starryai
Phone-first AI image and video app on Lumen credits, with commercial use allowed
Overview
starryai is a phone-first AI image generator for iOS, Android and the web that now also offers photo edits, short videos and custom styles. It runs on Lumen credits, with Pro and Unlimited Pro subscriptions, and its licence allows commercial use of what you create.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 19 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- 5 Lumens on sign-up (homepage)
- 1 Lumen makes 4 images at base settings (FAQ)
- Commercial use of output under the starryai licence
- Unlimited image generation with starryai and community styles
- Unlimited slow mode and 4x upscaling after Lumens run out
- Extra Lumens at 50% off
- Fast generation
- Pays for edits, video and 8x or 16x upscales
Use cases
What you can produce with starryai
- Text-to-image art, illustration and anime in hundreds of styles on iOS, Android or the web
- Photoreal images and photo edits with the Nano Banana model
- Ten-second videos from text prompts with the Nova Ultra model
- Custom styles trained on your own images
- Upscaling to 4x, with 8x and 16x paid in Lumens
- Output you may use commercially under the starryai licence
- A community feed that shows each image's prompt and style for recreating it
starryai is easy, well rated and still actively developed, and its licence lets you use output commercially, which makes it fine for casual social images on a phone. The catch is opacity: web plan prices would not load for a logged-out visitor, the App Store lists overlapping weekly and monthly offers, and edits, video and large upscales cost Lumens even on unlimited plans.
No developer API is offered. Check the in-app price in your own store before subscribing, and compare it with the image tools already bundled into ChatGPT or Gemini.
What we found
starryai, which the company writes with a lower-case s, is a phone-first AI image app run by starryai, Inc.; its iOS app first appeared in August 2021. It has drifted from art generator to general image tool. The App Store listing, now titled "starryai - AI Image Generator", advertises photoreal images and edits with Google's Nano Banana model, ten-second videos from a model it calls Nova Ultra, and custom styles trained on a user's own pictures. Its licence says users own their creations and may use them commercially, though whether purely AI-generated images can be copyrighted at all is unsettled in several countries, the US among them.
Everything runs on Lumens. The web FAQ says one Lumen makes four images at base settings, and Unlimited Pro and Unlimited Pro Max subscribers drop to unlimited slow generation once their Lumens run out. A February 2026 help article adds that edits, video and 8x or 16x upscales always cost Lumens, even on unlimited plans. The free offer has become vaguer: the FAQ that used to promise five free artworks a day now says only that accounts are free and to check them for Lumens and rewards, while the homepage still advertises daily free images and says new accounts get five Lumens, which it equates to 25 images, more than the FAQ rate gives.
Web plan prices could not be read on 19 October 2026: logged out, the plans page said it could not load them, so the figures this page used to quote have been removed. The US App Store does list in-app prices, from a $4.99 weekly Starter Pro to $39.99 for a month of Unlimited Pro, plus 40-Lumen packs. Web refunds are limited to seven days and under 5% of Lumens used; Apple and Google handle mobile refunds.
The apps are maintained and well rated: 4.6 from 22,241 ratings on the US App Store and 4.2 from 210,790 on Google Play, which lists 10 million-plus downloads and in-app ads, both read 19 October 2026.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
Notable facts
- StarryAI was among the first mobile apps to offer AI image generation without a watermark on free generations, a deliberate decision to improve shareability and viral growth.
- The app reached 10 million downloads without any paid user acquisition, driven entirely by organic App Store discovery and social sharing.
- StarryAI's daily credit model mirrors the 'daily login bonus' mechanic from mobile games — creating habitual use without requiring payment.
Frequently asked questions
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including starryai's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with starryai unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
For the latest details, please refer to starryai directly →
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