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Head to head · Image generate · October 2026 research run

OpenAI Image API vs Recraft API

OpenAI Image API has a score of 72.7 (BB) against Recraft API's 53 (D). Both do image generate. The largest gap is security & auth, 55 points.

OpenAI Image APIOpenAI · Model API BB72.7/100#67 of 452 Recraft APIRecraft · Model API D53/100#338 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick OpenAI Image API for

  • reliability (+10)
  • schema & documentation (+26)
  • agent ergonomics (+10)
  • security & auth (+55)
  • maintenance & community (+31)
  • transparency & trust (+31)

Pick Recraft API for

  • payments & pricing (+10)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runOpenAI Image APIRecraft APIEdge
Reliability16%208070OpenAI Image API +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29064OpenAI Image API +26
Agent ergonomics13%16.27262OpenAI Image API +10
Security & auth14%17.58530OpenAI Image API +55
Payments & pricing10%12.52030Recraft API +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87948OpenAI Image API +31
Transparency & trust7%8.89261OpenAI Image API +31
Negative events≤15-20
Total72.7 · BB53 · D

Facts side by side

FactOpenAI Image APIRecraft API
KindModel APIModel API
VendorOpenAIRecraft
Hosted endpointhttps://api.openai.com/v1https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (SDKs)none
Tools exposednone9
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-22none
Popularity31k starsnone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)3.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

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.

Recraft API

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

Before you call either

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

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

Other comparisons with OpenAI Image API or Recraft API

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