Stability AI API
Stable Diffusion 3.5, open-source image generation at scale
Freemium
✓ Verified
🇪🇺 European
Stability AI provides API access to the Stable Diffusion model family — the foundational open-source text-to-image models. The REST API covers text-to-image, image-to-image, inpainting, upscaling, and video generation. Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large delivers photorealistic quality rivaling commercial models. Credits-based pricing is economical for high-volume use. The open-source nature of Stable Diffusion also makes it uniquely deployable on-premise via platforms like Automatic1111. Popular for games, e-commerce, marketing, and developer tools.
API Details
Auth Method
API Key
Pricing Model
Freemium
Free Tier
Yes — free credits on signup
Rate Limit
150 credits/min
Format
REST / Multipart / JSON
Versioning
SD 3.5, SDXL, SD Core
SLA / Uptime
99.5%
Compliance
GDPR
Geographic Restrictions
Global
Last Verified
2026-02-20
Categories
Frequently Asked Questions
Stability AI offers Stable Diffusion 3.5 (latest flagship), SDXL 1.0 (strong general-purpose), SD 1.6 (lightweight), Stable Video Diffusion (video generation), and Stable Audio (music/audio generation). All are available via the Stability AI REST API with per-image or per-second pricing.
The Stability AI hosted API is not free u2014 it uses a credit system where you purchase credits ($10 = 1,000 credits; most images cost 3u20136 credits). However, the Stable Diffusion models themselves are open-source and free to run locally. Using ComfyUI, Automatic1111, or InvokeAI you can generate unlimited images on your own hardware.
Stability AI offers more flexibility u2014 custom aspect ratios, inpainting, outpainting, image-to-image, ControlNet, and LoRA fine-tuning. DALL-E 3 has superior prompt adherence and text in images but less flexibility. Stability AI is preferred for creative workflows, character consistency, and volume generation due to lower costs and open-source availability.
Yes. Stable Diffusion supports LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) and DreamBooth fine-tuning to generate images in a specific style, of a specific person, or of a custom product. This is a significant advantage over DALL-E 3. Fine-tuning can be done locally or via services like Replicate, RunPod, or Stability AI's own fine-tuning API.