FLUX by Black Forest Labs vs Runware (2026): which should you pick?

Pick FLUX by Black Forest Labs if

• Fits if you make the odd image and would rather pay per picture than monthly
• Works for developers building image or video generation into their own product

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want an app with styles, projects and a gallery, not a playground
• Not for you if you need a known monthly bill, since you pay per image and $0.17 a second for HD video
• Pricey if you make hundreds of FLUX 3 images a month, as every one is charged
• Watch out: FLUX.2 [klein] 9B, FLUX.2 [dev] and FLUX.1 [dev] weights are non-commercial, and license prices aren't published
• Skip it if you want a phone app, integrations or a student discount, as the listing shows none

Pick Runware if

• Fits if you build apps that call many models
• Works for teams wanting GPU compute

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you aren't a developer
• Tight if you use a personal email, since the free credit needs a business one
• Watch out: no minimum top-up is stated
• Watch out: volume discounts need contacting sales

FLUX by Black Forest Labs

• Hosted use is pay as you go: FLUX 3 Image costs $0.048 per 1K image, Klein $0.009, and FLUX 3 video $0.17 a second at HD.
• There is no subscription for the playground or API, and no published monthly price for any self-hosting license.
• FLUX.2 [klein] 9B, FLUX.2 [dev] and FLUX.1 [dev] weights are non-commercial; running them commercially needs a paid license.
• There is no student discount, and volume discounts on API use are arranged through sales.

Runware

• There are no monthly plans: billing is pay-as-you-go, and the pricing page does not state a minimum top-up.
• The FAQ says image generation typically costs from fractions of a cent to a few cents per image, depending on model, resolution and quality.
• Language models are billed per million input, output and cache tokens rather than per image.
• The $2 free credit goes to sign-ups with a business email, and volume discounts require contacting sales.

FLUX by Black Forest Labs

FLUX 3 image and video

One model family covers images with accurate text rendering and video clips of up to 20 seconds with optional generated speech, effects and ambience.

Image editing tools

FLUX.2 models edit images from a prompt, and FLUX Tools add outpainting, object erasing and deblurring.

Browser playground

Try the models without code in the playground, which charges the same credit prices as the API.

API with prepaid credits

Credits cost $0.01 each, are shared across an organization's projects, do not expire, and can be topped up automatically.

Open weights

Models such as FLUX 3 Image Klein and FLUX.2 [klein] can be downloaded from Hugging Face and GitHub and fine-tuned on your own hardware.

Runware

One endpoint for many models

The pricing page says image, video, audio, language and 3D models share one endpoint, auth and billing, and that switching models is a string change.

Pay-as-you-go rate sheet

Published per-generation rates for more than 300 models, with example prices at default settings.

Serverless and reserved GPUs

Bring your own model, code or container and pay for GPU time by the second, or reserve compute.

Playground and tooling

A playground estimates cost for a specific request, and the site lists an MCP server and a CLI.

Custom models and LoRA training

Uploaded models and content stay private and are not used for training, according to the FAQ.

FLUX by Black Forest Labs

• FLUX.2 [klein] 4B open weights$0

  Download from Hugging Face and host it yourself under Apache 2.0, with free commercial use.

• Builder licenseCustom

  Self-serve monthly license bought in the dashboard; price not published. 10K images a month, 1 domain, 10 users.

• Platform licenseCustom

  For products offering FLUX to their own users: 100K images a month on 1 domain, sold through sales.

• Professional licenseCustom

  For agencies making images for named clients: 100K images a month, first 3 clients included, sold through sales.

• EnterpriseCustom

  All models and new releases, custom volume, volume discounts and an SLA, with combined API and weights pricing.

Runware

• Pay as you go$0

  no subscription; billed per generation or per token

  No monthly fee. Rates are listed per model on the pricing page, per image, per video clip or per million tokens.