What is ArtCraft?
ArtCraft, from the Storyteller team behind the storytold GitHub organisation, is a desktop and web app for AI image and video work that replaces some prompting with direct control. You can composite layers in 2D, stage props and backdrops in 3D, pose characters and set the camera, turn an image into a 3D mesh, keep one location consistent across shots, and then send the result to a model for the final render. It also does plain text-to-image, prompted and masked editing, and image-to-video.
Generation runs on hosted models, not your GPU. ArtCraft's own credits cover a catalogue of 62 models across images (Nano Banana, GPT Image, FLUX, Seedream), video (Seedance, Kling, Veo, Vidu, MiniMax), Suno music, Hunyuan 3D and Tripo meshes, and World Labs' Marble worlds; existing Grok, Midjourney, Sora and World Labs accounts can be connected directly. Builds ship for Windows and macOS, Linux is build-from-source, and a browser version runs at app.getartcraft.com.
The code was relicensed from a work-in-progress fair-source licence to MIT or Apache-2.0 on 10 October 2026, and the git history was reset on 11 September 2026, so the visible commit and contributor counts start there.
How much does ArtCraft cost?
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| App | Free | Open source; bring connected provider accounts |
| Basic | $10/month | 1,000 credits; $8 billed yearly with discount |
| Pro | $35/month | 3,750 credits; $28 billed yearly with discount |
| Max | $60/month | 6,600 credits; $48 billed yearly with discount |
App is free and open source (MIT or Apache-2.0). Hosted generation uses credits: Basic $10/month (1,000 credits), Pro $35/month (3,750), Max $60/month (6,600), shown at $8, $28 and $48 billed yearly during a 20% discount; Enterprise custom. Connected Grok, Midjourney, Sora or World Labs accounts bill separately.
Is ArtCraft worth it?
ArtCraft's idea is right: compose the shot, then let a model render it. Posing a mannequin, placing a camera and kitbashing 3D props before generation gives you repeatable framing that a text prompt rarely does, and that puts it closer to a previs tool than to a prompt box. The repo has about 37,300 GitHub stars, and its latest tagged release, v0.41.0 from 26 September 2026, shows about 1.03 million downloads, 758,000 of them for the Windows installer. That is real use, whatever the star count.
The project's history makes it harder to judge than most. The git history was wiped for a fresh start on 11 September 2026, which is why GitHub lists four contributors and 31 commits on main against more than 2,000 pull requests over the repo's life. The licence changed a month later, from a work-in-progress fair-source licence to MIT or Apache-2.0, and the NOTICE file still excludes bundled material ArtCraft does not own, including Nintendo sound effects and meme images. A pure Rust rewrite of the desktop app started on 10 October. Expect the codebase to keep moving under you.
The economics are a credit subscription. Basic is $10 a month for 1,000 credits, which the pricing page puts at roughly 250 Nano Banana images or about 45 seconds of Kling 3.0 Pro video; Pro is $35 for 3,750 and Max $60 for 6,600. Credits are refunded on failed generations and top-up packs never expire. There is no local model support in the README, so a ComfyUI or InvokeAI user with a capable GPU gets nothing they cannot already do for free, apart from the 3D staging. Connecting your own Midjourney, Sora, Grok or World Labs account avoids the credit layer for those providers only.
What happens to your uploads is not published. The site's privacy page returned a 404 when we checked, the pricing page says nothing about retention or training, and a pull request opened on 28 October, still unmerged when we checked, would stop the frontend logging an upload session token to the browser console. Several unaffiliated lookalike sites rank for the name; the official sources are getartcraft.com and the storytold GitHub releases. For storyboard artists and small studios who need consistent shots from hosted models, it earns its place; anyone wanting a self-hosted pipeline should stay with ComfyUI.
Where it earns its place
A freelance storyboard artist pitching a short film
Produce a dozen consistent shots of the same room and characters from different angles
Use Image to Location for the set, pose mannequins with Character Posing, frame each camera and render with Nano Banana or GPT Image. Basic at $10 a month covers roughly 250 Nano Banana images, enough for several passes.
