# Google Imagen vs Recraft API

> Recraft API has a score of 53 (D) against Google Imagen's 7.2 (F). Both do image generate. The largest gap is reliability, 70 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Recraft API has a score of 53 (D) against Google Imagen's 7.2 (F). Both do image generate. The largest gap is reliability, 70 points.

- Google Imagen: grade F, 7.2/100, rank retired, not ranked. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-imagen.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-imagen.json
- Recraft API: grade D, 53/100, rank #338 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/recraft.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/recraft.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Google Imagen for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick Recraft API for reliability (+70), schema & documentation (+39), agent ergonomics (+62), security & auth (+30), payments & pricing (+30), maintenance & community (+43).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Google Imagen | Recraft API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 0 | 70 | Recraft API +70 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 25 | 64 | Recraft API +39 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 62 | Recraft API +62 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 0 | 30 | Recraft API +30 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 30 | Recraft API +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 5 | 48 | Recraft API +43 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 61 | Google Imagen +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **7.2 · F** | **53 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Google Imagen | Recraft API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Google | Recraft |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta` | `https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 9 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2025-08-14 | none |
| Popularity | none | none |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## 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.

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

## Before you call either

### 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

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