{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "google-imagen", "name": "Google Imagen", "vendor": "Google", "vendorUrl": "https://ai.google.dev", "kind": "model", "category": "image-generation", "summary": "Discontinued Google image generation models, formerly available through the Gemini API and Vertex AI.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-imagen", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-imagen.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-imagen.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-imagen.json", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "google-genai" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@google/genai" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Gemini API used an `x-goog-api-key` key. Vertex AI used Google Cloud IAM with OAuth access tokens.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Per image before shutdown. Imagen 4 Fast $0.02, Imagen 4 $0.04, Imagen 4 Ultra $0.06, Imagen 4 upscaling $0.06. The Vertex AI pricing page still lists these rates, but the models are discontinued (https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/pricing).", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No machine payment. Access needed a Google Cloud or AI Studio billing account.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/imagen", "capabilities": [ "image.generate", "image.edit", "image.upscale" ], "tags": [ "retired", "hosted", "closed-source", "python", "typescript", "watermark" ], "lastRelease": "2025-08-14", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 6.8, "grade": "F", "agentReady": false, "rank": 0, "ranked": false, "notRankedWhy": "Shut down 2026-08-17, so out of the ranking", "rankOf": 1094, "categoryRank": 14, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 0, "maintenance": 5, "payments": 0, "reliability": 0, "schema": 25, "security": 0, "transparency": 60 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "high", "date": "2026-10-12" }, "negative": -3, "negativeNotes": [ "Since 2026-06-30 the Vertex AI generative AI pricing page still lists Imagen 4, Imagen 4 Fast and Imagen 4 Ultra at $0.02 to $0.06 an image with no discontinuation note, three months after the endpoints were discontinued (https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/pricing, seen 2026-10-01). -3, the low end, because the model pages and release notes do carry the date." ], "verdict": "Shutdown dates were published in the Gemini API changelog and the Vertex AI release notes, with replacements named. Discontinued. Calls to imagen model names fail on both the Gemini API and Vertex AI.", "strengths": [ "Shutdown dates were published in the Gemini API changelog and the Vertex AI release notes, with replacements named", "The Gemini API Imagen page now states the shutdown and the three migration changes", "Imagen 4 outputs carried a SynthID watermark, and C2PA on Imagen 4 and Fast" ], "weaknesses": [ "Discontinued. Calls to imagen model names fail on both the Gemini API and Vertex AI", "Notice was 63 days on the Gemini API and 98 days on Vertex AI, for a model GA since August 2025", "Mask-based editing from imagen-3.0-capability-001 has no Google replacement", "The Vertex AI pricing page still lists Imagen 4 rates with no discontinuation note" ], "agentNotes": [ "Replace `client.models.generate_images` with `client.models.generate_content` and the `gemini-nano-banana-2.1` model, the replacement Google's deprecations table names", "Read images from the response content parts, not from `generated_images`", "Don't budget from the Vertex Imagen price rows, they describe a retired product", "If the job needs a mask-based inpaint, use another vendor's fill endpoint, since Gemini image editing is prompt-based" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 1, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "high", "grade": "F", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 6.8 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 0, "maintenance": 5, "payments": 0, "reliability": 0, "schema": 25, "security": 0, "transparency": 30 }, "provenanceScore": 89 }, "connect": { "http": "curl \"https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/imagen-4.0-generate-001:predict\" \\\n -H \"x-goog-api-key: $GEMINI_API_KEY\" -H \"content-type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"instances\":[{\"prompt\":\"A robot holding a red skateboard\"}],\"parameters\":{\"sampleCount\":1}}' # retired, kept for reference" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/image.generate", "tool": "https://letme.dev/google-imagen" }, "supersededBy": [ "gemini-api" ], "sameCompany": [ "gemini-api", "gemini-embedding", "vertex-ai-tuning", "google-model-armor", "google-veo", "google-lyria", "google-speech-to-text", "gemini-live", "google-adk", "google-secret-manager", "google-cloud-document-ai", "google-weather-api", "chrome-devtools-mcp", "google-maps-platform", "google-cloud-translation", "google-calendar-api", "firebase-cloud-messaging", "google-drive-api", "gemini-enterprise", "gemini-cli", "google-search-console", "google-ads-api", "google-forms", "google-sheets-api", "gmail-api", "google-people-api" ], "area": "content", "retired": "2026-08-17", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Imagen 4 Fast", "unit": "image", "usd": 0.02, "note": "retired, last listed price" }, { "item": "Imagen 4", "unit": "image", "usd": 0.04, "note": "retired, last listed price" }, { "item": "Imagen 4 Ultra", "unit": "image", "usd": 0.06, "note": "retired, last listed price" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Google LLC", "domain": "google.com", "domainRegistered": "1997-09-15", "domainNote": "The endpoint is on googleapis.com, Google's API domain. google.com was registered in 1997.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms", "privacy": "https://policies.google.com/privacy", "statusPage": "https://aistudio.google.com/status", "changelog": "https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/changelog", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-09-30", "score": 89 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-imagen.json" }, "answer": "Iris-3B scores 50.9 (D) on agent readiness against Google Imagen's 6.