A three-person agency making product teaser videos
Turn approved stills into short animated clips without a motion designer
Run Image to Video on the composed frames with Kling or Seedance. At about 22 credits a second for Kling 3.0 Pro, the Pro plan's 3,750 credits buy under three minutes of video a month, so budget top-up packs for client revisions.
An indie game developer blocking out environment concepts
Turn a reference image into a 3D prop and place it in a lit scene
Image to 3D Mesh uses hosted Hunyuan 3D, Tripo or Meshy models, and the result can be kitbashed with other assets for camera tests. Costs credits per mesh; check the export suits your engine before relying on it.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Download the Windows or macOS build from getartcraft.com or GitHub releases, or use app.getartcraft.com in a browser; Linux needs a build from source. Sign in to buy credits or connect provider accounts.
- Integrations
- ArtCraft credits for 62 hosted models including Nano Banana, GPT Image, FLUX, Seedream, Seedance, Kling, Veo, Suno, Hunyuan 3D and Marble; direct accounts for Grok, Midjourney, Sora and World Labs. Kling, Google, Runway and Luma integrations are planned.
- Data and privacy
- Prompts and images go to ArtCraft's service or the connected provider for generation. Retention and training terms are not published; the privacy page returned a 404 on 28 October 2026. On macOS the app stores data in ~/Artcraft. Code is MIT or Apache-2.0, but NOTICE excludes some bundled third-party assets.
- Cost at scale
- Credit plans: Basic $10 (1,000 credits), Pro $35 (3,750), Max $60 (6,600) a month, cheaper yearly; Enterprise adds secure models and SLAs at custom prices. Video is the expensive part, at roughly 16 to 22 credits a second on Seedance 2.0 and Kling 3.0 Pro.
- Limits
- Several catalogue models are disabled or restricted; no offline or local-GPU generation; 436 open issues, many of them feature requests; a Rust rewrite of the desktop app is under way.
What's good
- 3D staging, posing and camera control before generation
- One app for 62 image, video, audio, mesh and world models
- Open source client under MIT or Apache-2.0
- Credits refunded on failed generations
What's not
- No local models; generation needs credits or provider accounts
- Privacy and retention terms not published
- Git history reset and licence changed within weeks
- Linux only by building from source
Best for
Storyboard artists, previs teams and small studios who want framing control over hosted image and video models.
ArtCraft alternatives
ArtCraft: common questions
- Is ArtCraft worth it?
- ArtCraft is a genuinely useful staging tool for controlling AI shots, but it is an open client for a paid credit service, not a way to run models yourself. We rate it 3.7 out of 5.
- How much does ArtCraft cost?
- App is free and open source (MIT or Apache-2.0). Hosted generation uses credits: Basic $10/month (1,000 credits), Pro $35/month (3,750), Max $60/month (6,600), shown at $8, $28 and $48 billed yearly during a 20% discount; Enterprise custom. Connected Grok, Midjourney, Sora or World Labs accounts bill separately.
- What are the downsides of ArtCraft?
- No local models; generation needs credits or provider accounts; privacy and retention terms not published; git history reset and licence changed within weeks; linux only by building from source.
- Who is ArtCraft best for?
- Storyboard artists, previs teams and small studios who want framing control over hosted image and video models.
- How much does ArtCraft cost for a team or in production?
- Credit plans: Basic $10 (1,000 credits), Pro $35 (3,750), Max $60 (6,600) a month, cheaper yearly; Enterprise adds secure models and SLAs at custom prices. Video is the expensive part, at roughly 16 to 22 credits a second on Seedance 2.0 and Kling 3.0 Pro.
- Is ArtCraft safe for company data?
- Prompts and images go to ArtCraft's service or the connected provider for generation. Retention and training terms are not published; the privacy page returned a 404 on 28 October 2026. On macOS the app stores data in ~/Artcraft. Code is MIT or Apache-2.0, but NOTICE excludes some bundled third-party assets.
- What are the best ArtCraft alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are ComfyUI and InvokeAI.
Answers checked Oct 28, 2026.