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The best AI tools for generating images in 2026

Image generators now handle legible text, consistent characters and edits in plain English. The trade-offs are price per image, house style, editable output such as vectors, and whether legal will clear the result for a campaign.

By Andrew Miller and Sheela · Updated Oct 26, 2026 · How we review

How we chose: each pick is a product, model or project we have reviewed that does this job according to our review of it, ranked by our rating out of 5. We take no affiliate commission.

Also ranked: the best AI image generators

  1. 1

    GitHub Repos: Image & video

    ComfyUI

    New open image and video models land here first; the node graph and an unauthenticated server are the price of admission.

    Best for: Artists and developers who want full control over local image and video generation.

    Price: Free and open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Comfy Cloud runs from $20 a month ($16 billed yearly); Partner Nodes are paid per use.

    Read our ComfyUI review
    4.7/5
  2. 2

    AI Models: Image generation

    GPT Image 2.5 (Flare and Sunburst)

    Sunburst and Flare lead the blind-vote rankings, at roughly six times the per-image price of Nano Banana 2.1.

    Best for: Agencies and product teams whose images go in front of customers and justify a premium per image, especially for iterative edits.

    Price: API: $5 per 1M text input tokens, $8 per 1M image input and $30 per 1M image output for both Flare and Sunburst (Batch output $15). Artificial Analysis puts a 1024x1024 max-quality image at about $211 per 1,000. Included in ChatGPT plans.

    Read our GPT Image 2.5 (Flare and Sunburst) review
    4.7/5
  3. 3

    AI Tools: Image

    Midjourney

    Midjourney still makes the best-looking images by default, but you drive it by hand with no API, your work is public by default, and keeping it private starts at $60 a month.

    Best for: Artists, art directors and marketers who want striking images with a consistent style and are happy to pay a monthly fee.

    Price: No free trial. Basic $10/month (3.3 fast GPU hours), Standard $30, Pro $60, Mega $120; 20% off yearly. Extra fast time $4/hour. Companies over $1M revenue must use Pro or Mega.

    Read our Midjourney review
    4.6/5
  4. 4

    AI Models: Image generation

    Nano Banana 2.1

    Fourth in blind votes at a sixth of the leaders' price, Nano Banana 2.1 is the image model every rival now has to justify its cost against.

    Best for: Product and marketing teams generating thousands of images a month who need consistent characters or legible text.

    Price: Gemini API: about $0.034 per 1K image, $0.050 per 2K and $0.113 per 4K; Batch halves each. No free API tier; free to try in the Gemini app.

    Read our Nano Banana 2.1 review
    4.6/5
  5. 5

    AI Tools: Image

    Ideogram

    Ideogram is the image generator to trust when the words must be spelled right, but its downloadable weights are a research licence, not a free pass to self-host for clients.

    Best for: Marketers and designers making posters, thumbnails, ads and logos where text must be exact.

    Price: Free 30 credits/week (public images only); Plus $20/month ($15 yearly, 2,400 credits); Pro $60/month ($42 yearly, 7,500 credits); Team $30/user/month ($20 yearly, 3,600 credits each, 2-user minimum); Enterprise custom. API prepaid per image.

    Read our Ideogram review
    4.3/5
  6. 6

    AI Tools: Image

    Krea

    A single subscription that replaces four or five model accounts, as long as someone on the team is willing to do the unit arithmetic.

    Best for: Designers and creators who want to try many image and video models from one account and build repeatable workflows.

    Price: Free 100 units/day; Basic $9/month (5,000 units), Pro $35 (20,000), Max $105 (60,000), Business $200 for up to 50 seats (80,000); Pro and Max 40% off yearly. API billed per generation in dollars.

    Read our Krea review
    4.3/5
  7. 7

    AI Tools: Image

    Recraft

    Recraft is the AI tool that hands a designer a usable SVG instead of a traced bitmap, and that alone justifies it for logo and icon work.

    Best for: Designers and small brands making logos, icons, illustrations and print assets that need to scale.

    Price: Free daily credits (public, no commercial use); Basic $12/month or $10 yearly (1,000 credits); Pro from $20/month (2,000 credits, up to 16,000 for $160); Teams $22/seat ($18 yearly). API per image, from $0.007.

    Read our Recraft review
    4.3/5
  8. 8

    AI Tools: Image

    Adobe Firefly

    Firefly is worth paying for when legal signs off on your images, and its best feature for most designers is unlimited Generative Fill rather than any model.

    Best for: Designers and brand teams already in Creative Cloud who need commercially defensible images and heavy photo editing.

    Price: Free daily generations; Standard $9.99/month (2,000 credits), Pro $19.99 (4,000), Pro Plus $49.99 (10,000), Premium $199.99 (50,000, unlimited Firefly Video). Teams plans same prices per licence on annual terms. Standard image features unlimited on paid plans.

    Read our Adobe Firefly review
    4.2/5

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