The Best AI Image Generators

I tested Nano Banana Pro with various test prompts and it outshined the first version of the model in every instance (check out the related articles to the right). It's really impressive how it can perfectly morph two images into one which the former model often struggled with. Changing perspectives for image-to-image is no issue and it can also create realistic or beautiful images like no other. Therefore it had to climb on top, there's no way around it. If you work a lot with AI video and images, it makes sense to access this model via Artlist, because they also have the best video generators and a modular pricing structure.

I honestly love Freepik! The very best part about this tool is that it lets you access the latest models from Flux, Seedream, Runway and older models from Google. They do the same with video generators, this means you basically pay for one subscription and are always up to date in these two AI tool categories. Plus, they have made such a huge transition since the first time I tested them: from a mediocre AI image generator, to this super powerhouse for genAI. Instead of having to think of everything within your prompt, you can choose Character, Effects, Object, Colours, Compositions, and Styles with a click. And they have added more and more features like image upscalers and editors to their palette. I'm also a big fan of their 20 daily free images. If I wanted to nitpick, it would be that they don't have the very newest and therefore image models, Artlist is ahead of them there. The generated images here are with their own free and standard model, they are ok but not amazing.

Key Features:
Daily Downloads, Daily AI Text-to-Image Generation, AI Art Generator with Pikaso, Online Editor, Vectors, Photos, AI Images, Icons, Videos, AI Background Generator, AI Image Generator, Image Upscaler, Background Remover, Photo Editor, SVG File Download, Background Remover

Midjourney is was the very first image generator I heard of, long before anyone could imaging creating Ghiblified selfies and such. All designers I know love this image generator, so especially for advanced users it's great. Not so much for beginners in my opinion. Also I don't like that they no longer offer a free trial. Interesting to see though how they are very community focused and build their tool with that in mind.

Key Features:
Character Consistency, Text-to-Image, Community Gallery, Community Chat, Instant Setup, Unlimited Generations, Multi-Account Management, Image Queueing, Real-Time Updates, Omni-Reference (--oref), Personalization Profiles (--p), Style References (--sref), Draft Mode (--draft)

For AI image Editing: The launch of Nano Banana has created a much-deserved hype, catapulting AI image editing to the next level. Now you can easily change perspective, single elements within an image, or add text optimally. It struggles more to blend two or more images together than the marketing would suggest, but I can see how it will get there.
For Image generation: I think Google's interpretation of two people looking at each other is ok, but not amazing. I would have wished for the background to look more real, and I don't know why the lady is unprompted in a space suit. I tested Imagen via Gemini, which of course is super nice because it's free. And it stopped being overly woke (did you read about the black viking story?). I was able to generated a viking as they were in the ancient days, hehe. Btw. this tool was known as Imagen before.

Key Features:
Character Consistency Across Prompts, Multi-Image Fusion Capability, Prompt-Based Image Editing with Natural Language, World Knowledge Integration for Semantic Understanding, SynthID Digital Watermarking, Cascaded Diffusion Models, Improved Text and Typography, Dynamic Thresholding, Fine Control, Broad Integration

Prompt 1 - My standard prompt with the cyborg and the lady in space:
I really like the cyborg, and the lady's outfit looks very casual, which makes her even more realistic. But it still has an unnatural filter to it. Also, the background could look a bit more appealing, but that's a question of taste, and the prompt was followed 100%.

Prompt 2 - A lady with wrinkles laying tarot cards:
So far, all image generators have interpreted there to be a table to lay the cards on, and at first I thought "Where is it?" but when I re-read the prompt, I realised that it was just my and the other image generators' bias. Otherwise, it's a really beautiful generation, very life-like, and the too-perfect beauties from Flux model 1 are gone (great!).

Prompt 3 - Mars landscape with chrome elements
This generation is a bit boring, and it looks like the chrome objects were pasted onto the picture rather than being part of the scenery. Also, I've never seen proper mountains on mars, but then I've never been there.

