AI image cost calculator
Free, instant, no signup. Pick from 9 image models, set the tier (resolution, or render speed for Ideogram) and monthly volume, and get cost per image and per month — each next to the provider's own list price.
Your shoot
Rate: $0.067 per image · read live from the Kunavo catalog.
Estimated cost
You save vs Google list
$6.70/ month · ~50%
Estimate only. The real cost of media work is iteration — the render you ship is rarely the first, and every attempt that succeeds is billed even when you discard it. Failed requests are not billed.
The cheapest model is not the same model at every resolution
Every image model here bills per image, so there is no duration lever the way there is for video. The lever is resolution — though not every model has it the same way. GPT-Image-2 charges one flat rate at 1K, 2K and 4K, the Google models that offer 2K and 4K price each tier separately, and Ideogram prices by render speed instead of size. So the model that is the expensive option at 1K becomes the cheap one at 4K, and the ranking inverts inside the range a roundup quotes a single number for.
Change the tier above and watch the order change. That is the whole reason this page exists as a calculator rather than a table: the answer depends on a number only you know.
The lever nobody puts in a calculator
Iteration. The image you ship is rarely the first one, and every attempt that succeeds is billed even when you throw it away — a reworded prompt, a different seed, a changed aspect ratio. On real projects that multiple is larger than the gap between two models, which is why drafting on a cheap model and finishing on an expensive one beats picking one model for everything.
Requests that fail outright are not billed, so the number to multiply by is attempts-per-keeper, not attempts-per-success. Take the monthly figure above and multiply it by your own ratio.
Edits are billed like generations
An edit pass costs a full image, not a discount on one. If your pipeline generates then edits, the real unit cost is the sum of both, and a workflow with two edit passes costs three images per output. The edit models are in the list above; price the pipeline, not the step.
Where the rates come from
Every rate is read from the model catalog when this page renders — the same source the pricing table and the model pages read — and where the provider publishes a list price the comparison column shows it. Where one is not recorded the column is omitted rather than filled with an estimate: this site shipped a wrong “official price” anchor once, and removing it cost more than never having had it.
Video bills in a different shape entirely and text in a different unit, so each has its own calculator rather than a shared form with a filter on it.
Image generation, in more depth
Every model, priced side by side
Per-image rates and the endpoint
The 2K and 4K tiers
The flat-rate model
Request shape and sizes
The video side
The text side
Every model, vs official
How much does AI image generation cost?
On Kunavo, between roughly two and a half cents and twelve cents per image as of September 2026, depending on the model and the resolution tier. The unit is one output image rather than a token count, which is why a token calculator returns nothing useful for this workload. This calculator reads the per-tier rate from the catalog for each of the 9 image models, so the figure moves with a repricing rather than with an edit to this page.
Which image generation model is cheapest?
It depends on the resolution you ship, because one model is flat-rate across tiers and the rest are not. At 1K the small Google models are cheapest and GPT-Image-2 is the expensive option; at 4K GPT-Image-2 costs the same as it did at 1K while the Google models have gone up, so it becomes the cheapest of the three. Set your real tier above and read the order off the result rather than off a headline rate.
Is this AI image cost calculator free?
Yes. It runs in the browser, needs no signup and no API key, and nothing you type is uploaded anywhere. Rates are read live from the Kunavo model catalog and, where the provider publishes one, each model is shown next to its own list price so the comparison is checkable rather than asserted. Where no published list price is recorded, no comparison column is shown at all.
Do image edits cost the same as generating a new image?
Yes — an edit pass bills as a full image on every edit model, not as a fraction of one. A pipeline that generates once and edits twice costs three images per shipped output, so price the pipeline rather than the step. Ideogram v3 Edit is the one edit model on Kunavo that accepts an inpainting mask; Nano Banana Edit and GPT-Image-2 Edit are directed by the prompt and accept several source images in one request.
Why is my real image bill higher than this estimate?
Iteration, almost always. The output you keep is rarely the first generation: prompt changes, seed changes and aspect-ratio changes each produce a billed image, and a realistic project runs several attempts per usable result. Multiply the monthly figure by your own attempts-per-keeper ratio. Requests that fail outright are not billed, but a generation that succeeded and that you discarded is.
Can I price video and music with this too?
This page covers images. Video bills in two different shapes — per clip on some models and per second on others — and music bills per song, and the levers differ enough that mixing all three into one form makes each of them worse. The video side has its own calculator, and the full table across every model is on the pricing page.