Google Imagen vs Recraft API

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.

Recraft API

Native SVG vector generation, not traced raster. No changelog and no error reference.

Google Imagen

1. Replace client.models.generate_images with client.models.generate_content and a gemini-3.1-flash-image model
2. Read images from the response content parts, not from generated_images
3. Don't budget from the Vertex Imagen price rows, they describe a retired product
4. If the job needs a mask-based inpaint, use another vendor's fill endpoint, since Gemini image editing is prompt-based

Recraft API

1. Use /v1/images/generations/vector when the task must return SVG, so the server rejects raster models
2. Ask for b64_json or multipart if you can't fetch the URL within a day
3. Name recraftv4_1_flash for drafts at $0.007. The default recraftv4_1 costs $0.035
4. Stay under 100 images a minute and 5 requests a second per user
5. Point the OpenAI SDK at https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1, but expect some parameters to be ignored