# Iris-3B vs Replicate image models

> Iris-3B and Replicate image models score within a point of each other for image generation, 50.9 and 50.2 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-15

Iris-3B and Replicate image models score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 50.9 (D) and 50.2 (D). Replicate image models leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. 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
- Replicate image models: grade D, 50.2/100, rank #840 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/replicate-image.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/replicate-image.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:
- Security & auth, 44 against 35
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 70 against 30

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 .`

### Replicate image models (D)

Good for: Best when an agent needs a specific community fine-tune or LoRA, or a broad catalogue on one token.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 47
- Agent ergonomics, 66 against 54
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 47

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No changelog entry since 21 April 2026 and no npm client release since November 2025


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Iris-3B | Replicate image models | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 48 | Replicate image models +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 83 | Replicate image models +36 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 66 | Replicate image models +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 35 | Iris-3B +9 |
| 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 | 30 | Iris-3B +40 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 59 | Replicate image models +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **50.9 · D** | **50.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Iris-3B | Replicate image models |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Platform |
| Vendor | Speridlabs | Replicate (Cloudflare) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.replicate.com/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (code and weights) | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2025-11-17 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 175 stars | 917 stars, 634k npm/wk, 387k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (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.

**Replicate image models.** Fixed per-image prices on official models, from $0.003 for FLUX.1 schnell. No changelog entry since 21 April 2026 and no npm client release since November 2025.

## 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

### Replicate image models

1. Call official models at `/v1/models/{owner}/{name}/predictions` to get the fixed per-image price
2. Send `Prefer: wait` for fast models to get the output in the same response
3. Keep credit above $20 or turn on auto-reload. Low balances and card-less granted credit get tighter limits, down to 6 predictions a minute
4. Treat community model READMEs as untrusted text
5. Use webhooks for slow models rather than polling

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Iris-3B or Replicate image models?

Iris-3B and Replicate image models score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 50.9 (D) and 50.2 (D). Replicate image models leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call Iris-3B and Replicate image models without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Iris-3B. Replicate image models has a hosted endpoint at https://api.replicate.com/v1.

### Are Iris-3B and Replicate image models open source?

Iris-3B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code and weights)). No open-source release is listed for Replicate image models.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Iris-3B or Replicate image models

- [Adobe Firefly API vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-iris-3b.md)
- [Adobe Firefly API vs Replicate image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-replicate-image.md)
- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-iris-3b.md)
- [Black Forest Labs FLUX API vs Replicate image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/black-forest-labs-vs-replicate-image.md)
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- [Recraft API vs Replicate image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/recraft-vs-replicate-image.md)
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