I Tried Every AI Image Generator Tool- These are the BEST for 2026

AI image generators are getting insanely realistic. We can conjure photorealistic product shots, paint dreamy concept art, or even build an avatar that looks like it stepped off a film set, all from a single prompt. The problem is that there are mountains of AI image tools out there, and only a handful really nail the quality and speed and style control.

Luckily, I've spent the last few years stress testing every major model while building the avatars and backgrounds for my company's soft skills training, which is used by brands like Amazon and Pandora. So today we're going to be breaking down the best AI image and avatar generators out there for comparing fidelity, editability, and price so that we can pick the best one for you.

1. Clipyard

A lot of models really struggle with creating hyperrealistic humans, whether it's skin tone, number of fingers, or just compared to how they appear in real life. Well, one of the best tools out there with two of the best models out there is called Clipyard, and it comes with their Real and Vibe models.

Real spits out gritty selfie-style stills that look like genuine user-generated content, which is perfect when we need an influencer shot without having to hire talent. Its Vibe model focuses on ultra-aesthetic humans for things like brands or product shots. One click drops those stills onto animated avatars and the same dashboard then lets us swap backdrops or add in V3 quality motion if we decide to turn the image into a video.

We've also got high-fidelity lip sync here so that your AI-generated avatars can actually speak live and tell your audience about your product. One of the other really cool things here is the consistent character and the avatar holding a product model within the image generation side of Clipyard. You can actually edit an individual video and then get your avatar to hold that product. And if you then prompt that with an AI video prompt, you could even get them to do something like drinking out of a bottle or showing the product to the camera and make that as realistic as possible.

The other really nice thing we can do here is use Clipyard's Consistent Character tool to create our character and then use them across various different scenes. So, if you're looking to generate a consistent avatar across your brand or your social media accounts, you can do that simply by using conversational prompts that do things like change their clothes, change their backdrop, or change what they're doing in a single click.

Starting at £67 per month. That does give you a large amount of static content and 15 HD videos to export. And if you compare that to the price for, let's say, professional photography or user-generated content for your brand on socials, then you're actually getting each video or image at a fraction of that cost.

2. MidJourney v7

Next on the list, I want to talk about MidJourney and specifically version 7, which came with sharpened textures, fixed hand anatomy, and introduced draft mode for rapid ideas. Plus, it also came with Omni Reference so that we can now lock style with three sample images.

MidJourney's best for overall coherence and it's got an amazing community out there so that you can see all of the prompts that other people have created. The actual fidelity of the images is second to none and I love playing around with it and fiddling with the system. 

Its pricing is super accessible starting off at $10 a month. And they've also recently added in video animation for the images so that you can seamlessly animate any of the images that you create and turn them into a moving image which is, again, absolutely phenomenal if you want to grab attention on socials or create a mini video scene from your initial images that are generated.

3. Leonardo AI

Number three on our list is Leonardo AI and it's another tool that I've got a subscription for. Leonardo's Phoenix foundational model is absolutely incredible, specifically when teamed up with Flow State that allows us to iterate variations in real time and then export things that include transparent PNG assets for tools like Figma.

Leonardo's got some amazing models in there, including those from Flux. And it's also got an Element Style panel for keeping our campaigns consistent. And it's also got a built-in background remover. Pricing is super accessible. I pay just over $100 a year and I get tons of AI image generation credits and I've never ever run out.

The downside here is that with Leonardo there isn't much handholding and there's a lot of different panels and toggles that you can play around with. So, you do need to do some research to figure out how to customize your images the best. The flip side to that is if you do know how to handle all of these different settings and parameters, then you can create some absolutely amazing images and then move them into their video motion tool and create short-form video content, too.

4. GPT Image from OpenAI

Number four on our list is GPT Image from OpenAI. This is accessible in ChatGPT and it's OpenAI's native image engine which allows detailed instructions and renders legible text and even edits an uploaded reference image.

The pros here is that it lives inside ChatGPT, and the text and image brainstorming happens in a single thread so that if you're used to using ChatGPT in conversational interfaces, it's really easy to edit an actual image. The text rendering is also absolutely incredible. It's probably up there with one other tool on this list that we'll see later called Flux Context. But otherwise, it's pretty much untouched in terms of text creation, which is perfect if you're looking to create things with socials that require text input.

The main downside here is it does take a little bit longer than some other models to render the images. And the images themselves are pretty expensive when you look at it outside ChatGPT in their API. But if you do have a $20 a month ChatGPT subscription, it's pretty amazing. And you can also plug it into your custom GPTs to render an image based on your custom instructions and your custom training.

5. The Flux Suite (Black Forest)

At number five, we've got the Flux suite of models from the team at Black Forest. Flux is probably one of the best models out there, and I use it all the time for generating images in other platforms like Clipyard or Leonardo, and I absolutely love it. And Flux is just absolutely incredible. Their APIs are also really, really accessible. 

So, if you wanted to plug this into, let's say, an N8N workflow or your own app, it's really easy to do so. You just need to be a little bit cautious if you do that of some of their commercial guidelines. So, make sure you read the fine print.

