Recraft vs Stability AI
We give Recraft a 2.6 GPA and Stability AI a 1.8, out of 4.0. Recraft grades higher on value for money, features and ease of use. They get the same grade on the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Recraft
Image and vector generator built for designers and brand work
Stability AI
Stable Diffusion image models to self-host or call through an API
How we grade them
| 2.6GPARecraftGood | 1.8GPAStability AIWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BBasic is $10 a month on yearly billing ($12 monthly) for 1,000 credits, level with this category's cheaper quarter of $9.99. That's about 500 Recraft V4.1 images, plus partner models, private images and commercial rights. Video needs Pro at $16. | 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 | CDaily credits on Recraft's own models, vectors included, but only 3 uploads a day and 2 images per prompt. Free images are public, belong to Recraft and can't be used commercially. | 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 | BEditable SVG icons, logos and illustrations, raster-to-vector, custom styles and brand palettes, editing, mockups, an assistant mode, and video on Pro. It covers the job, with vectors as its edge. | 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 Store rating on record. Styles, palettes, mockups and a canvas give a designer plenty to set up before it pays off. | 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, iPhone, Android and a Chrome extension, with plugins for Figma, Framer, Google Docs and Google Slides and a separate API. No desktop app, which an A needs. | 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 | icons and logos as editable vectors | 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: Recraft and Stability AI. How we grade
Where they differ
- Only Recraft lists iOS and Android apps.
- Only Recraft lists a browser extension.
- Stability AI is self-hostable, according to its own site.
At a glance
| Recraft | Stability AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $10 per month for 1,000 credits, billed annually ($12 billed monthly) | Not published |
| Free plan | Limited daily credits, 3 image uploads a day and up to 2 images per prompt, Recraft models only. Free images are public, owned by Recraft and not licensed for commercial use. | 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 | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Recraft, Inc. | Stability AI Ltd |
| Price read from | recraft.ai | stability.ai |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Recraft
- Designers who need icons, logos and illustrations as editable vectors
- Brand teams keeping a set of images on one style and palette
- Figma and Framer users who want generation inside their design tool
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
Recraft
- Free-plan images are public, belong to Recraft and cannot be used commercially.
- Video generation needs Pro or Teams; Basic covers images only.
- Monthly credits do not roll over. Top-ups cost $2 per 200 credits, never expire and are sold only on paid plans.
- Teams credits are assigned per seat and cannot be shared between members.
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
Recraft
- Vector generation
- Generates editable SVG icons, logos and illustrations, and converts raster images to vectors. Vector tools are on every plan, including Free.
- Custom styles and palettes
- Pick from a style library or create your own style from reference images, and set brand color palettes to keep a set of images consistent.
- Editing tools
- Edit with plain-language instructions, erase or modify areas, extend images, remove or replace backgrounds and upscale.
- Mockups
- Generate a product mockup and apply your own design to it inside Recraft Studio, at 2 credits per mockup.
- Agentic and manual modes
- Chat with an assistant that sets up generations over several turns, or control model, style, aspect ratio and artistic level by hand.
- Plugins and API
- Plugins for Figma, Framer, Google Docs, Google Slides and Chrome use your plan's credits; a separate API is billed in prepaid units.
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
Recraft
Free$0
Daily credits for Recraft's own models, vector generation and basic editing; personal use only.
Basic$10
per month for 1,000 credits, billed annually ($12 billed monthly)
Partner image models, private images with commercial rights, credit top-ups. About 500 Recraft V4.1 images a month.
Pro$16
per month for 2,000 credits, billed annually ($20 billed monthly)
Adds video models such as Kling and Veo and priority generation. Price rises with credits: $128 a month yearly at 16,000.
Teams$18
per seat / month for 2,000 credits, billed annually ($22 monthly)
Shared workspace and custom styles, central billing, SSO and 24/7 support. Credits are per seat. Minimum 2 seats.
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
Recraft
- Annual discount
Save up to 20% with annual billing
Annual billing brings Basic from $12 to $10 a month, Pro from $20 to $16 and Teams from $22 to $18 per seat.
Stability AI
No public discounts listed.
