Google Imagen vs GPT Image (OpenAI) vs Adobe Firefly vs Stable Diffusion
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
Google Imagen
Google's Imagen 4 image models — retired August 2026
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GPT Image (OpenAI)
OpenAI's image model — DALL-E's successor in ChatGPT and the API
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Adobe Firefly
Adobe's commercially-safe AI studio for image, video and audio
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Stable Diffusion
The open-source image generation model that democratised AI art — run...
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| RECATOOLS Score | 6 / 10 | 7.9 / 10 | 7.8 / 10 | 8 / 10 |
| Capability | ||||
| Value for money | ||||
| Ease of use | ||||
| ASEAN readiness | ||||
| API quality | ||||
| Pricing | Paid | Paid | Subscription | Open Source |
| Free tier | Limited access via Google AI Studio | Limited access via ChatGPT free tier | 25 generative credits per month via firefly.adobe.com | Free model weights and local execution |
| Paid from | $0.02-$0.08 per image (Vertex AI) | $20/month (ChatGPT Plus) | Standard $9.99/mo (2,000 credits); Pro $19.99/mo (4,000 credits); higher tiers to $139.91/mo | Free and open-source to run locally; Stability AI's hosted API/DreamStudio is credit-based |
| Has API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Free to use | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Users | 100m+ via Google products | 100m+ ChatGPT users with access | ~41M Creative Cloud subscribers; Firefly used to generate 22B+ assets by April 2025 | Widely adopted open-source model; no official central user count |
| Founded | — | — | — | — |
| Maker | Alphabet / Google | OpenAI | Adobe Inc. | Stability AI |
| Verdict | Imagen is now a sunset product. Google deprecated the whole family: Firebase access closed in June 2026, and the Gemini API endpoints shut down on August 17, 2026, with gemini-3.1-flash-image (Nano Banana 2) the recommen... |
GPT Image 2 is OpenAI's current image model — DALL-E 2 and 3 were retired May 12, 2026 — and its headline win is text: multi-line copy and even CJK scripts render reliably, which no mainstream rival matches. It reasons b... |
Firefly has grown from a cautious image generator into Adobe's whole AI studio: Image Model 5, video and audio generation, and partner models from Google, OpenAI, Runway and Black Forest Labs, all inside one credit syste... |
Stable Diffusion remains the default open-weight image family: run it locally, fine-tune it, wire up ControlNet and LoRA pipelines, and pay nothing per image. That openness is why Civitai's 100,000-plus LoRAs and the Com... |
| Full review → | Full review → | Full review → | Full review → |
Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.