Grok Imagine vs HiDream vs Nano Banana Pro vs Qwen-Image
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
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HiDream
HiDream.ai's open-source 17B image foundation model with a sparse Mixt...
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Nano Banana Pro
Google's premium image model for 4K output and legible in-image text
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Qwen-Image
Alibaba's open-source 20B MMDiT image foundation model under Apache 2....
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| RECATOOLS Score | 7.5 / 10 | 7 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 | 8 / 10 |
| Capability | — | — | — | |
| Value for money | — | — | — | |
| Ease of use | — | — | — | |
| ASEAN readiness | — | — | — | |
| API quality | — | — | — | |
| Pricing | Freemium | Open Source | Freemium | Open Source |
| Free tier | Free Grok plan includes Imagine image generation within limits the page does not state; video generation needs SuperGrok Lite or higher | Open weights (HiDream-I1 Full/Dev/Fast, E1.1) free to download and self-host from Hugging Face. | Nano Banana 2 free in the Gemini app within usage limits; redoing images with Pro needs Google AI Plus, Pro or Ultra | Older line Apache 2.0 — the newest Qwen-Image-2.1 is research-only under the Qwen Research Licence |
| Paid from | $10 SuperGrok Lite (App Store), SuperGrok $30 a month, API from $0.02 per image | Hosted/commercial use via the Vivago platform and third-party providers. | $0.134 per image via the Gemini API (1K or 2K output) | Usage-based via Alibaba Cloud (DashScope) and third-party hosted APIs. |
| Has API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Users | — | 280K+ model downloads (first month) | 200M+ image edits (weeks after launch) | — |
| Founded | 2025 | 2023 | 2025 | — |
| Maker | SpaceX | — | Google DeepMind | Alibaba |
| Verdict | Grok Imagine's strength is breadth in one place: image generation and precise editing, video up to 1080p with sound and dialogue generated in the same pass, and reference images and voices to keep a character consistent... |
What this is for: Open-source, cost-efficient high-quality text-to-image generation and editing that runs well in community pipelines. Who this is for: ComfyUI and Civitai users, researchers, and developers wanting a ca... |
Nano Banana Pro is Google's strongest image model for text-heavy layouts, infographics and multi-reference edits, with 4K output and Search grounding. Outside testing found it excellent but slow, at 20 seconds to a minut... |
What this is for: Open-source text-to-image generation and editing with standout multilingual text rendering, strong for posters and Chinese/English typography. Who this is for: Developers, researchers, and studios want... |
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Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.