{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "black-forest-labs", "name": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API", "vendor": "Black Forest Labs", "vendorUrl": "https://bfl.ai", "kind": "model", "category": "image-generation", "summary": "Black Forest Labs' hosted API for the FLUX image models.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/black-forest-labs", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/black-forest-labs.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/black-forest-labs.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/black-forest-labs.json", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.bfl.ai/v1", "packages": [], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "REST API takes the key in an `x-key` header. The hosted MCP server at mcp.bfl.ai uses OAuth with a BFL account and bills the organisation you pick at sign-in.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Prepaid credits, 1 credit is $0.01, same price in API and Playground. FLUX.2 is priced by output megapixel. [klein] 4B from $0.014, [klein] 9B from $0.015, [pro] from $0.03 (edits from $0.045), [flex] from $0.05, [max] from $0.07. FLUX.1 Kontext [pro] $0.04, Kontext [max] $0.08, FLUX1.1 [pro] $0.04, Ultra $0.06. Batches cost the per-image price times the count (https://bfl.ai/pricing).", "priceSummary": "$0.01 / credit", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No machine payment. Access needs prepaid credits on a BFL account.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 7, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.bfl.ai", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.bfl.ai/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://api.bfl.ai/openapi.json", "registryName": "io.github.black-forest-labs/flux-mcp", "capabilities": [ "image.generate", "image.edit", "image.reference" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "mcp", "llms-txt", "openapi", "async-jobs", "webhooks", "open-weights", "c2pa", "commercial-licence" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-10", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 63.9, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 396, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1094, "categoryRank": 4, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 67, "maintenance": 73, "payments": 20, "reliability": 65, "schema": 88, "security": 65, "transparency": 62 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Per-image and per-megapixel prices published per model, from $0.014. Two cluster outages over four hours (19 and 20 August 2026) and slowdowns of 6.5 and 20 hours since.", "bestFor": "Agents that need multi-reference edits and a price ladder from drafts to final renders, and for EU data residency.", "strengths": [ "Per-image and per-megapixel prices published per model, from $0.014", "Up to 10 reference images and 4MP output on FLUX.2", "EU and US regional endpoints with a global endpoint that fails over", "Official hosted MCP server with OAuth, listed in the MCP registry", "OpenAPI specs, llms.txt and an errors page covering every task status" ], "weaknesses": [ "Two cluster outages over four hours (19 and 20 August 2026) and slowdowns of 6.5 and 20 hours since", "Result URLs expire after 10 minutes", "Prompts and uploads may be used for training unless you email an opt-out", "Developer terms allow changing or removing parts of the service without notice", "No official SDK package and no free credits" ], "agentNotes": [ "Poll the `polling_url` from the submit response, never a hand-built URL", "Download `result.sample` straight away. It's gone after 10 minutes", "Stay under 24 concurrent jobs, 6 on flux-kontext-max, and back off exponentially on 429", "Treat 402 as out of credit, not as a retryable error", "Use api.eu.bfl.ai or api.us.bfl.ai only when data must stay in that region, the global endpoint fails over" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 63.9 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 67, "maintenance": 73, "payments": 20, "reliability": 65, "schema": 88, "security": 65, "transparency": 40 }, "provenanceScore": 84 }, "connect": { "http": "curl -X POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-2-pro \\\n -H \"x-key: $BFL_API_KEY\" -H \"content-type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"prompt\":\"A serene landscape with mountains\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":1024}'\n# then GET the returned polling_url with the same x-key until status is Ready", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http FLUX https://mcp.bfl.ai" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/image.generate", "tool": "https://letme.dev/black-forest-labs" }, "area": "content", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "FLUX.2 [klein] 4B", "unit": "image", "usd": 0.014, "note": "from, first megapixel" }, { "item": "FLUX.2 [pro]", "unit": "image", "usd": 0.03, "note": "from, text-to-image, first megapixel" }, { "item": "FLUX.2 [max]", "unit": "image", "usd": 0.07, "note": "from, first megapixel" }, { "item": "FLUX.1 Kontext [pro]", "unit": "image", "usd": 0.04 }, { "item": "FLUX1.1 [pro]", "unit": "image", "usd": 0.04 }, { "item": "Credits", "unit": "credit", "usd": 0.01 } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Black Forest Labs Inc.", "domain": "bfl.ai", "domainRegistered": "2022-06-29", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://bfl.ai/legal/developer-terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://bfl.ai/legal/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.bfl.ai", "changelog": "https://docs.bfl.ai/release-notes", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-09-30", "notes": [ "BFL GmbH (Freiburg, Germany) is the data controller for users in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK.", "The docs also answer on docs.bfl.ml