AI Image Generation Cost Calculator

1. Pick a model and size. The price per image fills with the vendor figure checked on 2026-10-02. Edit it, or choose the token-priced option and enter tokens per image.
2. Enter the finished images you need each month and your average attempts per finished image.
3. Add a subscription fee to compare. The tool shows the volume at which the flat plan and pay per image cost the same.

What each result tells you:

AI image generation cost is the amount a vendor charges to create images from a text prompt. Vendors bill it in three main ways: a fixed price per image, a price per image output token, or a flat monthly subscription.

The unit matters more than the headline number. A price per image is simple. A token price turns into a price per image only when you know how many tokens one image uses. A subscription turns into a price per image only when you know how many images you make.

The prices below were read on each vendor's official page on 2026-10-02. They cover the output image only.

This page does not rank image quality, and it does not list every service. A model missing from the list can still be priced with the custom option.

The calculator counts every image you generate, including the ones you throw away, and prices each one.

1. Images generated = finished images x attempts per finished image.
2. Monthly cost = images generated x price per image.
3. Cost per finished image = monthly cost / finished images.
4. For a token-priced model, price per image = tokens per image x token price / 1,000,000.
5. Break-even = subscription fee / cost per finished image, rounded up to a whole image.

Google gives a worked figure for the token method. A 1024 x 1024 image from Gemini 2.5 Flash Image uses 1,290 output tokens at $30.00 per 1 million tokens. That is $0.0387, which Google rounds to $0.039. Text tokens for the prompt are billed separately, and the AI token calculator estimates those.

A small online shop needs 500 finished product images a month. It uses Imagen 4 at $0.04 an image and keeps about 1 image in 3.

Meaning: retries triple the bill, from $20.00 to $60.00. At 500 finished images the shop is above the 250-image break-even, so a $30 flat plan would cost $30.00 less, as long as that plan really covers 1,500 generations.

Attempts per Finished Image

Every attempt is billed. Three attempts per kept image turn a $0.04 price into $0.12 per finished image. This is your own average, so measure it over a week of real work.

Quality Setting

Quality changes the price sharply on some models. OpenAI lists GPT Image 2 at $0.006 for low quality and $0.211 for high quality at 1024 x 1024. A thousand images cost $6.00 or $211.00.

Resolution

Larger images use more output tokens. Google lists Gemini 3.1 Flash Image at $0.067 for 1K and $0.15 for 4K. Two hundred images cost $13.40 at 1K and $30.00 at 4K.

Input Tokens and Reference Images

The prompt and any reference images are billed as input on token-priced models. Google states that Gemini 3 Pro Image charges 560 tokens per input image. Edits with several reference images cost more than plain text prompts.

Batch Processing

Some vendors list a lower batch rate for jobs that can wait. OpenAI lists GPT Image 2.5 image output at $15.00 per 1 million tokens in batch, against $30.00 standard. Type the batch rate into the price field to use it.

Pay per image costs less at low volume, and a flat subscription costs less above the break-even volume. The break-even is the plan fee divided by your cost per finished image.

Subscription plans set limits in their own units. Midjourney, for example, lists four plans at $10, $30, $60 and $120 a month. Its Basic plan includes 3.3 hours of Fast GPU time, and the higher plans add unlimited image generation in Relax Mode. A plan fee is only comparable once you know how many images that allowance gives you.

At $0.04 an image with no retries, a $10 plan breaks even at 250 images a month. At $0.02 an image, a $30 plan breaks even at 1,500 images. The same sum for any fixed and variable cost is covered by the break-even calculator.

What Should You Budget?

Budget for generated images, not finished ones. Count your attempts for a week, multiply by the price, and add headroom for larger sizes. Running an open model on rented hardware is priced by the hour instead, which the Hugging Face tool in the related list covers.

Pricing a Client Project

A freelancer enters the images in the brief and a realistic retry rate. The cost per finished image goes into the quote.

Choosing a Model for an App

A developer keeps the volume fixed and switches the model. The cost per 1,000 images shows the gap between a fast model and a premium one. Text model costs can be set beside it with the AI API cost comparison calculator.

Deciding on a Subscription

A creator enters a plan fee and reads the break-even volume. Below it, pay per image is cheaper.

Planning a Catalogue Refresh

A shop multiplies its product count by the images per product. The monthly and yearly figures show whether the job fits the budget.

1. Counting Only the Images You Keep

The vendor bills every generation. Leaving out retries understates the bill by the retry factor.

2. Comparing Prices at Different Sizes

A 1K price and a 4K price are not the same product. Compare models at the size you will really use.

3. Reading a Token Price as a Price per Image

$30 per 1 million tokens is not $30 per image. At 1,290 tokens it is about $0.039 an image.

4. Treating a Subscription as Unlimited

Most plans cap fast generation or slow it down after a limit. Check the allowance before you compare.

5. Skipping the Licence Terms

Commercial use rules differ by vendor and plan. A low price does not help when the licence does not fit the job.

6. Trusting an Old Price List

Image models are replaced often, and older model names drop off the price pages. Check the date on any figure you reuse.

The arithmetic is exact for the price, volume and retry rate you enter. The retry rate is the least certain input, and it is yours to measure.

It ranged from $0.006 to $0.24 per image on the price pages checked on 2026-10-02. The low end is GPT Image 2 at low quality, and the high end is Gemini 3 Pro Image at 4K.

Multiply the price per image by 1,000. Imagen 4 Fast at $0.02 costs $20, Imagen 4 at $0.04 costs $40, and GPT Image 2 at high quality costs $211.00.

Those models create an image as a series of output tokens, so the vendor bills the tokens. Larger and higher quality images use more tokens, which makes the price per image vary.

Multiply the image output tokens by the price per 1 million tokens and divide by 1,000,000. Google gives 1,290 tokens at $30.00, which is about $0.039 for a 1024 x 1024 image.

A subscription is cheaper only above the break-even volume. Divide the plan fee by your cost per finished image. A $30 plan against $0.12 per finished image breaks even at 250 images a month.

Images you generate and then discard are billed like any other. Whether a request blocked by a content filter is billed depends on the vendor, so check its billing rules.

Yes on most token-priced models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Image is listed at $0.067 for a 1K image and $0.15 for a 4K image, which is more than double.

That depends on the vendor and the plan, not on the price. Read the licence terms for the exact model and plan before you use an image in paid work.

Self-hosting is priced by hardware time, not per image. Cost per image is the hourly hardware rate divided by the images made in an hour. This tool does not model hardware.

A vendor is listed only when its current price could be confirmed on its own pricing page on 2026-10-02. Enter any other price with the custom option.

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent to our servers. Anything you Save stays in this browser only.

• Agent Platform pricing: Imagen and Gemini image models (Google Cloud, official price list, checked 2026-10-02).
• Image generation guide: output tokens and cost (OpenAI, official developer documentation, checked 2026-10-02).
• OpenAI API pricing (OpenAI, official price list).
• Comparing Midjourney plans (Midjourney, official documentation).