Prompt 4 - Still life with fantasy style
I'm a bit undecided on this. I like the output, but expected something more magical. Decide for yourself.

Key Features:
Multi-reference support, photoreal detail, text rendering, 4MP resolution, color control, pose control, LoRA training, prompt adherence, layout rendering, fast generation.

Artlist for image generation is so nice because of its various model integrations, for example Nano Banana Pro or the newest Flux models. Google's image generator is able to do a few things others have not been able to do. I'm most impressed by how it can change the perspective of an image, I've added it in the image carousel above (first the original, which I also generated within Artlist, but with the Flux 1.1 model).

I also love the mars landscape it created, looks so different from the others. For that I've used Flux Pro Ultra.

Flux via Artlist is also really good with adding text into an image (explained here too), which is great for lots of marketing purposes. Another thing I like about the Artlist AI image generator feature is the style catalog they provide just under the input field. It really helps finding new ideas for styles and their names.
The only thing I don't like so much is that the input field for prompts is small, and I can't see the whole text at once, and there is a limit of 100 words.
And if you're looking for an all creative toolbox including video and voice generator, Artlist is the best deal out there currently.

Key Features:
Text-to-Image Generation, Image-to-Image, Animation from Static Images, Text-to-Video, Multiple Visual Styles (Cinematic, 3D, Portrait), HD Quality Outputs, Commercial Licensing Included, Integration with Stock Footage Library, Aspect Ratios, Output Formats

You really notice how Adobe and with understands the situation well: they just simply have to offer more than just image generation, because so many other tools can do that too. So cleverly they add special features like camera angle or suggestions for templates to add the image to to upload it on instagram. Well done Adobe, I'm glad you are not the next Kodak. The generated images are so so, but given that they were free and you get daily 10 generations just like that, it's pretty good.

Key Features:
Generative Audio and Video, Text to Image, Generative Fill, Generative Expand, Vector Generation, Image Generation, Style Transfer, Adjust Style Intensity, Camera Angles, Collage Maker, Text Effects, Pattern Generation, Color Palette Creation, Image Editing, Template Library, Generate Own Templates, Social Media Templates, Collaboration Tools, Integration with Adobe Apps, User-Friendly Interface, Export Options, Learning Resources

Fotor is one of the very few image generator platforms, which lets you access Midjourney V7, I can't even test that model via fal.ai (which is an aggregator of almost all models, even if they don't have an interface). They also have Nano Banana, Seedream. Qwen, Wan 2.5 and Flux, that's quite impressive. Additionally they offer other apps like video face swap or headshot generators (which to be honest I can not recommend, because it made me look hilarous, check out headshot generators under related articles).

What I really like about Fotor is that the images it generated were very different in style, even though it didn't follow fully follow my prompt -> the background is an office, not space.

But at this point that goes for most AI image generators and Fotor is so nice and easy to handle. This is a great image generator for everyone looking for a cheaper option and looking for unique styles that are not recognizable as AI generated.

Key Features:
Text-to-Image Capabilities, Photo Editing, Background Remover, Photo Enhancer, Object Remover, Graphic Design Templates, Collage Maker

Kling AI is great for video generation, there I really like it. For image generation I'm not such a fan of their photorealistic style. It somehow always looks too shiny and unnatural. And in general lighting seems to be a problem with Kling, for my second prompt an older tarot lady in a mystic light, it just added a weird grey layer. I like that for my usual test prompt with the cyborg, for the second protagonist it generated an Asian and a Caucausian lady (she's in a suit though, which is funny). I have a few more issues with Kling AI: the dashboard is overwhelming and overloaded (it reminds me of Temu, maybe this is the Asian style I'm just not used to) and I constantly have to click something away. Additionally, I feel like their pricing structure is slightly confusing/misleading. I says 7 days cost $0.99, but also 30 days cost $7.