and the security.txt lists blackforestlabs.ai as a second canonical domain." ], "score": 84 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/black-forest-labs.json", "live": { "slug": "black-forest-labs", "probe": { "target": "https://api.bfl.ai/v1", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-15T11:29:47.731808074Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 403, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 372, "p95ms24h": 522, "samples24h": 254, "samples30d": 3797, "days": [ { "date": "2026-09-30", "probes": 35, "ok": 35 }, { "date": "2026-10-01", "probes": 276, "ok": 276 }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 271, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-06", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 268, "ok": 268 }, { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-10", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-11", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-12", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-13", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-14", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-15", "probes": 123, "ok": 123 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.bfl.ai", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T11:31:43.467609431Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "mcp-registry", "name": "io.github.black-forest-labs/flux-mcp", "version": "1.0.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-15T04:34:40.660646921Z" } ], "securityTxt": { "url": "https://bfl.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2027-02-01T00:00:00Z", "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T15:46:55.155939569Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.bfl.ai/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T14:13:30.887787038Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "bfl.ai", "registered": "2022-06-29", "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/bfl.ai", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:10:58.677788224Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://docs.bfl.ai/release-notes", "kind": "changelog", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T20:57:50.305016586Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-02T15:19:38.108762461Z", "fingerprint": "dcaf496d519d" }, { "url": "https://bfl.ai/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T20:54:22.385790011Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-08T18:15:39.734385201Z", "fingerprint": "32047e4eee1c" }, { "url": "https://bfl.ai/legal/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T20:54:20.447578224Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-02T15:17:47.888380414Z", "fingerprint": "d6320ad3accb" }, { "url": "https://bfl.ai/legal/developer-terms-of-service", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T20:54:18.156526525Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-02T15:17:45.836950048Z", "fingerprint": "ddc9a171e173" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-15T11:31:43.467609431Z" } }, "answer": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API scores 63.9 (B) on agent readiness against Iris-3B's 50.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Iris-3B leads on payments \u0026 pricing.", "b": { "slug": "iris-3b", "name": "Iris-3B", "vendor": "Speridlabs", "vendorUrl": "https://speridlabs.com", "kind": "model", "category": "image-generation", "summary": "Iris-3B is an Apache-2.0 open-weight text-to-image model from Speridlabs that generates pixels directly, with no VAE. The release adds a 4-step Turbo version and fine-tunes for monocular depth and 4x image restoration.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/iris-3b", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/iris-3b.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/iris-3b.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/iris-3b.json", "repo": "https://github.com/speridlabs/iris-3b", "license": "Apache-2.0 (code and weights)", "transports": [], "packages": [], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account or key. Weights download from a public, ungated Hugging Face repository, and the frozen Qwen3-VL-4B-Instruct text encoder downloads from its publisher on the first run. The software opens no network service.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free under Apache-2.0 with nothing to buy. Speridlabs has no hosted API or paid plan. The owner pays for an NVIDIA GPU. The demo Spaces run on Hugging Face ZeroGPU.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the repository, the model card or the project page (checked 2026-10-15). There is no paid tier or hosted endpoint.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 175, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-15" }, "docsUrl": "https://huggingface.co/speridlabs/iris-3b", "capabilities": [ "image.generate", "image.upscale" ], "tags": [ "model", "open-source", "open-weights", "self-hosted", "local", "free", "no-card", "apache-2.0", "python", "gpu", "new" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-12", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 50.9, "grade": "D", "agentReady": false, "rank": 826, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1094, "categoryRank": 8, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 54, "maintenance": 70, "payments": 60, "reliability": 45, "schema": 47, "security": 44, "transparency": 47 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-15" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Code and weights are Apache-2.0, and one Python package runs text-to-image, a 4-step Turbo, depth and 4x restoration from a documented CLI. It is ten days old, with no PyPI package, version tags, changelog or CI, needs an NVIDIA GPU and about 12 GB of weights, and has no server or API of its own.", "bestFor": "An