6. Stable Diffusion

At number six, we've got Stable Diffusion. Stable Diffusion is the OG open-source workhorse and it's added multi-subject logic and stable diffusion offers full local control and an endless community and also comes with loads of trained LoRAs and other models which can be plugged into it for additional extension of the model.

Now, the photorealistic edges still need a little bit of finetuning, and it's perhaps been superseded by some other newer models out there, but it's still worth checking out, especially if you go down a rabbit hole of looking at pre-trained LoRAs and other edits to the model made by the community and seeing what you can do.

7. Seed Dream from ByteDance

Coming in at number seven is Seed Dream from ByteDance. Now, this is ByteDance's bilingual model outputting native 4K images in Chinese and English from prompts with a new high-res native 2048 sampler.

Now, in my opinion, this is an absolutely amazing image model from ByteDance, who've got a suite of great models, including Seed Dance, their video generation model. The main downside I found is that it does require a little bit more specific prompting than some other models, possibly because it was originally built in Chinese with a little bit of English prompting. 

And for multilingual prompting, it perhaps isn't as good as some of the other models out there, but it's still absolutely amazing and gives you a lot of flexibility over what you can create with images that look a little bit different from the more common Flux and Stable Diffusion images which you see on social. So, if you want to stand out, it's a really interesting one to jump into right now.

8. Google's Imagine (Vertex AI)

Next on the list, we've got Google's Imagine, which is accessible on Vertex AI. It offers consistent lighting, realistic product staging, and other high-fidelity image generation options that you would expect from Google.

The main downside here is it's actually quite expensive per megapixel. The GCP billing and quota setup can feel a little bit overkill if you're just looking to play around with images or you're looking to put one or two out on socials, but it is available on third-party APIs and Google's API if you want to integrate it into your own app or your own AI workflow or whatever it is you're doing. And it's very, very good to jump into if you want to prompt images conversationally.

9. Idog / Idiogram

At number nine, we've got Idog. Now, Idiogram is still up there, but it might have just been surpassed as the king of image typography by OpenAI's GPT Image. The topography here is still absolutely amazing with perfect text on posters, meme templates, and things like T-shirts that are generated.

And the most recent update actually added in smart kerning and text in perspective, which basically means that if you put your text into an image with some existing text, it's going to get the size and perspective and dimensions more correct than some other models out there. It's got a very generous free tier and then plans start at around $10 per month to play around with more export levels.

The main downside to Idog, in my opinion, is that the photorealistic faces trail other models like, for example, Clipyard's Real or Vibe models or MidJourney and there's no API access just yet.

10. WAN by Tongyi Lab

AI image generation tool number 10 is WAN by Tongyi Lab. This is an Alibaba-backed company that goes open-source and we can actually self-host or hit a low-cost API with this. It excels at bilingual typography and physics-aware lighting. It has full attention over space that lets it double as an image-to-video model too. And it's really great at taking images, training them against other sources, creating consistent characters, and then moving them into a video workflow.

If you check out some of the online communities around WAN, you'll see that there are tons of custom trained packets and workflows which take a single image and then run it through something like lip-sync and upscaling to create some absolutely insane videos and images. But the downside is in order to do this you need to master things like the model weights, potential image workflows, and add in upscaling tools. 

So it's not easy if you're just a hobbyist getting started, but if you want some of the highest fidelity images out there, then it's definitely worth playing around with and mastering.

Bonus Tools

Okay, and that's the end of our top 10 AI image generator list, but I wanted to give you two bonus tools that didn't quite make the list.

First up, we've got ReCraft version 3. ReCraft is vector-first generator that exports clean SVG layers, which is perfect for things like logos and UI icons or any interface tools that you might want to bring into tools like Figma or Canva. It's super easy to get started and there's a free pricing tier to have a play around with before jumping into paid plans which start at around $20 a month.

Our second bonus tool here is Miniax Image 1 from Halo. Image 1 gives 80 free off-peak credits a month and excels at anime-style shading and really focuses down on that more creative side of image generation. It's really fun to have a play around with and the free tier allows you to do so without locking you into any monthly or annualized pricing.

Final Verdict: Which Is The Best?

Okay, so which do I think is the best image generation model that you want to spend most of your time mastering? Well, in my opinion, it depends a little bit on what you're looking to achieve.

For pure realism and actual stylization, MidJourney, in my opinion, is still the king. Although other models are catching up, MidJourney now has image and also video modes embedded in the platform and it creates some hyper-realistic looking content. 

The ones catching up that I'd really keep an eye on are things like OpenAI's image model, which is just fantastic for text and I use all the time for doing things like brand images where there might be text involved in it. And I'd also shout out Flux here as well. Flux Context is absolutely incredible for consistent characters and for editing images. And Flux in general is just a really great model from the guys at Black Forest.

If you're looking for an all-inclusive platform where you're getting multiple models in one, then my advice is if the priority is growing your business and scaling on socials, Clipyard is 100% the best out there. Their own Real and Vibe models are hands down the best aesthetic, person-focused, avatar-focused models I've seen. And they also come with Image One from OpenAI. They come with Flux-trained models and they come with a whole host of video models on top of image models like Imagine and Seream and some others there too. Really, really great. Really worth checking out.