Free · Images · 19 of 22 tools · updated Oct 17, 2026
Free AI tools to generate images from text
ComfyUI is the strongest tool to generate images from text you can use without paying, at 97/100. What you get for nothing: free; needs your own GPU. 19 of the 22 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 22 tools to generate images from text.
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.
+ Produces good SDXL results with zero tuning, making it the easiest local generator to start with.
− In maintenance mode and tied to SDXL, so it does not support newer models like Flux.
+ 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.
All 19, side by side
| Tool | Score | Pricing | What you get free | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ComfyUI | 97 | Open source | free; needs your own GPU | windows, mac, linux |
| Fooocus | 75 | Open source | free | windows, 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 |
 Scenario | 50 | Free tier | no limits published | web, api |
 Higgsfield | 36 | Free tier | no limits published | web |
 Ideogram | 35 | Free tier | from $8/mo | web, ios, api |
 Runway | 31 | Free tier | from $12/mo | web, ios, api |
 Krea | 28 | Free tier | from $10/mo | web |
 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 |
 Figma AI (Figma Make) | 11 | Free tier | included with paid seats from $16/mo | web, mac, windows, ios, android |
 Gemini Image (Nano Banana) | 11 | Free tier | free with limits; AI Pro $19.99/mo | web, ios, android, api |
 Leonardo.Ai | 11 | Free tier | from $12/mo | web, ios, android, api |
 Microsoft Designer | 11 | Free tier | free with daily boosts; more via Microsoft 365 | web, ios, android, windows |
 Adobe Firefly | 10 | Free tier | from $9.99/mo | web, ios, android |
 Freepik AI Suite | 10 | Free tier | from about $10/mo | web, ios, android |
 Luma Dream Machine | 10 | Free tier | from $9.99/mo | web, ios, api |
 Recraft | 9 | Free tier | from $10/mo | web, api |
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 Fooocus ComfyUI vs FLUX (Black Forest Labs) Fooocus vs FLUX (Black Forest Labs)