agent on a machine with a CUDA GPU that needs Apache-2.0 image generation, relative depth or 4x restoration without a vendor account.", "strengths": [ "Code, training recipe and all four checkpoints are under Apache-2.0, with a NOTICE file and a table of third-party licences", "One CLI, `scripts/sample.py`, with typed flags and documented defaults (1024x1024, 100 steps, CFG 3), plus Python classes for depth and restoration", "Turbo samples a 1024x1024 image in 4 steps, which the vendor times at about 0.7 s on one H100 at batch 4", "Released weights are safetensors, and a published benchmark table covers GenEval, DPG-Bench, LongText-Bench and OneIG-Bench", "Three dated weight releases in eight days (5, 8 and 12 October 2026), and two outside pull requests merged within two days" ], "weaknesses": [ "No package on PyPI, no version tags, no changelog and no CI workflow. Install is a git clone and `pip install -e .`", "Needs an NVIDIA GPU with CUDA. All three models together take about 45 GB of GPU memory, or about 20 GB peak with offloading", "No HTTP server, OpenAPI or MCP interface. The only hosted route is the Gradio demo Spaces on Hugging Face ZeroGPU", "No safety filter in the code, no SECURITY.md or security.txt, and no privacy or terms pages on speridlabs.com", "Training defaults to reporting runs to Weights \u0026 Biases (`report_to: wandb`), which the README doesn't mention" ], "agentNotes": [ "Check for an NVIDIA GPU with CUDA and Python 3.11 or newer before downloading. The base weights are about 12 GB, and Qwen3-VL-4B downloads on the first run", "Exclude `depth/*`, `upscaler/*` and `turbo/*` in `hf download` unless those models are needed. Each of the first two adds about 12 GB", "Don't pass `--steps`, `--cfg-scale`, `--negative-prompt`, `--order` or `--shift` with a Turbo checkpoint. The script exits with an error", "Pass `--seed` to reproduce an image, and set `--outdir`, since files are named after the prompt and a repeat run overwrites them", "Load only exported directories (`model.safetensors` and `config.yaml`). A training `.pth` is read with `torch.load(weights_only=False)`, so never load one from an untrusted source" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "D", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 50.9 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 54, "maintenance": 70, "payments": 60, "reliability": 45, "schema": 47, "security": 44, "transparency": 50 }, "provenanceScore": 44 }, "connect": { "install": "git clone https://github.com/speridlabs/iris-3b.git \u0026\u0026 cd iris-3b \u0026\u0026 pip install -e .\nhf download speridlabs/iris-3b --local-dir iris-3b --exclude \"depth/*\" \"upscaler/*\" \"turbo/*\"\npython scripts/sample.py --checkpoint iris-3b --prompt \"a red fox sleeping in fresh snow, golden hour\"" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/image.generate", "tool": "https://letme.dev/iris-3b" }, "area": "content", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Speridlabs", "domain": "speridlabs.com", "domainRegistered": "2025-02-25", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-15", "notes": [ "The NOTICE file reads Copyright 2026 Speridlabs. The site's schema.org data names the organisation Sperid Labs, founded 2024, with contact@speridlabs.com. No registered company name or address was found on speridlabs.com.", "RDAP at Verisign gives a registration date of 2025-02-25 for speridlabs.com.", "speridlabs.com has no terms or privacy page. /privacy, /terms, /legal and /privacy-policy returned 404 on 15 October 2026, and the sitemap lists none. The Apache-2.0 licence stands in for terms for the code and weights.", "speridlabs.com/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 on 15 October 2026. The repository has no SECURITY.md.", "No changelog, release notes or tags. Dated commits on GitHub and on the Hugging Face model repository are the only record of changes.", "Software the owner runs, so there is no vendor endpoint or status page. The demo Spaces run on Hugging Face infrastructure." ], "score": 44 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/iris-3b.json" }, "facts": [ { "a": "Model API", "b": "Model API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Black Forest Labs", "b": "Speridlabs", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://api.bfl.ai/v1", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP", "b": "", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "None", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Pay per use", "b": "Free", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "none", "b": "Apache-2.0 (code and weights)", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "7", "b": "none", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "no", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "io.github.black-forest-labs/flux-mcp", "b": "not listed", "name": "MCP registry" }, { "a": "2026-09-10", "b": "2026-10-12", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2026-08-04", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2026-08-01", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "yes, with an opt-out", "b": "", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "none", "b": "175 stars", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3.5/5 (2)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API scores 63.9 (B) on agent readiness against Iris-3B's 50.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Iris-3B leads on payments \u0026 pricing.