Key Features:
Text-to-Image, Image Upscaler, Advanced Editing, High-Resolution Output, Background Remover, Object Remover, Fast-Track Generation, Watermark Removal, Beta Test Invite, Unlimited Task Queuing

Dreamstudio was a bit more complicated for the signup process, but really worth it. The beautiful designs come quite cheap, only 0.91 tokens of 25 were deducted for 4 pictures in high resolution. That's a generous trial offer and I like that it provided different styles in the output. Also: no racial bias, as one of the women has a non-white background.

Key Features:
Multi-Generations, Styles, Canvas, Upscaling, Masking, Layers, New Models, History

First when I tested it, I've heard a lot of praise about ideogram from creative friends and I understood why. But recently it has gotten a bit quite around this image generator, they haven't released anything spectacular like others and no one mentions it anymore.

I really like the way Ideogram generates humans, they look life-life like the tarot lady from prompt 2 and less perfect than with other models.

Prompt 3 turned out a bit simple with the spikey chrome elements and prompt 4 is pretty weird: It cracked the screen of the phone, and then the fluffy cotton candy clouds around it which look like a prop. See, this is why it's not in the top 5 image generators.

One positive is that it's a great tool if you are new at creating images; its magic prompt feature adds helpful details to your original prompt. This can also help you learn what a good prompt looks like.

Key Features:
Text-to-Image, Realistic Image Generation, Creative Design Capabilities, Sets of Image Style Tags, Adjustment of Aspect Ratio and Resolution

Leonardo felt a bit overwhelming feature-wise, but offers generous 25 free tokens. Interesting to see that the two individuals from my picture were even more sexualized and almost kissing when I took out the 'Leonardo' feature. Still not sure what to conclude here.

Key Features:
Create Striking Game Resources, Custom Data Sets, Training Custom Models, Character Reference (Consistent Characters), Remix Images, Multi-Style Reference, Rollover Bank, Token Accrual, Save Tokens

You have to dig a bit to find the image generator apps within canva. None of them is specifically amazing to be honest. I always generate images elsewhere and just upload them to Canva. But I have to give it to them that their AI image editing features are pretty amazing: magic edit, magic expand or just simply their background remover are tools I use almost every day because they work so well.

Key Features:
Video Background Remover, Thousands of Free Templates, Print Designs, Stunning Charts, Share in a Click, Millions of Free Assets, Drag-and-Drop Editor, Edit Existing Files, Professional Styles

Pixlr offers 250 free credits/images for 7 days as part of its free trial, which is a delightful surprise due to the high quality of the generated image. It ranks high only due to the wide range of competitors in the middle field. Pixlr didn't quite follow instructions but did so in a very stylish way.

Key Features:
Unlimited Saves, Monthly Free AI Credits, Private Mode for AI Generations, Library of Fonts, Templates, Elements, Animations, AI Face Swap, AI Super Scale, AI Super Sharp

For being such a famous tool, the performance was so-so. However, it is primarily known for its video generation capabilities. I've accessed the tool via stablediffusionweb.com.

Key Features:
Sketch to Image, AI Portrait Maker, AI Clothes Changer, Image Upscaler, Edit Anything, Magic Eraser, Background Remover, Image to Image, Text to Image

Don't know how this can be, but on Dreamina (Byte Dance's creative platform which also houses capcut) I can't access their newest model Seedream 4.5, but on Artlist I can.
Because I wanted to understand their unique offer, I tested the tool via their own platform and with model 4.1.

The cyborg from prompt 1 is so immature. And Seedream could have done much better with prompt 2, the lady doesn't look mysterious but more like she just told me I will die.

Generally the platform is annoying to use, there are a lot of glitches and annoyances (see cons), I almost didn't have the patience to do all 4 prompts. If I access Seedream 4.5 via Artlist, then it works quite well.
On their own platform Dreamina, it's not my favorite for sure.