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Stable Diffusion: Quality, Generation Time & Price Analysis

Analysis of Stability.ai's models and comparison to other image models across key metrics including quality, generation time, and price. Models compared include Stable Diffusion 3 Medium, Stable Diffusion XL 1.0, SDXL Lightning, Stable Diffusion 1.5, Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large, and Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo API providers compared include fal.ai, Replicate, Amazon Bedrock, Fireworks, and Together.ai.

For further details, see our methodology page.

Creator:
Stability.ai
Link:

Highlights

Quality ELO
Quality 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

Quality 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

Quality 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: 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 ELO (Image Arena)

Quality ELO: ELO score of model in Image Arena, Higher is better
Quality 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
Picture of the author

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: 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
ProviderFurther
Details
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo logoReplicate
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large logoReplicate
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large logofal.ai
Stable Diffusion 3 Medium logofal.ai
Stable Diffusion 3 Medium logoReplicate
SDXL Lightning logofal.ai
SDXL Lightning logoReplicate
Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 logofal.ai
Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 logoReplicate
Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 logoAmazon Bedrock
Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 logoFireworks
Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 logoTogether.ai
Stable Diffusion 2.1 logoReplicate
Stable Diffusion 1.5 logoReplicate