Replicate vs Stability AI (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Replicate and Stability AI share a 1.8 GPA, and only Stability AI has a free plan.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Replicate grades higher on features. Stability AI grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Stability AI
Stable Diffusion image models to self-host or call through an API
Free plan
Which one is for you
Pick Replicate if
- Fits if you build products that call image or video models
- Works for developers who want to deploy their own model
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you aren't a developer
- Pricey if you run private models, which bill for setup and idle time
- Watch out: spend isn't fixed, as it depends on the model and hardware
- Watch out: larger multi-GPU capacity needs committed spend
Pick Stability AI if
- Fits if you're a developer adding image generation and editing to your own app
- Works for teams who can run open image models on their own hardware or call them on Bedrock or Azure
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you just want to type a prompt and get a picture, as there's no app; Start creating leads to enterprise partnerships
- Not for you if your company makes over $1M a year, as that needs an Enterprise License priced by sales
- Too light for developers who want video by API, as the price list has none; Stable Video Diffusion is self-host only
- Watch out: the API is pay per use at a cent a credit, 2.5 to 8 credits an image and 60 for the Creative Upscaler
- Tight if you have no hardware of your own, as the free license means running the models yourself, and the API start is 25 credits
How we grade them
| 1.8GPAReplicateWeak | 1.8GPAStability AIWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPublic models are billed by run, from $0.04 an image, with no fixed plan to compare. | 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. There's no plan to set against this category's. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free allowance is recorded on the listing. | 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 | BA public model library, per-output billing, private models and fine-tunes. | DBuilding blocks only: SD 3.5 models, editing, upscaling, sketch and style control, and 3D. 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 | DIt is an API, so you need code to use it. | DNo app and no rating. Using it means calling an API from code or running the models on your own hardware. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web site and an API. No phone or desktop program. | 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 | an API for running image and video models | 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: Replicate and Stability AI. How we grade
Where they differ
- Stability AI is self-hostable, according to its own site.
In commonWebPublic APIAI featuresImage generationVideo generation
At a glance
| Replicate | Stability AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | Not published |
| Free plan | None | 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 | ||
| Made by | Replicate | Stability AI Ltd |
| Price read from | replicate.com | stability.ai |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Replicate
- No fixed plan: spend depends on the model and hardware, so the $0 entry only means no subscription fee.
- Private models on dedicated hardware are billed for setup, idle and active time, not just for generations.
- Larger multi-GPU A100, H100, H200 and L40S capacity is available only with committed spend contracts.
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
Replicate
- Public model library
- Thousands of open-source models contributed by the community plus proprietary ones, each with a cost estimate on its page.
- Per-output or per-second billing
- Some models bill per output, such as $0.04 per image for flux-1.1-pro; most bill by the seconds they run on the chosen hardware.
- Private and custom models
- Models packaged with the open-source Cog tool can be deployed privately; most run on dedicated hardware billed for all online time.
- Fast-booting fine-tunes
- Fine-tunes labeled as fast booting are billed only while active and processing requests, not for idle time.
- Listed hardware rates
- The pricing page lists per-second and hourly rates, such as $5.04 an hour for one A100 80GB and $0.81 an hour for a T4.
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
Replicate
Pay as you go$0
no subscription, billed by usage
Billed by run time on the hardware used, or by output; for example flux-dev at $0.025 per output image.
EnterpriseCustom
Enterprise page linked from the site; committed spend contracts unlock extra multi-GPU capacity. No prices published.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Replicate or Stability AI?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Replicate publishes no starting price, and Stability AI publishes no starting price.
Which has a free plan, Replicate or Stability AI?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Stability AI has a free plan. Replicate does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.