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Black Forest Labs FLUX API or Iris-3B?" }, { "answer": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Iris-3B needs no key.", "question": "Do Black Forest Labs FLUX API and Iris-3B need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.bfl.ai/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Iris-3B.", "question": "Can an agent call Black Forest Labs FLUX API and Iris-3B without installing anything?" }, { "answer": "No open-source release is listed for Black Forest Labs FLUX API. Iris-3B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code and weights)).", "question": "Are Black Forest Labs FLUX API and Iris-3B open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 65 against 45", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 88 against 47", "Agent ergonomics, 67 against 54", "Security \u0026 auth, 65 against 44", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 62 against 47" ], "also": [ "A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install" ], "goodFor": "Agents that need multi-reference edits and a price ladder from drafts to final renders, and for EU data residency.", "slug": "black-forest-labs", "watchFor": "Two cluster outages over four hours (19 and 20 August 2026) and slowdowns of 6.5 and 20 hours since" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 20" ], "also": [ "No key needed to call it", "Free to start without a card", "Open source" ], "goodFor": "An agent on a machine with a CUDA GPU that needs Apache-2.0 image generation, relative depth or 4x restoration without a vendor account.", "slug": "iris-3b", "watchFor": "No package on PyPI, no version tags, no changelog and no CI workflow. Install is a git clone and `pip install -e .`" } ], "job": { "capability": "image.generate", "name": "Image generation" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-black-forest-labs.json", "title": "Adobe Firefly API vs Black Forest Labs FLUX API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-black-forest-labs" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-iris-3b.json", "title": "Adobe Firefly API vs Iris-3B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-iris-3b" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-bria.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Bria API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-bria" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-fal-image.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs fal image models", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-fal-image" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-google-imagen.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Google Imagen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-google-imagen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-ideogram.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Ideogram API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-ideogram" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-leonardo-ai.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Leonardo.Ai API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-leonardo-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-openai-image-api.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs OpenAI Image API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-openai-image-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-qwen-image-2-1.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Qwen-Image 2.1 (Model Studio)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-qwen-image-2-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-recraft.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Recraft API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-recraft" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-replicate-image.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Replicate image models", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-replicate-image" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Seedream on BytePlus ModelArk", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-stability-ai-image.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Stability AI Image API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-stability-ai-image" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bria-vs-iris-3b.json", "title": "Bria API vs Iris-3B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bria-vs-iris-3b" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fal-image-vs-iris-3b.json", "title": "fal image models vs Iris-3B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fal-image-vs-iris-3b" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs Iris-3B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ideogram-vs-iris-3b.json", "title": "Ideogram API vs Iris-3B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ideogram-vs-iris-3b" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-leonardo-ai.json", "title": "Iris-3B vs Leonardo.Ai API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-leonardo-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-openai-image-api.json", "title": "Iris-3B vs OpenAI Image API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-openai-image-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-qwen-image-2-1.json", "title": "Iris-3B vs Qwen-Image 2.1 (Model Studio)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-qwen-image-2-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-recraft.json", "title": "Iris-3B vs Recraft API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-recraft" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-replicate-image.json", "title": "Iris-3B vs Replicate image models", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-replicate-image" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark.json", "title": "Iris-3B vs Seedream on BytePlus ModelArk", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-stability-ai-image.json", "title": "Iris-3B vs Stability AI Image API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-stability-ai-image" } ], "scores": [ { "black-forest-labs": 65, "by": 20, "edge": "black-forest-labs", "iris-3b": 45, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "black-forest-labs": 88, "by": 41, "edge": "black-forest-labs", "iris-3b": 47, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13 }, { "black-forest-labs": 67, "by": 13, "edge": "black-forest-labs", "iris-3b": 54, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13 }, { "black-forest-labs": 65, "by": 21, "edge": "black-forest-labs", "iris-3b": 44, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14 }, { "black-forest-labs": 20, "by": 40, "edge": "iris-3b", "iris-3b": 60, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "black-forest-labs": 73, "by": 3, "edge": "black-forest-labs", "iris-3b": 70, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7 }, { "black-forest-labs": 62, "by": 15, "edge": "black-forest-labs", "iris-3b": 47, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API scores 63.9 (B) on agent readiness against Iris-3B's 50.