FLUX.1 [dev], Replicate
FLUX1.1 [pro], Black Forest Labs
FLUX1.1 [pro], fal.ai
Recraft V3, Recraft
FLUX.1 [dev], Nebius
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
SD 3 Medium, fal.ai
SDXL 1.0, Replicate
DALLE 3 HD, OpenAI
SDXL 1.0, Fireworks
Playground v3 (beta), Playground
Ideogram v2, Ideogram
FLUX.1 [dev], Replicate
FLUX1.1 [pro], Black Forest Labs
FLUX1.1 [pro], fal.ai
Recraft V3, Recraft
FLUX.1 [dev], Nebius
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
Quality ELO (Image Arena)
Intelligence ELO: ELO score of model in Image Arena, 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.
Arena Win Rate
Arena Win Rate: % Win rate in Image Arena, Higher is better
Win Rate: Proportion of time an image generated by the model was selected as preferred compared to the other image present in Artificial Analysis' Image Arena.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Replicate | Recraft V3 | 1151 | 9.7 | $40.00 | ||
 fal.ai | Recraft V3 | 1151 | 13.9 | $40.00 | ||
 Recraft AI | Recraft V3 | 1151 | 9.8 | $40.00 | ||
![FLUX1.1 [pro] logo](/img/logos/blackforestlabs_small.svg) Black Forest Labs | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 1122 | 4.4 | $40.00 | ||
| fal.ai | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 1122 | 2.5 | $40.00 | ||
| Replicate | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 1122 | 2.9 | $40.00 | ||
 Google | Imagen 3 (v002) | 1113 | 7.4 | $40.00 | ||
| Replicate | FLUX.1 [pro] | 1107 | 7.4 | $55.00 | ||
| fal.ai | FLUX.1 [pro] | 1107 | 8.3 | $50.00 | ||
| Replicate | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1085 | 3.2 | $25.00 | ||
![FLUX.1 [dev] logo](/img/logos/nebius_small.png) Nebius | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1085 | 9.6 | $7.00 | ||
| fal.ai | FLUX.1 [dev] | 1085 | 3.1 | $25.00 | ||
 Ideogram | Ideogram v2 | 1084 | 19.8 | $80.00 | ||
| Ideogram | Ideogram v2 Turbo | 1077 | 11.4 | $50.00 | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo | 1075 | 1.5 | $40.00 | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large | 1071 | 9.6 | $65.00 | ||
| fal.ai | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large | 1071 | 15.2 | $65.00 | ||
| Ideogram | Ideogram v1 | 1064 | 15.5 | $60.00 | ||
| fal.ai | Luma Photon | 1061 | 17.1 | $19.00 | ||
![FLUX.1 [schnell] logo](/img/logos/togetherai_small.svg) Together.ai | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1044 | 0.8 | $3.00 | ||
| Nebius | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1044 | 5.1 | $1.30 | ||
| Replicate | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1044 | 0.9 | $3.00 | ||
| fal.ai | FLUX.1 [schnell] | 1044 | 0.6 | $3.00 | ||
 Playground AI | Playground v3 (beta) | 1041 | 17.0 | $0.70 | ||
| fal.ai | Luma Photon Flash | 1004 | 14.7 | $5.00 | ||
| fal.ai | Playground v2.5 | 998 | 4.4 | $5.13 | ||
| Replicate | Playground v2.5 | 998 | 7.2 | $10.67 | ||
 Fireworks | Playground v2.5 | 998 | 1.6 | $6.50 | ||
| Playground AI | Playground v2.5 | 998 | 6.6 | $0.70 | ||
 OpenAI | DALLE 3 HD | 984 | 19.9 | $80.00 | ||
| fal.ai | Lumina Image v2 | 984 | 59.2 | $ | ||
| OpenAI | DALLE 3 | 970 | 18.4 | $40.00 | ||
| fal.ai | Stable Diffusion 3 Medium | 945 | 2.4 | $35.00 | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 3 Medium | 945 | 41.1 | $35.00 | ||
 Amazon Bedrock | Amazon Titan G1 v2 (Standard) | 942 | 11.7 | $10.00 | ||
| Amazon Bedrock | Amazon Titan G1 (Standard) | 923 | 10.7 | $10.00 | ||
| fal.ai | SDXL Lightning | 916 | 1.0 | $1.01 | ||
| Replicate | SDXL Lightning | 916 | 2.2 | $2.65 | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 891 | 4.8 | $9.04 | ||
| Amazon Bedrock | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 891 | 6.0 | $40.00 | ||
| Fireworks | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 891 | 1.1 | $3.90 | ||
| Together.ai | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 891 | 3.7 | $20.00 | ||
| Nebius | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 | 891 | 5.8 | $ | ||
| OpenAI | DALLE 2 | 756 | 12.6 | $20.00 | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 2.1 | 754 | 17.6 | $6.71 | ||
| fal.ai | Janus Pro | 742 | 63.0 | $ | ||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 1.5 | 666 | 73.2 | $8.56 | ||
| fal.ai | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium | 2.4 | $20.00 | |||
| Replicate | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium | 48.0 | $35.00 |