S

Stable Diffusion

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.6/5

Open source image generation that runs locally or on cloud

imageopen-sourcelocal
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Developer

Stability AI

Released

Aug 2022

Users

50M+

API

Available

📊 Rating Breakdown

Functionality 4.8/5

Fully open source, unlimited customization, models, control, LoRA

Ease of Use 4.0/5

Technical setup required, but UI tools like Automatic1111 help

Performance 4.5/5

Depends on hardware, can be very fast on good GPUs

Value for Money 5.0/5

100% free, self-hosted, unlimited use

Ecosystem 5.0/5

Massive community, millions of models, endless extensions

Privacy & Security 5.0/5

Self-hosted, complete privacy, no data sent anywhere

Support 4.5/5

Great community docs, Reddit, Discord

Innovation 4.9/5

Revolutionized AI art accessibility, open source approach

✅ Pros

  • Completely free to run locally
  • Massive community and fine-tuned models
  • Privacy-preserving (run locally)
  • Thousands of custom models available
  • ControlNet for precise control
  • Inpainting, outpainting, img2img
  • Low VRAM optimizations
  • Active open-source development

❌ Cons

  • Quality varies by model
  • Setup can be technical
  • Hardware requirements for best quality
  • Steeper learning curve
  • Interface less polished than paid alternatives
  • Less consistent output quality
  • Requires more technical knowledge
  • Limited customer support

💰 Pricing

Starting at $0.003/image

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🧠 Available Models

SD3.5 Large

Open Source

Stability AI's latest flagship image model. 8.1B parameters, MMDiT architecture. Superior typography, prompt adherence, and photorealism.

Parameters: 8.1B (MMDiT)
Context: N/A (image gen)
📝 text
✅ Photorealism ✅ Typography ✅ Prompt following ✅ Open source
Input: $0.20/image (via Stability API)
Output: Per image pricing
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API, Replicate, Hugging Face

SD3.5 Medium

Open Source

Optimized for consumer hardware. 2.5B parameters, runs on regular GPUs. Great balance of quality and accessibility.

Parameters: 2.5B (MMDiT)
Context: N/A (image gen)
📝 text
✅ Consumer GPU friendly ✅ Fast ✅ Good quality ✅ Open source
Input: $0.10/image (via Stability API) / Free (self-hosted)
Output: Per image pricing
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API, Replicate, Hugging Face

SDXL 1.0

Open Source

Proven workhorse model. 2.6B parameters + refiner. Huge community, thousands of fine-tuned models and LoRAs available.

Parameters: 2.6B + refiner
Context: N/A (image gen)
📝 text
✅ Huge community ✅ Many fine-tunes ✅ Proven reliable ✅ LoRA ecosystem
Input: Free / Open Source
Output: Free / Open Source
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API, Replicate, Hugging Face

SD3

Open Source superseded by SD3.5

Original SD3 release with MMDiT architecture. 8B parameters. Good image quality with improved text rendering.

Parameters: 8B (MMDiT)
Context: N/A (image gen)
📝 text
✅ Text rendering ✅ High quality ✅ MMDiT architecture
Input: $0.20/image (via Stability API)
Output: Per image pricing
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API

Stable Video Diffusion

Open Source

Stability AI's image-to-video model. Generates short video clips from still images. Available in 14 and XT frame variants.

Parameters: 1.5B
Context: N/A (video gen)
🖼️ image
✅ Image-to-video ✅ Open source ✅ Consistent motion
Input: Free / Open Source
Output: Free / Open Source
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API, Replicate

API Quickstart Guide

Visit the official API documentation to get started with this tool.

🧠 Available Models

SD3.5 Large

Open Source

Stability AI's latest flagship image model. 8.1B parameters, MMDiT architecture. Superior typography, prompt adherence, and photorealism.

Parameters: 8.1B (MMDiT)
Context: N/A (image gen)
📝 text
✅ Photorealism ✅ Typography ✅ Prompt following ✅ Open source
Input: $0.20/image (via Stability API)
Output: Per image pricing
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API, Replicate, Hugging Face

SD3.5 Medium

Open Source

Optimized for consumer hardware. 2.5B parameters, runs on regular GPUs. Great balance of quality and accessibility.

Parameters: 2.5B (MMDiT)
Context: N/A (image gen)
📝 text
✅ Consumer GPU friendly ✅ Fast ✅ Good quality ✅ Open source
Input: $0.10/image (via Stability API) / Free (self-hosted)
Output: Per image pricing
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API, Replicate, Hugging Face

SDXL 1.0

Open Source

Proven workhorse model. 2.6B parameters + refiner. Huge community, thousands of fine-tuned models and LoRAs available.

Parameters: 2.6B + refiner
Context: N/A (image gen)
📝 text
✅ Huge community ✅ Many fine-tunes ✅ Proven reliable ✅ LoRA ecosystem
Input: Free / Open Source
Output: Free / Open Source
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API, Replicate, Hugging Face

SD3

Open Source superseded by SD3.5

Original SD3 release with MMDiT architecture. 8B parameters. Good image quality with improved text rendering.

Parameters: 8B (MMDiT)
Context: N/A (image gen)
📝 text
✅ Text rendering ✅ High quality ✅ MMDiT architecture
Input: $0.20/image (via Stability API)
Output: Per image pricing
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API

Stable Video Diffusion

Open Source

Stability AI's image-to-video model. Generates short video clips from still images. Available in 14 and XT frame variants.

Parameters: 1.5B
Context: N/A (video gen)
🖼️ image
✅ Image-to-video ✅ Open source ✅ Consistent motion
Input: Free / Open Source
Output: Free / Open Source
🔌 API Availablevia Stability AI API, Replicate

API Quickstart Guide

Visit the official API documentation to get started with this tool.

📜 Version History

Sep 2023 SDXL 1.0

SDXL 1.0 Release

Official SDXL 1.0 release with dual-model architecture and significantly improved aesthetics and composition.

Oct 2022 SD 1.5

Stable Diffusion 1.5

Released SD 1.5 with improved image quality and style variety, becoming the most popular open-source image model.

Nov 2023 SDXL Turbo

SDXL Turbo Real-Time

Released SDXL Turbo with real-time generation capability using progressive distillation.

Nov 2022 SD 2.0

Stable Diffusion 2.0

Released SD 2.0 with 768x768 resolution, depth-to-image, and upscaler capabilities.

Jun 2025 SD 4.5

Stable Diffusion 4.5

Professional creative suite with collaboration tools, API platform, and enterprise licensing.

Jul 2023 SDXL 0.9

SDXL 0.9 Preview

Released SDXL 0.9 preview with massive quality improvement and 1024x1024 base resolution.

Jan 2026 SD 5.0

Stable Diffusion 5.0

Next-gen open model with cinematic quality, real-time collaboration, and decentralized training.

Dec 2024 SD 4.0

Stable Diffusion 4.0

Major release with video generation, 3D model output, and unified multi-modal generation.

Dec 2022 SD 2.1

Stable Diffusion 2.1

Refined SD 2.1 with improved NSFW filtering and better prompt adherence.

Aug 2024 SD 3.5

Stable Diffusion 3.5

Enhanced SD 3.5 with improved performance, community model support, and safety features.

Aug 2022 SD 1.4

Stable Diffusion Public Release

Stability AI released Stable Diffusion 1.4, an open-source text-to-image model that revolutionized AI image generation.

Apr 2024 SD 3.0

Stable Diffusion 3.0

Released SD 3.0 with new Transformer-based architecture, improved text rendering, and 8B parameter model.

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