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Iris-3B leads on payments \u0026 pricing. Both do image generation.", "verdicts": { "black-forest-labs": "Per-image and per-megapixel prices published per model, from $0.014. Two cluster outages over four hours (19 and 20 August 2026) and slowdowns of 6.5 and 20 hours since.", "iris-3b": "Code and weights are Apache-2.0, and one Python package runs text-to-image, a 4-step Turbo, depth and 4x restoration from a documented CLI. It is ten days old, with no PyPI package, version tags, changelog or CI, needs an NVIDIA GPU and about 12 GB of weights, and has no server or API of its own." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b.min.md" }, "markdown": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API scores 63.9 (B) on agent readiness against Iris-3B's 50.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Iris-3B leads on payments \u0026 pricing. Both do image generation.\n\n- Black Forest Labs FLUX API: grade B, 63.9/100, rank #396 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/black-forest-labs.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/black-forest-labs.json\n- Iris-3B: grade D, 50.9/100, rank #826 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/iris-3b.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/iris-3b.json\n- Best image generation for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/image-generation/index.md\n- All 91 image comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/image-generation/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Black Forest Labs FLUX API (B)\n\nGood for: Agents that need multi-reference edits and a price ladder from drafts to final renders, and for EU data residency.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 65 against 45\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 88 against 47\n- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 54\n- Security \u0026 auth, 65 against 44\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 62 against 47\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install\n\nWatch for: Two cluster outages over four hours (19 and 20 August 2026) and slowdowns of 6.5 and 20 hours since\n\n### Iris-3B (D)\n\nGood for: An agent on a machine with a CUDA GPU that needs Apache-2.0 image generation, relative depth or 4x restoration without a vendor account.\n\nAhead on:\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 20\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No key needed to call it\n- Free to start without a card\n- Open source\n\nWatch for: No package on PyPI, no version tags, no changelog and no CI workflow. Install is a git clone and `pip install -e .`\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Black Forest Labs FLUX API | Iris-3B | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 45 | Black Forest Labs FLUX API +20 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 47 | Black Forest Labs FLUX API +41 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 54 | Black Forest Labs FLUX API +13 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 44 | Black Forest Labs FLUX API +21 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | Iris-3B +40 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 70 | Black Forest Labs FLUX API +3 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 47 | Black Forest Labs FLUX API +15 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **63.9 · B** | **50.9 · D** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Black Forest Labs FLUX API | Iris-3B |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Model API | Model API |\n| Vendor | Black Forest Labs | Speridlabs |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.bfl.ai/v1` | no (local only) |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | None |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (code and weights) |\n| Tools exposed | 7 | none |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | no |\n| MCP registry | `io.github.black-forest-labs/flux-mcp` | not listed |\n| Last release | 2026-09-10 | 2026-10-12 |\n| Terms last updated | 2026-08-04 | no document linked |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-01 | no document linked |\n| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | |\n| Terms restrict automated access | yes | |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | |\n| Popularity | none | 175 stars |\n| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Black Forest Labs FLUX API.** Per-image and per-megapixel prices published per model, from $0.014. Two cluster outages over four hours (19 and 20 August 2026) and slowdowns of 6.5 and 20 hours since.\n\n**Iris-3B.** Code and weights are Apache-2.0, and one Python package runs text-to-image, a 4-step Turbo, depth and 4x restoration from a documented CLI. It is ten days old, with no PyPI package, version tags, changelog or CI, needs an NVIDIA GPU and about 12 GB of weights, and has no server or API of its own.