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FLUX by Black Forest Labs vs Stability AI

We give FLUX by Black Forest Labs a 2.0 GPA and Stability AI a 1.8, out of 4.0. FLUX by Black Forest Labs grades higher on features and ease of use. Stability AI grades higher on platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and the free plan.

Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.

FLUX by Black Forest Labs

FLUX image and video models, paid per use via API and playground

Free plan
Full detailsbfl.ai

Stability AI

Stable Diffusion image models to self-host or call through an API

Free plan
Full detailsstability.ai

How we grade them

2.0GPAFLUX by Black Forest LabsFair1.8GPAStability AIWeak
Value for money
CNo subscription, so no monthly plan to set against this category. You prepay credits at $0.01 each: a FLUX 3 image costs $0.048 and a Klein one $0.009, so $10 makes about 200 FLUX 3 images. Light use beats any plan here, heavy use won't.
CNothing a person can subscribe to. The models are free to run yourself under $1M yearly revenue, which takes your own hardware, and the API charges $0.025 to $0.08 an image at a cent a credit. Fair, but there's no plan to set against this category's.
Free plan and trial
CThe FLUX.2 [klein] 4B weights are free under Apache 2.0, commercial use included, but only if you can run them on your own hardware. The hosted playground and API have no free credits on record.
CThe Community License lets people and companies under $1M a year run the core models free, commercial use included. That needs your own hardware, and the API's free start is 25 credits.
Features
CFLUX 3 makes images with accurate text and clips up to 20 seconds with sound, and FLUX Tools erase, outpaint and deblur. For a person, though, the listing shows a playground over an API, with no styles, projects or gallery around it.
DStrong building blocks: SD 3.5 models, editing, upscaling, sketch and style control, and 3D. But there's no app for a person, and the image page's Start creating link goes to enterprise partnerships, so it needs code or another product to be useful.
Ease of use
CNo app rating on record. The playground needs no code, but you're buying credits, picking models and resolutions and paying per image, which is a developer's way of working.
DNo app and no rating. Using it means calling an API from code or running the models on your own hardware.
Platforms and integrations
CA web playground and an API, plus open weights to run on your own machine. No phone app and no integrations in the listing.
BAn API plus the models on Amazon Bedrock, SageMaker JumpStart and Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, and downloads for your own machines. No phone or desktop app.
Best forpay-per-image FLUX models and open weightsdevelopers building on open image models

The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: FLUX by Black Forest Labs and Stability AI. How we grade

Where they differ

    In commonFree planWebSelf-hostablePublic APIAI featuresImage generationVideo generation

    At a glance

    FLUX by Black Forest LabsStability AI
    PricingFree planFree plan
    Starts atNot publishedNot published
    Free planThe FLUX.2 [klein] 4B weights are free to download and run yourself under Apache 2.0, commercial use included. The hosted playground and API need bought credits.Community License: free self-hosted use of the core models, commercial use included, for people and organizations under $1M in yearly revenue.
    Free trialNone listed25 free API credits on sign-up
    Web
    Made byBlack Forest LabsStability AI Ltd
    Price read frombfl.aistability.ai
    CheckedOct 17, 2026Oct 17, 2026

    Who each one suits

    FLUX by Black Forest Labs

    • Developers adding image or video generation to their own product
    • Teams that want to self-host and fine-tune an image model
    • Occasional users who prefer paying per image over a subscription

    Stability AI

    • Developers adding image generation and editing to their own apps
    • Small companies that want to run open image models on their own servers
    • Teams already building on Amazon Bedrock or Azure

    Worth knowing

    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.

    Stability AI

    • The API is pay per use: 1 credit is $0.01, an image costs 2.5 to 8 credits, and the Creative Upscaler costs 60 credits per image.
    • Organizations with more than $1M in yearly revenue need an Enterprise License, priced only through sales.
    • The API price list has image, 3D and audio services but no video; Stable Video Diffusion is offered for self-hosting only.
    • There is no image app sold to consumers: the image page's "Start creating" link leads to the enterprise partnerships page.

    Key features

    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.

    Stability AI

    Stable Diffusion 3.5 models
    Large, Large Turbo and Medium versions of the image model to download and run yourself; Medium is designed to run on consumer hardware.
    Image generation API
    Stable Image Ultra, Stable Image Core, the Stable Diffusion 3.5 family and SDXL, each billed per image in credits.
    Editing API
    Erase objects, inpaint, outpaint, remove or replace a background and relight, and find an object by name to recolor or replace it.
    Upscaling and control
    Creative, Conservative and Fast upscalers, plus sketch, structure and style tools that guide a new image from one you supply.
    Video and 3D models
    Stable Video Diffusion turns text into short clips for self-hosting; Stable Fast 3D and SPAR3D make 3D assets from one image through the API.
    Cloud partners
    The models are also offered on Amazon Bedrock, Amazon SageMaker JumpStart and Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, and in NVIDIA-optimized versions.

    Plans

    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.

    Stability AI

    • Community License$0

      Run Stable Diffusion 3.5, SDXL Turbo, Stable Fast 3D and Stable Audio 3.0 on your own hardware; for those under $1M in yearly revenue.

    • Enterprise LicenseCustom

      Commercial use above $1M in yearly revenue, with implementation support; custom model training and consulting cost extra.

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