The best open-source image and video AI tools in 2026

The best open-source image and video AI tools right now are ComfyUI, Hugging Face Diffusers and AI Toolkit, out of 5 we have reviewed. Each is ranked by our rating, with its price, our verdict and who it suits.

By Sheela · Updated Oct 26, 2026 · How we review

How we ranked: by our rating out of 5, from reviews built on each product's own pricing, documentation and policies plus independent benchmarks where they exist, each checked on the date shown in the review. We take no affiliate commission.

1. 1
   C

   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
   H

   Hugging Face Diffusers

   Diffusers is how open image and video models get run from code, and it assumes you will read the memory guide before you run anything large.

   Best for: Python developers and researchers building on diffusion models.

   Price: Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.

   Read our Hugging Face Diffusers review
   4.4/5
3. 3
   A

   AI Toolkit

   AI Toolkit is where support for a new open image or video model usually lands first, and it expects you to bring the GPU and the patience.

   Best for: Creators training LoRAs for open image and video models.

   Price: Free and open source under MIT. Ostris Cloud rents preconfigured GPUs by the second, from $0.71/hour (A40 48 GB) to $2.99/hour (RTX PRO 6000 96 GB).

   Read our AI Toolkit review
   4.2/5
4. 4
   I

   InvokeAI

   An artist-friendly local image app that has outlived its company, now mid-way through a risky v7 rewrite.

   Best for: Artists who want canvas-style image generation and editing on their own machine.

   Price: Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. No paid tier since the hosted service closed in October 2025.

   Read our InvokeAI review
   3.9/5
5. 5
   V

   VideoAgent

   VideoAgent is an impressive paper demo and an awkward thing to run, held together by four API keys and two non-commercial model licences.

   Best for: Researchers and engineers studying how to plan multi-agent video pipelines, rather than teams that need a dependable editing tool.

   Price: Free under MIT. Running it needs paid API keys for Claude, plus DeepSeek, OpenAI and Gemini for different features; some bundled models are non-commercial.

   Read our VideoAgent review
   3.2/5