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Black Forest Labs FLUX API\n\n1. Poll the `polling_url` from the submit response, never a hand-built URL\n2. Download `result.sample` straight away. It's gone after 10 minutes\n3. Stay under 24 concurrent jobs, 6 on flux-kontext-max, and back off exponentially on 429\n4. Treat 402 as out of credit, not as a retryable error\n5. Use api.eu.bfl.ai or api.us.bfl.ai only when data must stay in that region, the global endpoint fails over\n\n### Iris-3B\n\n1. Check for an NVIDIA GPU with CUDA and Python 3.11 or newer before downloading. The base weights are about 12 GB, and Qwen3-VL-4B downloads on the first run\n2. Exclude `depth/*`, `upscaler/*` and `turbo/*` in `hf download` unless those models are needed. Each of the first two adds about 12 GB\n3. Don't pass `--steps`, `--cfg-scale`, `--negative-prompt`, `--order` or `--shift` with a Turbo checkpoint. The script exits with an error\n4. Pass `--seed` to reproduce an image, and set `--outdir`, since files are named after the prompt and a repeat run overwrites them\n5. Load only exported directories (`model.safetensors` and `config.yaml`). A training `.pth` is read with `torch.load(weights_only=False)`, so never load one from an untrusted source\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Black Forest Labs FLUX API or Iris-3B?\n\nBlack Forest Labs FLUX API scores 63.9 (B) on agent readiness against Iris-3B's 50.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Iris-3B leads on payments \u0026 pricing.\n\n### Do Black Forest Labs FLUX API and Iris-3B need an API key?\n\nBlack Forest Labs FLUX API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Iris-3B needs no key.\n\n### Can an agent call Black Forest Labs FLUX API and Iris-3B without installing anything?\n\nBlack Forest Labs FLUX API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.bfl.ai/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Iris-3B.\n\n### Are Black Forest Labs FLUX API and Iris-3B open source?\n\nNo open-source release is listed for Black Forest Labs FLUX API. Iris-3B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code and weights)).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"black-forest-labs\", \"b\": \"iris-3b\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare black-forest-labs iris-3b`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/black-forest-labs.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/iris-3b.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Black Forest Labs FLUX API or Iris-3B\n\n- [Adobe Firefly API vs Black Forest Labs FLUX API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-black-forest-labs.md)\n- [Adobe Firefly API vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-iris-3b.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Bria API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-bria.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs fal image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-fal-image.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Google Imagen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-google-imagen.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Ideogram API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-ideogram.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Leonardo.Ai API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-leonardo-ai.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs OpenAI Image API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-openai-image-api.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Qwen-Image 2.1 (Model Studio)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-qwen-image-2-1.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Recraft API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-recraft.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Replicate image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-replicate-image.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Seedream on BytePlus ModelArk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Stability AI Image API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-stability-ai-image.md)\n- [Bria API vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bria-vs-iris-3b.md)\n- [fal image models vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fal-image-vs-iris-3b.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b.md)\n- [Ideogram API vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ideogram-vs-iris-3b.md)\n- [Iris-3B vs Leonardo.Ai API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-leonardo-ai.md)\n- [Iris-3B vs OpenAI Image API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-openai-image-api.md)\n- [Iris-3B vs Qwen-Image 2.1 (Model Studio)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-qwen-image-2-1.md)\n- [Iris-3B vs Recraft API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-recraft.md)\n- [Iris-3B vs Replicate image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-replicate-image.md)\n- [Iris-3B vs Seedream on BytePlus ModelArk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark.md)\n- [Iris-3B vs Stability AI Image API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/iris-3b-vs-stability-ai-image.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-15", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Iris-3B", "url": "" } ], "description": "Black Forest Labs FLUX scores 63.9 (B) to Iris-3B's 50.9 (D) for image generation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Black Forest Labs FLUX API B 63.9", "Iris-3B D 50.9", "scores" ], "h1": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Iris-3B", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b.png", "path": "/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX vs Iris-3B for AI agents (2026)", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-15", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2600, "slim": 730 }, "version": 1 }