Ideogram vs Stability AI
We give Ideogram a 2.8 GPA and Stability AI a 1.8, out of 4.0. Ideogram grades higher on features and ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Ideogram
Image generator for designs with text, plus editing and video apps
Stability AI
Stable Diffusion image models to self-host or call through an API
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAIdeogramGood | 1.8GPAStability AIWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPlus is $15 a month on yearly billing ($20 monthly) for 2,400 credits and private images, just past this category's dearer quarter of $14.50. When credits run out, Ideogram's own models keep going in a slower queue, which softens it. | 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 | C30 credits a week, but only if you sign in with Google, Apple or Microsoft, and everything you make is public. The Video app needs a paid plan or bought credits. | 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 | BSeveral in-house models, masking and inpainting, transparent backgrounds for stickers and icons, custom style models trained on 15 to 100 of your images, a video app and an API. The whole job's covered, with text in images as its thing. | 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 | A4.8 from about 2,700 App Store ratings, the top band. Type the prompt with the words you want on the poster, and go. | DNo app and no rating. Using it means calling an API from code or running the models on your own hardware. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb and iPhone, with one API for the image and video models and an MCP server for Claude. No Android or desktop app, and credits can't be bought in the iPhone app. | 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 for | images with readable words in them | developers 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: Ideogram and Stability AI. How we grade
Where they differ
- Only Ideogram lists an iOS app.
- Stability AI is self-hostable, according to its own site.
At a glance
| Ideogram | Stability AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $15 per month for 2,400 credits, billed annually ($20 billed monthly) | Not published |
| Free plan | 30 credits a week for accounts that sign in with Google, Apple or Microsoft. Everything made on the free plan is public, and the Video app needs a paid plan or 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 trial | None listed | 25 free API credits on sign-up |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Made by | Ideogram AI Inc | Stability AI Ltd |
| Price read from | docs.ideogram.ai | stability.ai |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Ideogram
- Logos, posters and ads where the words in the image must be readable
- Trying an image generator free with a weekly allowance
- Small teams that want separate credits and central billing
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
Ideogram
- Free credits go only to accounts signed in with Google, Apple or Microsoft, and free-plan images are always public.
- Monthly plan credits do not roll over. Extra credits cost one US cent each and expire 365 days after purchase.
- Partner models, reference images, edits, upscales and video always cost credits, even on plans with a slower unlimited queue.
- Credits cannot be bought inside the iOS app, and custom model training works on desktop only.
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
Ideogram
- Several image models
- Ideogram 4.5 edits and combines up to five reference images, 4.0 handles very wide formats, and 3.0 keeps style presets, palettes and negative prompts.
- Editing and inpainting
- Mask an area to change it, extend a scene, remove objects or backgrounds, and upscale results.
- Transparent backgrounds
- Dedicated models produce images with no background for stickers, print-on-demand designs, icons and clip art.
- Custom models
- Train a style model on 15 to 100 of your own images. Training needs Pro or Team and a standard run costs 4,000 credits.
- Video app
- Makes short clips from a prompt, from start and end frames, or from uploaded images, video and audio, using models such as Seedance.
- API and MCP server
- One API covers the image and video models, and an MCP server lets AI assistants such as Claude use Ideogram.
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
Ideogram
Free$0
30 credits a week, all Ideogram image models, and public images only.
Plus$15
per month for 2,400 credits, billed annually ($20 billed monthly)
Private generation and quality export; after credits run out, Ideogram models keep working in a slower queue.
Pro$42
per month for 7,500 credits, billed annually ($60 billed monthly)
Adds batch generation, a larger queue and custom model training.
Team$20
per user / month, billed annually ($30 billed monthly)
3,600 credits per member each month, with central billing and admin. Minimum 2 users.
EnterpriseCustom
Terms, credits and features set by agreement, including a prepaid shared credit balance for organizations.
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.
Ways to pay less
Ideogram
- Annual discount
Pay less with yearly billing
Yearly billing brings Plus from $20 to $15 a month, Pro from $60 to $42 and Team from $30 to $20 per user.
Stability AI
No public discounts listed.
