> Stability AI
Stability AI sells hosted generative media through a credit-based developer API plus a separate subscription studio. The developer pricing page states API usage is credit-based with 1 credit = $0.01, and lists per-operation credits: Stable Image Ultra 8 credits, Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large 6.5, SD 3.5 Large Turbo 4, SD 3.5 Medium 3.5, SD 3.5 Flash 2.5, Stable Image Core 3, SDXL 1.0 from 0.9, Creative Upscaler 60, Stable Audio 3.0 26 and Stable Fast 3D 10. New developer accounts get 25 free credits, i.e. about $0.25 of usage. The separate Brand Studio product free tier is stated at 1000 credits, then $19/month for 2000 credits or $50/month for 5000 credits, with unused credits not rolling over.
// pros
- Credit costs are published per operation, so a build's unit economics can be computed before writing code: 0.9 credits for SDXL 1.0 and up to 60 credits for the Creative Upscaler, with every service in between listed.
- 25 free credits are granted on sign-up and are spendable across the whole catalogue, including image generation, editing, upscaling, audio and 3D.
- Non-image services share the same credit balance: Stable Audio 3.0 (26 credits), Stable Audio 2.5 (20), Stable Fast 3D (10) and Stable Point Aware 3D (4).
- Editing and control endpoints are priced individually at 4-8 credits (Inpaint 5, Outpaint 4, Remove Background 5, Style Transfer 8, Replace Background & Relight 8), which suits pipelines that mix generate and edit calls.
- The exchange rate is fixed and stated on the pricing page itself (1 credit = $0.01), so credit pricing converts directly to dollars without a separate rate card.
// cons
- The free grant is only 25 credits (~$0.25), which buys roughly 3 Stable Image Ultra generations, 10 SD 3.5 Flash generations, or less than half of one Creative Upscaler call at 60 credits.
- The pricing page states pricing is subject to change as models and infrastructure improve, and no per-model rate lock or committed-rate schedule is published for self-serve users.
- The main stability.ai/pricing page covers the Brand Studio subscription (1000 free credits, $19/$50 monthly plans) rather than API credits, so the two credit systems are easy to confuse and are documented separately.
- No per-1M-token text pricing exists in the catalogue fetched; the developer services are image, audio and 3D, so Stability cannot serve as a text LLM provider.
Choose Stability AI's developer API for hosted Stable Diffusion-family image work, plus audio and 3D, where per-operation credit costs are known up front; given the 25-credit grant, budget real spend for evaluation and pair it with a per-token text provider for anything conversational.
written by Mike Fleming, Uprouter editorial · verified against official sources September 16, 2026
Value taken from the provider’s own published free-tier terms, expressed in USD.
note: 25 free credits for new accounts, stated on platform.stability.ai/pricing alongside the fixed rate "1 credit = $0.01" - equivalent to about $0.25.
No plan rows recorded yet — check the official pricing page.
Pricing normalized from public sources — always verify with the provider.
$ Does Stability AI have a free tier?
Yes — Stability AI offers a free tier that we value at roughly $0.25 in free credits. Always confirm current limits on Stability AI's official pricing page — free tiers change without notice.
$ How much does Stability AI cost per 1M tokens?
Stability AI 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 Stability AI safe to use?
Uprouter rates Stability AI as low risk. Risk is moderate. Pricing is transparent and prepaid in fixed-credit increments with a published $0.01 conversion, but the page states pricing is subject to change, and the free allowance of 25 credits (~$0.25) is too small to de-risk an evaluation of the higher-cost services. The developer API has no published rate limits, uptime commitment or data-retention terms on the pages fetched, and the Brand Studio FAQ clarifies credits refresh monthly without rollover - that applies to the subscription product, not the API, so budget behaviour for credit packs should be confirmed in account terms. 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
Risk is moderate. Pricing is transparent and prepaid in fixed-credit increments with a published $0.01 conversion, but the page states pricing is subject to change, and the free allowance of 25 credits (~$0.25) is too small to de-risk an evaluation of the higher-cost services. The developer API has no published rate limits, uptime commitment or data-retention terms on the pages fetched, and the Brand Studio FAQ clarifies credits refresh monthly without rollover - that applies to the subscription product, not the API, so budget behaviour for credit packs should be confirmed in account terms.
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
# Stability AI's own API — get a key from their dashboard
curl https://stability.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.