# Ideogram API vs Iris-3B

> Iris-3B and Ideogram score within a point of each other for image generation, 50.9 and 50 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-15

Iris-3B and Ideogram API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 50.9 (D) and 50 (D). Ideogram API leads on reliability, schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do image generation.

- Ideogram API: grade D, 50/100, rank #845 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ideogram.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ideogram.json
- 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
- Best image generation for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/image-generation/index.md
- All 91 image comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/image-generation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Ideogram API (D)

Good for: Images with text in them, such as posters, ads and packaging.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 47
- Agent ergonomics, 63 against 54

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Six API incidents in 90 days, three on v3 endpoints between 23 and 29 September

### Iris-3B (D)

Good 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.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 44 against 35
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 70 against 18

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: No package on PyPI, no version tags, no changelog and no CI workflow. Install is a git clone and `pip install -e .`


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Ideogram API | Iris-3B | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 45 | Ideogram API +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 47 | Ideogram API +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 54 | Ideogram API +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 44 | Iris-3B +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | Iris-3B +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 18 | 70 | Iris-3B +52 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 48 | 47 | Ideogram API +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **50 · D** | **50.9 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Ideogram API | Iris-3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Ideogram | Speridlabs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.ideogram.ai/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (code and weights) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-12 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-08-14 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-01-15 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | none | 175 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Ideogram API.** Text rendering and layout control are the model's focus. Six API incidents in 90 days, three on v3 endpoints between 23 and 29 September.

**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.

## Before you call either

### Ideogram API

1. Send multipart form data, not JSON
2. Treat 402 as no credit or no payment method, and 422 as an unsafe prompt to rewrite, not retry
3. Check `is_image_safe`. When it's false the `url` is empty
4. Download images straight away, the links expire
5. Use the `/async/` variants with `webhook_url` for batches and verify the Ed25519 signature

### Iris-3B

1. 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
2. Exclude `depth/*`, `upscaler/*` and `turbo/*` in `hf download` unless those models are needed. Each of the first two adds about 12 GB
3. Don't pass `--steps`, `--cfg-scale`, `--negative-prompt`, `--order` or `--shift` with a Turbo checkpoint. The script exits with an error
4. Pass `--seed` to reproduce an image, and set `--outdir`, since files are named after the prompt and a repeat run overwrites them
5. 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

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Ideogram API or Iris-3B?

Iris-3B and Ideogram API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 50.9 (D) and 50 (D). Ideogram API leads on reliability, schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

### Do Ideogram API and Iris-3B need an API key?

Ideogram API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Iris-3B needs no key.

### Can an agent call Ideogram API and Iris-3B without installing anything?

Ideogram API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.ideogram.ai/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Iris-3B.

### Are Ideogram API and Iris-3B open source?

No open-source release is listed for Ideogram API. Iris-3B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code and weights)).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ideogram-vs-iris-3b.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ideogram-vs-iris-3b.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "ideogram", "b": "iris-3b"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare ideogram iris-3b`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ideogram.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/iris-3b.json

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