The field of generative AI has been experiencing explosive growth in recent years. According to a Gartner report, over $1.7 billion was invested in generative AI startups and initiatives from 2021 to 2023 alone. This influx of funding and interest has given rise to a multitude of products and services, both free and paid.
While the abundance of options may seem like a boon, this excessive choice can paradoxically lead to decision paralysis. The famous jam experiment, conducted by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, demonstrated just that. When presented with an overwhelming number of choices, we may feel less satisfied with our selection.
To help navigate this ever-expanding landscape of text-to-image AI tools, we've curated a list of 5 top free AI image generators. Thus, we'll explore the features, strengths, and use cases for each of these AI text-to-image tools.
Craiyon
Formerly known as DALL-E Mini, Craiyon was released in July 2022 by Boris Dayma and was based on the text-to-image model developed by OpenAI. Craiyon was trained on publicly available image-text pairs scraped from the internet. This made it a much smaller and more efficient version of DALL-E that could run on regular mass-market computers.
This is a completely free AI image generator which is usually used for making humorous, creative, or whimsical images. For example, you can use it to generate silly or absurd images to entertain your friends.
Despite its compact size and limitations compared to the original DALL-E, Craiyon got quite popular. It democratized access to text-to-image generation, allowing anyone to generate images with AI for free. Its quirky and unpredictable images became viral and spread across social media. However, its outputs were also prone to incoherence and distortions inherited from its training data.
Craiyon was quickly outpaced by more powerful and advanced systems like Stable Diffusion. But it played an important role in spurring public interest in text-to-image AI capabilities.
There could be a few reasons why people still use Craiyon even when more advanced options are available:
- Simplicity and ease of use - it’s got a very straightforward interface where you just enter a text prompt.
- Novelty factor - it was one of the earliest public text-to-image models and is often used for making humorous pictures.
- No sign-up required - you don’t need an account and can use it anonymously.
- Educational purposes - if you’re learning about text-to-image models, the simplicity of Craiyon makes it a good starting point.
However, for most use cases involving high-quality image generation, the more capable models would be a better choice. Craiyon's popularity stemmed partly from being an early pioneer, but it is now used mainly for entertainment purposes.
Stable Diffusion
Stable Diffusion was initially released by Stability AI in August 2022. Its open-source nature has made it one of the most popular AI image generators available.
At the core of its architecture are Latent Diffusion Models (LDMs), which enable the gradual refinement of images in a latent space. This results in high-quality, coherent, and detailed outputs. It also uses OpenAI's CLIP model to bridge the gap between language and vision, improving the relevance of the generated images. You can think of CLIP as a small, purpose-built chatGPT that helps translate your words into AI’s vision.
The accessibility and versatility of Stable Diffusion have been key factors in its popularity. One potential downside of Stable Diffusion is that it's more suited to simpler and more direct prompts. So, while it may not be the best tool for creating highly artistic output, it is good at generating photorealistic images.
Why is Stable Diffusion so good? It gives you a lot of flexibility with greater control over the model's parameters. Being open-source, it doesn’t have many usage restrictions, and it’s got an active open-source community.
Here are some things you should keep in mind:
- Steeper learning curve. Setting up and fine-tuning Stable Diffusion can be technically challenging. More control and flexibility also require a greater investment of your time and energy.
- Inconsistencies. Relying on a service that uses Stable Diffusion to wrap the best models for you and finetune all vital settings will make your experience less complex and much more pleasant.
- Limited resources for training. This can potentially result in more repetitive outputs compared to models trained on larger datasets.
Freepik
Until recently, Freepik was known as a popular stock image website, offering a vast library of paid and free stock photos and graphics. However, the company has now ventured into the realm of AI with the launch of its own AI Image Generator.
Unveiled to the public on April 4, 2024, it is one of the fastest real-time AI image generation tools available. Freepik's core strength lies in its ability to create infinite variations of the same image with just a single click.
One of the key highlights of Freepik's AI Image Generator is its realism at high speeds and versatility. Users can also choose from a range of pre-made styles, but some popular filters such as vector art are available to premium users only. Talking about styles, we need to point out that most of the color, framing, and lighting effects are unavailable in the free version.
- Free Daily Limit: 20 free image generations
StarryAI
Launching its online platform in late 2022, StarryAI emerged as a new player in the text-to-image AI space. Starting with basic text-to-image (TTI) capabilities, its functionality expanded over the following months. Today, they boast features like image upscaling, style transfer, and refinement tools.
StarryAI has kept a relatively low profile compared to its counterparts in the text-to-image AI sector. Nevertheless, the company built a solid online platform with a small but dedicated user base. But if you are looking for a free AI image generation, the obvious drawback is getting only 5 free lumens (StarryAI's credit currency) per day.
NightCafe
Night Cafe was founded in 2022 by Anshuman Panda and Yiming Liu, two AI researchers with a passion for generative art. Inspired by Van Gogh's iconic painting "The Night Cafe," they set out to create a tool that could capture a sense of imaginative visual expression.
At the core of Night Cafe is the Stable Diffusion AI model, but with custom prompt engineering techniques. The model was trained on specialized datasets to imbue the outputs with a distinct aesthetic.
What sets Night Cafe apart from other text-to-image tools is its focus on cultivating a unique creative vision. Rather than aiming for technical perfection, the platform focuses on emotionally resonant visuals. As a result, it became a popular platform for artists, designers, and creative enthusiasts.
While Night Cafe offers a compelling text-to-image experience, it has some potential downsides that you should be aware of:
- compared to other free AI art generators, Night Cafe may offer less granular control over the image generation process. The tradeoff is that while giving a more curated look, it gives you less flexibility to customize the outputs,
- heavy fine-tuning can make Night Cafe's outputs more variable than more standardized models. So, some prompts may yield incredible results, while others may fall short,
- the distinct Night Cafe aesthetic, while captivating, may not suit the creative needs of all users. Some may prefer a more flexible or customizable approach to text-to-image generation,
- while Night Cafe offers a free tier, more advanced features will require a paid subscription.
- Free Daily Limit: 5 credits can be collected daily. They are used for image generations and can be accumulated
Paid vs Free AI Image Generation Tools
There are certainly pros and cons, to both the free and paid options available. Using AI without paying lets you experiment with text-to-image generation at no cost. It’s a good starting point for students and users who are new to this technology. But they often have more limited features, model capabilities, and output quality.
On the other hand, paid TTI tools typically are of a higher, more professional standard, which is crucial for commercial projects. The subscription fees can be a barrier, but you can consider them an investment that will pay off in the long run. It's important to weigh the short-term cost against the long-term benefits that a paid TTI tool can provide.
If you're ready to take your text-to-image generation to the next level, consider trying our tool today. Our paid subscription offers advanced features, an intuitive, user-friendly interface, and professional-grade outputs to help you achieve your creative and business goals. Get started now and see the difference a premium tool can make.
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