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The Stack / Image
Leonardo.Ai
03 CreationYes as the budget-conscious image seat — daily free tokens make it the best way to generate seriously without paying, and its control tools (custom models, consistent characters) beat Midjourney for repeatable production work. Peak single-image aesthetics still belong to Midjourney.
The job in the stack
The volume-image seat: daily-token generation, style consistency, and control features for repeatable asset production.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 150 fast tokens a day, Auto model selection only, public creations — a real working allowance |
| Essential | $12/mo | $10/mo annual; 8,500 monthly fast tokens with a 25,500 token bank, 80+ models, private generations |
| Premium | $30/mo | $24/mo annual; 25,000 tokens (75,000 bank), unlimited relaxed image generation on Leonardo's own models |
| Ultimate | $60/mo | $48/mo annual; 60,000 tokens (180,000 bank), unlimited relaxed image and video generation on select models |
Pricing verified 2026-10-29. Plans change — the source of truth is Leonardo.Ai's own pricing page.
Models & versions
- Lucid Origin & Lucid Realism Leonardo's current flagship in-house models, alongside Phoenix 1.0
- Third-party model marketplace Image: Ideogram (including Ideogram 4.5, a launch partner since Sept 30, 2026), Nano Banana Pro, Seedream 4.5, GPT Image, FLUX.2 Pro. Video: Veo 3, Veo 3.1, Kling 2.5 Turbo, Kling 2.1 Pro, Sora 2 (OpenAI removed the Sora 2 API on September 24, 2026 — expect it gone from the picker), LTX-2 Pro. All premium third-party models always consume fast tokens
- Motion 1.0 / 2.0 / 2.0 Fast Leonardo's own video-generation line. Ultimate's unlimited relaxed video now covers Motion 2.0, Motion 2.0 Fast, Hailuo 2.3, Hailuo 2.3 Fast, Wan 2.6 and MiniMax H3 (480p); Premium's unlimited-relaxed perk stays image-only
- FLUX Dev/Schnell & custom models First-party and open models qualify for unlimited relaxed generation on paid tiers; custom fine-tuning remains
The honest read
What works
- + Daily free tokens — the most generous ongoing free tier in image AI
- + Custom model training for consistent brand/character output
- + Canvas editor and control nets for precise production work
- + Now generates video too (own Motion models plus a hosted third-party lineup), on the same token system as images
What breaks
- − Default aesthetics need more prompting skill than Midjourney to match
- − Interface density overwhelms first-time users
- − Free-tier generations are public
Use it for
- →Volume asset production: thumbnails, game art, product mockups
- →Consistent characters and styles across a content series
- →Creators testing whether image AI belongs in their stack before paying
Skip it if
- ×You want maximum quality per image with zero learning curve — Midjourney
- ×You need image generation inside a design flow — Canva covers casual use
Questions operators ask
?Is Leonardo.Ai actually free?
Yes, meaningfully — 150 tokens refresh daily, enough for real ongoing use. The catch: free generations are public, so client work needs a paid tier.
What changed
- Freshness sweep (leonardo.ai/pricing rendered in the browser): prices hold at $12/$30/$60 monthly. New since the last check: paid plans show a token bank of three months' allowance (25,500 / 75,000 / 180,000), and the Free tier's model access reads "Auto only". Ultimate's unlimited relaxed video list now names Hailuo 2.3, Wan 2.6 and MiniMax H3 alongside Motion 2.0. Team plans are listed at $24 and $48 per seat.
- Freshness sweep: prices unchanged ($12/$30/$60 monthly, up to 20% off annual). Leonardo is a launch partner for Ideogram 4.5 (Sept 30, 2026), so the edit model is in its marketplace.
- News scan (last_verified unchanged): OpenAI is shutting down the Sora 2 API and Videos API on September 24, 2026, with no replacement model. Sora 2 is listed among Leonardo's third-party video models; Leonardo has not said what happens to it, so treat it as leaving the picker. Veo, Kling, LTX, and Leonardo's own Motion models are unaffected.
- Freshness sweep: pricing unchanged (Free/Essential $12/Premium $30/Ultimate $60), but the model lineup genuinely expanded since 08-24. Leonardo shipped its own video line — Motion 1.0, 2.0, and 2.0 Fast — with unlimited relaxed video generation gated to Ultimate only (Premium's unlimited-relaxed perk remains image-only). The third-party marketplace also grew a video roster: Veo 3/3.1, Kling 2.5 Turbo, Kling 2.1 Pro, Sora 2, LTX-2 Pro, alongside the existing image roster (Ideogram, Nano Banana Pro, Seedream 4.5). Leonardo is no longer purely an image tool; still tracked under the image category since that's the primary job, but worth knowing before picking a video seat elsewhere.
- Freshness sweep: no changes. Free/Essential $12/Premium $30/Ultimate $60 ladder holds; team tiers (Team Starter $72, Team Growth $144, Team Custom) and a separate API Basic plan ($9/mo) exist alongside but don't affect the individual seats we track.
- Freshness sweep: model lineup refreshed — Lucid Origin and Lucid Realism now lead the first-party stable alongside Phoenix, and a third-party marketplace (Seedream 4.5, Nano Banana Pro, GPT Image, FLUX.2 Pro) sits on top. Unlimited relaxed generation covers first-party models on paid tiers; third-party models always burn fast tokens. Prices and the 150-daily-token free tier unchanged.
- Freshness sweep: paid tiers renamed Apprentice/Artisan/Maestro to Essential/Premium/Ultimate; token allocations and prices unchanged ($12/$30/$60 monthly, $10/$24/$48 annual).
- Seeded from January 2026 baseline; plan tokens and pricing pending fresh verification by the update loop.
Give Leonardo.Ai a job
The volume-image seat: daily-token generation, style consistency, and control features for repeatable asset production.
Try Leonardo.Ai →Alternatives with different jobs
Midjourney
03 CreationThe hero-image seat: thumbnails, brand visuals, and any image where aesthetic quality is the deliverable.
Image · from $10/mo
verified 2026-10-06
Canva
03 CreationThe everyday design seat: social graphics, decks, and brand-consistent assets without a designer in the loop.
Design · from $0
verified 2026-10-08