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Google Imagen leads on transparency \u0026 trust.", "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": "Google", "b": "Speridlabs", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP", "b": "", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "API 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": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2025-08-14", "b": "2026-10-12", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2026-04-28", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2026-10-01", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "none", "b": "175 stars", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "1/5 (2)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Iris-3B scores 50.9 (D) on agent readiness against Google Imagen's 6.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Google Imagen leads on transparency \u0026 trust.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Google Imagen or Iris-3B?" }, { "answer": "Google Imagen needs an API key. Iris-3B needs no key.", "question": "Do Google Imagen and Iris-3B need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Google Imagen has a hosted endpoint at https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta. No hosted endpoint is listed for Iris-3B.", "question": "Can an agent call Google Imagen and Iris-3B without installing anything?" }, { "answer": "No open-source release is listed for Google Imagen. Iris-3B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code and weights)).", "question": "Are Google Imagen and Iris-3B open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Transparency \u0026 trust, 60 against 47" ], "also": [ "A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install" ], "goodFor": "Nothing new. It shut down on 2026-08-17.", "slug": "google-imagen", "watchFor": "Discontinued. Calls to imagen model names fail on both the Gemini API and Vertex AI" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 45 against 0", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 47 against 25", "Agent ergonomics, 54 against 0", "Security \u0026 auth, 44 against 0", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 0", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 70 against 5" ], "also": [ "Still running. Google Imagen has shut down", "No key needed to call it", "Free to start without a card", "Open source", "No incidents deducted, where Google Imagen loses 3 points for them" ], "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-google-imagen.json", "title": "Adobe Firefly API vs Google Imagen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-google-imagen" }, { "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-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-iris-3b.json", "title": "Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Iris-3B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bria-vs-google-imagen.json", "title": "Bria API vs Google Imagen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bria-vs-google-imagen" }, { "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-google-imagen.json", "title": "fal image models vs Google Imagen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fal-image-vs-google-imagen" }, { "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-ideogram.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs Ideogram API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-ideogram" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-leonardo-ai.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs Leonardo.Ai API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-leonardo-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-openai-image-api.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs OpenAI Image API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-openai-image-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-qwen-image-2-1.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs Qwen-Image 2.1 (Model Studio)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-qwen-image-2-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-recraft.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs Recraft API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-recraft" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-replicate-image.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs Replicate image models", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-replicate-image" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs Seedream on BytePlus ModelArk", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-stability-ai-image.json", "title": "Google Imagen vs Stability AI Image API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-stability-ai-image" }, { "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": [ { "by": 45, "edge": "iris-3b", "google-imagen": 0, "iris-3b": 45, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 22, "edge": "iris-3b", "google-imagen": 25, "iris-3b": 47, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13 }, { "by": 54, "edge": "iris-3b", "google-imagen": 0, "iris-3b": 54, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13 }, { "by": 44, "edge": "iris-3b", "google-imagen": 0, "iris-3b": 44, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14 }, { "by": 60, "edge": "iris-3b", "google-imagen": 0, "iris-3b": 60, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 65, "edge": "iris-3b", "google-imagen": 5, "iris-3b": 70, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7 }, { "by": 13, "edge": "google-imagen", "google-imagen": 60, "iris-3b": 47, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Google Imagen shut down on 2026-08-17. Iris-3B scores 50.9 (D) on agent readiness against Google Imagen's 6.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Google Imagen leads on transparency \u0026 trust. Both do image generation.", "verdicts": { "google-imagen": "Shutdown dates were published in the Gemini API changelog and the Vertex AI release notes, with replacements named. Discontinued. Calls to imagen model names fail on both the Gemini API and Vertex AI.", "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/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b.min.md" }, "markdown": "Google Imagen shut down on 2026-08-17. Iris-3B scores 50.9 (D) on agent readiness against Google Imagen's 6.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Google Imagen leads on transparency \u0026 trust. Both do image generation.\n\n- Google Imagen: grade F, 6.8/100, rank retired, not ranked. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-imagen.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-imagen.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### Google Imagen (F)\n\nGood for: Nothing new. It shut down on 2026-08-17.