# Iris-3B vs OpenAI Image API

> OpenAI Image scores 72.4 (BB) to Iris-3B's 50.9 (D) for image generation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-15

OpenAI Image API scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Iris-3B's 50.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Iris-3B leads on payments & pricing. Both do image generation.

- 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
- OpenAI Image API: grade BB, 72.4/100, rank #109 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-image-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-image-api.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

### 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:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

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 .`

### OpenAI Image API (BB)

Good for: General-purpose generation and editing for agents already on OpenAI, especially multi-turn edits through the Responses tool.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 45
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 47
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 54
- Security & auth, 85 against 44
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 89 against 47

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No per-image price for GPT Image 2.5, and the cost calculator doesn't cover it


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Iris-3B | OpenAI Image API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 80 | OpenAI Image API +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 90 | OpenAI Image API +43 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 72 | OpenAI Image API +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 85 | OpenAI Image API +41 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Iris-3B +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 79 | OpenAI Image API +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 89 | OpenAI Image API +42 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **50.9 · D** | **72.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Iris-3B | OpenAI Image API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Speridlabs | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.openai.com/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (code and weights) | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-09-22 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 175 stars | 31k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**OpenAI Image API.** Generation, mask edits and multi-reference edits on the same models, via the Image API or the Responses tool. No per-image price for GPT Image 2.5, and the cost calculator doesn't cover it.

## Before you call either

### 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

### OpenAI Image API

1. Pin `quality` and `size`. `auto` makes cost and latency vary per call
2. Read `usage` in the response to track image tokens, it's the only cost signal for GPT Image 2.5
3. Don't retry `moderation_blocked` or `image_generation_user_error`. Change the prompt first
4. Honour `Retry-After` on 429 and add jitter, image limits are per minute and low at tier 1
5. Move off gpt-image-1 before 2026-10-23 and off 1-mini, 1.5 and chatgpt-image-latest before 2026-12-01

## Questions

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

OpenAI Image API scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Iris-3B's 50.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Iris-3B leads on payments & pricing.

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

Iris-3B needs no key. OpenAI Image API needs an API key.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Iris-3B. OpenAI Image API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1.

### Are Iris-3B and OpenAI Image API open source?

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


## For agents

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

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