> Ideogram
Ideogram sells text-to-image generation twice over: a consumer credit subscription for the web app and a separate pay-per-image API. Published API rates are $0.03 for 4.0 Turbo, $0.06 for 4.0 Default and $0.10 for 4.0 Quality per image, with character-reference variants at $0.10-$0.20 and the cheaper P-Image line starting at $0.003. Web plans are Free ($0, weekly slow credits for eligible accounts), Plus at $15/month billed annually for 1,000 priority credits/month and Pro at $42/month for 3,500. The API defaults to a 10 in-flight request limit.
// pros
- Endpoint pricing spans two orders of magnitude - P-Image Ideogram from $0.003 and 4.0 Turbo at $0.03 versus 4.0 Quality at $0.10 - so cost can be tuned per call without changing vendors.
- The web app publishes credits per image by model and render mode: 4.0 (2K) uses 1 credit/image on Turbo, 2 on Balanced and 3 on Quality.
- Commercial rights are explicit: the FAQ states Ideogram does not claim ownership of generated images and they may be used for any purpose including commercial.
- Beyond text-to-image the API covers remix, edit, reframe, replace background, transparent generation and upscaling, with transparent 4K/8K variants listed individually ($0.19-$0.42 at 4.0 Turbo).
- Top-up credits bought at $4 are consumed only after subscription credits run out and carry over between cycles.
// cons
- There is no fixed free grant and no free trial: eligible free accounts receive weekly slow credits only when signing in with Google, Apple or Microsoft, and the amount is not published.
- AI-powered editing features such as Editing with AI and Image Reference require priority credits, which cannot be obtained on the free tier at all.
- Unused subscription priority credits expire at the end of each billing cycle, and slow-queue wait times vary with server capacity.
- The default API rate limit is 10 in-flight requests, and prices exclude tax with all payment obligations non-cancellable and non-refundable (Stripe card only, no PayPal).
Use Ideogram where legible in-image typography or transparent 4K output matters, and route bulk drafts through P-Image at $0.003-$0.02 before promoting only select prompts to 4.0 Quality at $0.10. If you need editing features rather than raw generation, budget for Plus at $15/month because those tools consume priority credits that the free tier never provides.
written by Mike Fleming, Uprouter editorial · verified against official sources September 16, 2026
Free tier present — value not quantified
This provider offers a free tier, but its terms don’t convert cleanly into a USD figure (e.g. request-count limits or capacity-dependent pools). We refuse to print a misleading zero here. See the note below and the official pricing page for the exact limits.
note: The Free plan is listed at $0 with slow credits granted 'Weekly for eligible accounts' for eligible accounts signing in with Google/Apple/Microsoft and the amount may vary; no numeric credit or USD value is published, so none is set (checked 2026-09-16).
| Plan | Type | Monthly | Input /1M | Output /1M | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| API Usage | payg | — | $6.50 | $39.00 | Text input $6.50/1M tokens; Image input $10.40/1M; Image output $39.00/1M. |
| Free Tier | free | — | — | — | Weekly credits for eligible accounts; mostly for web use. |
Pricing normalized from public sources — always verify with the provider.
$ Does Ideogram have a free tier?
Yes — Ideogram offers a free tier. Always confirm current limits on Ideogram's official pricing page — free tiers change without notice.
$ How much does Ideogram cost per 1M tokens?
Ideogram does not publish simple per-1M-token pricing (it may bill per request, per output, or via a subscription plan). Check their official pricing page for exact figures.
$ Is Ideogram safe to use?
Uprouter rates Ideogram as medium risk. Moderate. Ideogram's terms are unusually clear about ownership and commercial use, and per-image API rates are published with 14 days' notice promised for pricing changes. The friction sits in the free tier and the credit mechanics: free accounts get an unspecified weekly slow-credit allowance, free images are published to the community gallery by default, AI editing is gated behind paid priority credits, and subscription credits expire each cycle. Risk ratings are editorial, evidence-based, and never influenced by affiliate relationships.
Raw community sentiment, shown unblended. Votes never feed into objective data fields like price, risk, or status — and never into sort order.
No published reviews yet — be the first.
// more_informationprice history · live status · risk & confidence · code snippets
price_history
No recorded changes yet.
live_status
current: unknownNo probes recorded yet.
Uprouter runs its own probes; best-effort, not a guarantee. Probe results depend on our network location and cadence — for production, always use the provider’s own status page.
risk_&_confidence
Moderate. Ideogram's terms are unusually clear about ownership and commercial use, and per-image API rates are published with 14 days' notice promised for pricing changes. The friction sits in the free tier and the credit mechanics: free accounts get an unspecified weekly slow-credit allowance, free images are published to the community gallery by default, AI editing is gated behind paid priority credits, and subscription credits expire each cycle.
Confidence reflects how much verifiable evidence (official docs, probe history, community reports) backs this entry. Risk is our editorial assessment of operator reliability and terms — not financial advice.
code_snippets
# Ideogram's own API — get a key from their dashboard
curl https://ideogram.ai/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer THEIR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "MODEL_NAME",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Hello" }]
}'Direct to the provider — Uprouter receives nothing; verify their current pricing before purchasing.
Ranked by neutral similarity signals only — live status, free-tier shape and free-credit proximity. Commercial relationships never influence this list.