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Head to head · Image generate · October 2026 research run

Recraft API vs Stability AI Image API

Recraft API has a score of 53 (D) against Stability AI Image API's 42.6 (E). Both do image generate. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 40 points.

Recraft APIRecraft · Model API D53/100#338 of 452 Stability AI Image APIStability AI · Model API E42.6/100#414 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Recraft API for

  • reliability (+10)
  • schema & documentation (+25)
  • agent ergonomics (+14)
  • maintenance & community (+40)

Pick Stability AI Image API for

  • payments & pricing (+10)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runRecraft APIStability AI Image APIEdge
Reliability16%207060Recraft API +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26439Recraft API +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.26248Recraft API +14
Security & auth14%17.53030even
Payments & pricing10%12.53040Stability AI Image API +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8488Recraft API +40
Transparency & trust7%8.86163Stability AI Image API +2
Negative events≤1500
Total53 · D42.6 · E

Facts side by side

FactRecraft APIStability AI Image API
KindModel APIModel API
VendorRecraftStability AI
Hosted endpointhttps://external.api.recraft.ai/v1https://api.stability.ai/v2beta
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
Licencenonenone
Tools exposed9none
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.txtyesno
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last releasenonenone
Popularitynonenone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)3/5 (2)

Verdicts

Recraft API

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

Stability AI Image API

Fixed price per call for every endpoint, published in credits. No new image model we could date since SD 3.5 Flash in July 2025.

Before you call either

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

Stability AI Image API

  1. Send accept: image/* to get bytes back, or application/json for base64
  2. Stay under 150 requests every 10 seconds. A 429 locks you out for 60 seconds
  3. Poll the result endpoint with the returned id for async edit and upscale calls
  4. Use Stable Image Core or SD 3.5 Flash for drafts, Ultra for finals
  5. Send multipart form data, not JSON

Other comparisons with Recraft API or Stability AI Image API

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