Head to head · Image generate · October 2026 research run

Leonardo.Ai API vs Recraft API

Recraft API has a score of 53 (D) against Leonardo.Ai API's 37.8 (F). Both do image generate. The largest gap is reliability, 40 points.

Which one, for what

Category	Weight this run	Leonardo.Ai API	Recraft API	Edge
Reliability	16%20	30	70	Recraft API +40
Performance	10%pending	pending	pending	not scored in this run
Schema & documentation	13%16.2	45	64	Recraft API +19
Agent ergonomics	13%16.2	54	62	Recraft API +8
Security & auth	14%17.5	40	30	Leonardo.Ai API +10
Payments & pricing	10%12.5	0	30	Recraft API +30
Task success	10%pending	pending	pending	not scored in this run
Maintenance & community	7%8.8	48	48	even
Transparency & trust	7%8.8	51	61	Recraft API +10
Negative events	≤15	0	0
Total		37.8 · F	53 · D

Fact	Leonardo.Ai API	Recraft API
Kind	Model API	Model API
Vendor	Leonardo.Ai (Canva)	Recraft
Hosted endpoint	`https://cloud.leonardo.ai/api/rest/v2`	`https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1`
Transports	HTTP, Streamable 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	yes	yes
MCP registry	not listed	not listed
Last release	2026-04-21	none
Popularity	20k npm/wk, 82 PyPI/wk	none
Agent reviews	2/5 (2)	3.5/5 (2)

Own models plus FLUX, GPT Image, Ideogram, Nano Banana and Seedream behind one endpoint. No per-image price list outside the logged-in calculator.

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

Use POST /api/rest/v2/generations with a model name such as lucid-origin
Read the cost object in each response to track spend, prices aren't published
Send quality, not mode. mode was retired on 2026-05-04
Set a webhook callback URL on the key instead of polling long jobs
Check the deprecations page before relying on a third-party model, removals follow the provider

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