Free · Images · 14 of 17 tools · updated Oct 17, 2026
Free AI tools to edit & retouch photos with AI
ComfyUI is the strongest tool to edit & retouch photos with AI you can use without paying, at 97/100. What you get for nothing: free; needs your own GPU. 14 of the 17 tools tracked for this job have a free tier, an open-source licence, or are free outright. It is also the top-ranked tool for this job overall, free or not.
Same evidence score as the ranking — GitHub stars, Hacker News mentions, release activity, free access — recomputed nightly, never sold. See all 17 tools to edit & retouch photos with AI.
Top 3
evidence / 100
+ Gets day-one support for new open models (Flux, Wan, Hunyuan) and lets you wire up any pipeline you can imagine.
− The node graph has a steep learning curve and shared workflows frequently break on missing custom nodes.
+ Best prompt adherence and hand/text rendering of any open-weight image model, with Kontext adding instruction-based editing.
− The dev weights are non-commercial, and the 12B model needs a 16GB+ GPU to run comfortably.
+ Huge extension ecosystem and years of tutorials make almost any workflow achievable locally.
− Development has slowed, newer models like Flux need forks (Forge), and setup is fiddly for non-technical users.
All 14, side by side
| Tool | Score | Pricing | What you get free | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ComfyUI | 97 | Open source | free; needs your own GPU | windows, mac, linux |
| FLUX (Black Forest Labs) | 72 | Open source | schnell/dev weights free; Pro via API per image | api, linux, web |
| Stable Diffusion WebUI (AUTOMATIC1111) | 64 | Open source | free; needs your own GPU | windows, mac, linux |
 Canva Magic Studio | 11 | Free tier | Canva Pro $15/mo | web, mac, windows, ios, android |
 ChatGPT Images (GPT Image / DALL-E) | 11 | Free tier | free with limits; Plus $20/mo | web, ios, android, mac, windows, api |
 Clipdrop | 11 | Free tier | no limits published | web, api, ios, android |
 Gemini Image (Nano Banana) | 11 | Free tier | free with limits; AI Pro $19.99/mo | web, ios, android, api |
 Microsoft Designer | 11 | Free tier | free with daily boosts; more via Microsoft 365 | web, ios, android, windows |
 Photoroom | 11 | Free tier | no limits published | ios, android, web, api |
 Adobe Express | 10 | Free tier | Premium $9.99/mo | web, ios, android |
 Adobe Firefly | 10 | Free tier | from $9.99/mo | web, ios, android |
 Pixelcut | 10 | Free tier | no limits published | web, ios, android |
 Recraft | 9 | Free tier | from $10/mo | web, api |
 Cleanup.pictures | 8 | Free tier | no limits published | web |
A free tier counts, and so does an open-source licence you can self-host — both are in the table, so a tool that is only free for a trial is not here.
Head to head: ComfyUI vs FLUX (Black Forest Labs) ComfyUI vs Stable Diffusion WebUI (AUTOMATIC1111) FLUX (Black Forest Labs) vs Stable Diffusion WebUI (AUTOMATIC1111)