\n\nAhead on:\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 60 against 47\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install\n\nWatch for: Discontinued. Calls to imagen model names fail on both the Gemini API and Vertex AI\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- Reliability, 45 against 0\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 47 against 25\n- Agent ergonomics, 54 against 0\n- Security \u0026 auth, 44 against 0\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 0\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 70 against 5\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Still running. Google Imagen has shut down\n- No key needed to call it\n- Free to start without a card\n- Open source\n- No incidents deducted, where Google Imagen loses 3 points for them\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 | Google Imagen | Iris-3B | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 0 | 45 | Iris-3B +45 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 25 | 47 | Iris-3B +22 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 54 | Iris-3B +54 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 0 | 44 | Iris-3B +44 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 60 | Iris-3B +60 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 5 | 70 | Iris-3B +65 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 47 | Google Imagen +13 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **6.8 · F** | **50.9 · D** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Google Imagen | Iris-3B |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Model API | Model API |\n| Vendor | Google | Speridlabs |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta` | no (local only) |\n| Transports | HTTP | |\n| Auth | API key | None |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (code and weights) |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | no |\n| Last release | 2025-08-14 | 2026-10-12 |\n| Terms last updated | 2026-04-28 | no document linked |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | no document linked |\n| Customer content may train models | yes | |\n| Terms restrict automated access | yes | |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | |\n| Popularity | none | 175 stars |\n| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | none |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Google Imagen.** Shutdown dates were published in the Gemini API changelog and the Vertex AI release notes, with replacements named. Discontinued. Calls to imagen model names fail on both the Gemini API and Vertex AI.\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### Google Imagen\n\n1. Replace `client.models.generate_images` with `client.models.generate_content` and the `gemini-nano-banana-2.1` model, the replacement Google's deprecations table names\n2. Read images from the response content parts, not from `generated_images`\n3. Don't budget from the Vertex Imagen price rows, they describe a retired product\n4. If the job needs a mask-based inpaint, use another vendor's fill endpoint, since Gemini image editing is prompt-based\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, Google Imagen or Iris-3B?\n\nIris-3B scores 50.9 (D) on agent readiness against Google Imagen's 6.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Google Imagen leads on transparency \u0026 trust.\n\n### Do Google Imagen and Iris-3B need an API key?\n\nGoogle Imagen needs an API key. Iris-3B needs no key.\n\n### Can an agent call Google Imagen and Iris-3B without installing anything?\n\nGoogle Imagen has a hosted endpoint at https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta. No hosted endpoint is listed for Iris-3B.\n\n### Are Google Imagen and Iris-3B open source?\n\nNo open-source release is listed for Google Imagen. 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/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"google-imagen\", \"b\": \"iris-3b\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare google-imagen iris-3b`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-imagen.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/iris-3b.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Google Imagen or Iris-3B\n\n- [Adobe Firefly API vs Google Imagen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-google-imagen.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 Google Imagen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-google-imagen.md)\n- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b.md)\n- [Bria API vs Google Imagen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bria-vs-google-imagen.md)\n- [Bria API vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bria-vs-iris-3b.md)\n- [fal image models vs Google Imagen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fal-image-vs-google-imagen.md)\n- [fal image models vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fal-image-vs-iris-3b.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs Ideogram API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-ideogram.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs Leonardo.Ai API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-leonardo-ai.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs OpenAI Image API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-openai-image-api.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs Qwen-Image 2.1 (Model Studio)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-qwen-image-2-1.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs Recraft API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-recraft.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs Replicate image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-replicate-image.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs Seedream on BytePlus ModelArk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark.md)\n- [Google Imagen vs Stability AI Image API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-stability-ai-image.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": "Google Imagen vs Iris-3B", "url": "" } ], "description": "Iris-3B scores 50.9 (D) to Google Imagen's 6.8 (F) for image generation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Google Imagen F 6.8", "Iris-3B D 50.9", "scores" ], "h1": "Google Imagen vs Iris-3B", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-google-imagen-vs-iris-3b.png", "path": "/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Google Imagen vs Iris-3B for AI agents in 2026: scores and prices", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-15", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-imagen-vs-iris-3b" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2500, "slim": 680 }, "version": 1 }