Image Generation Models Compared: Cost, Edit, Quality
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OpenRouter tested 20 image generation models through one API using the same prompt to compare pricing and features.
Models charge in different ways—per megapixel, per token, or per image—so listed prices cannot be directly compared. By reading actual billing costs from API responses, they showed that the same image cost between $0.006 and $0.134 depending on the model, a 22-fold difference. OpenAI's gpt-image-2 was cheapest, while settings like image quality on OpenAI models could double the price. Not all models supported the same features: some could generate multiple images per request, some had no random seed support, and they returned different file formats.
Cost is the hard part, because these models are not sold in the same unit.
Vibekollen prepared this summary with AI from the original publication. The content belongs to OpenRouter.
