FLUX vs Stable Diffusion

FLUX

FLUX is the practical choice when you want one vendor that covers both the hosted API and weights you can run yourself: the [klein] models are cheap enough for bulk generation, [pro] and [max] handle editing and high-resolution work, and the same family now extends to video. Per-megapixel billing is transparent once you remember that resolution rounds up, so a 1080p frame is charged as three megapixels. The open-weight licences are the part to read carefully: non-commercial use is free, but commercial self-hosting is a paid licence with monthly image caps, and the price for it is only visible after you sign in.

Pros

• +Published per-image and per-megapixel prices across the whole lineup, from $0.014 an image for [klein] 4B (15 October 2026)
• +Same model family available hosted and as self-hostable weights, including fine-tuning and LoRA rights on paid licences
• +Editing, inpainting, outpainting, try-on, eraser and video upscaling tools alongside generation
• +Named legal entity, registered address and managing directors on the imprint

Cons

• −Megapixel rounding inflates the cost of common resolutions such as 1920x1080, billed as 3 MP
• −Commercial self-hosting licences list image caps and domain limits but no public price
• −The pricing calculator on the main site shows a single unlabelled $0.048 figure until a model is selected
• −No consumer app or mobile client

Stable Diffusion

The reason a local generation ecosystem exists at all, and still the right answer when you need weights on your own hardware with no per-image meter. Just be clear about what you are adopting: the models are open, the licence is not unconditional, and Stability's own commercial attention has moved to enterprise custom models and audio, with the public plan pages for its hosted apps now gone.

Pros

• +Weights genuinely run locally, so cost per image after hardware is electricity
• +The community licence explicitly permits derivative LoRAs and fine-tunes
• +An enormous body of community checkpoints, tooling and interfaces exists around these models
• +Hosted access exists through the developer platform and Amazon Bedrock for teams without a GPU

Cons

• −The $1M revenue threshold turns a free licence into a quote-only negotiation with no public price
• −The pricing URL redirects to a Brand Studio plans page that now returns 404; no public plan table remains
• −Hosted API prices sit behind a bot challenge on the developer platform, so budgeting needs a signed-in account
• −Running locally means owning the GPU, the updates and the safety tooling yourself

Is FLUX cheaper than Stable Diffusion?

FLUX starts at $0.014/image. Stable Diffusion has a free tier; what its paid plans cost is not confirmed by us yet.

Does FLUX or Stable Diffusion have a free tier?

Both: FLUX has a free tier, and Stable Diffusion has a free tier.

Which has a public API, FLUX or Stable Diffusion?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.