Best text-to-image models for a 32GB Mac
A leaderboard of the best text-to-image models for a Mac with 32GB of memory. The best one that runs on it right now is Ideogram 4.0, followed by Qwen-Image-2.1 and ERNIE-Image. Models are ranked on human votes and image generation tests like GenEval. Models that run on it show the download that fits and the command to run it.
101 models · scores combine 41 benchmarks · updated how it works · find a leaderboard · benchmark your machine
Scores use reviewed text to image evaluations only. Compare scores within this task. Models without task measurements are excluded.
Models for 32GB RAM · Apple Silicon → ~21GB fast · reset
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Score vs API price
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● open weights ◆ API only ─┘ best score for the price · x: USD per image (log)
| # | model | task score↓ | where↓ | speed↓ | sources |
|---|
| # | model | task score↓ | where↓ | speed↓ | sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst | 90±2* | api $0.013/image |   | |
| 2 | GPT Image 2.5 Flare | 88±2* | api $0.013/image | | |
| 3 | GPT Image 2 | 85±2 | api $0.053/image |  | |
| 5 |  Nano Banana 2.1 | 80±2* | api $0.034/image | | |
| 6 |  Reve 2.1 | 78±2* | api $0.25/image | | |
| 7 |  Grok Imagine Image 2.0 | 78±2* | api $0.040/image | | |
| 8 | Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) | 75±2 | api $0.067/image | | |
| 9 |  Muse Image | 75±2* | api $0.010/image | | |
| 10 |  Qwen-Image-3.0-Pro | 74±2 | api $0.040/image | | |
| 11 |  Seedream 5.0 Pro | 74±2 | api $0.050/image | | |
| 12 | Reve 2.0 | 74±2* | api $0.25/image | | |
| 13 | Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) | 73±2 | api $0.13/image | | |
| 15 | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Image) | 72±2* | api $0.034/image | | |
| 16 | GPT Image 1.5 | 70±2 | api $0.034/image | | |
| 17 | Qwen-Image 2.0 Pro | 69±4 | api $0.075/image | | |
| 18 |  Ideogram 4.0 · mlx-q4 | 68±2* | local | | |
| 19 | Qwen-Image-2.1 · int8 convrot + Qwen3-VL 8B q4_k_m (sd.cpp) | 67±2* | local | | |
| 21 | Qwen-Image-2.0-Pro (2026-06-22) | 66±2* | api $0.075/image | | |
| 22 |  Uni-1.1 Max | 66±2* | api $0.10/image | | |
| 23 | Uni-1.1 | 66±2* | api $0.040/image | | |
| 25 | Grok Imagine Image | 64±2* | api $0.020/image | | |
| 26 |  Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro | 64±2* | api $0.21/image | | |
| 27 |  FLUX.2 [max] | 63±2 | api $0.070/image | | |
| 28 | Grok Imagine Image Pro | 63±2* | api $0.050/image | | |
| 29 | Seedream 5.0 Lite | 63±2 | api $0.035/image | | |
| 30 | FLUX.2 [flex] | 63±2* | api $0.050/image | | |
| 32 | FLUX.2 [pro] | 62±2 | api $0.030/image | | |
| 33 |  Seedream 4.5 | 62±2 | api $0.040/image | | |
| 34 |  ERNIE-Image · gguf-ud-q4_k_m + Ministral 3B (sd.cpp, all files in memory) | 62±3 | local |  | |
| 35 | Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) | 62±2 | api $0.039/image |  | |
| 37 | ERNIE-Image-Turbo · gguf-ud-q4_k_m + Ministral 3B (sd.cpp) | 61±3† | local | | |
| 38 | GPT Image 1 | 61±1 | api $0.042/image | +3 | |
| 39 | Imagen 4 Ultra | 61±2 | api $0.060/image | | |
| 40 |  Wan 2.6 Text-to-Image | 61±2* | api $0.030/image | | |
| 41 | Seedream 4.0 | 60±1 | api $0.040/image | | |
| 42 | Recraft V4.1 Pro | 60±2* | api $0.21/image | | |
| 45 |  Krea 2 Medium | 59±2* | api $0.030/image | | |
| 46 | Wan 2.7 Image Pro | 59±2* | api $0.075/image | | |
| 47 | Imagen 4 | 59±2 | api $0.040/image | | |
| 48 | FLUX.2 [dev] · mlx-int4 (Flux2CLI, Swift) | 59±1 | local | +1 | |
| 49 | Wan 2.5 Text-to-Image Preview | 58±2* | api $0.030/image | | |
| 50 | Recraft V4 | 58±2* | api $0.040/image | | |
| 51 | GPT Image 1 Mini | 58±2* | api $0.011/image | | |
| 52 | Krea 2 Turbo · gguf-q8_0 + Qwen3-VL 4B q4_k_m (sd.cpp) | 58±2* | local | | |
| 53 |  Z-Image (Base) · gguf-q4_k_m + Qwen3 4B q4_k_m (sd.cpp) | 58±2 | local | | |
| 54 | Krea 2 Large | 58±2* | api $0.060/image | | |
| 55 |  HiDream-O1-Image | 58±2 | api $0.010/image | | |
| 56 |  HunyuanImage 3.0 | 58±2 | api $0.080/image | +2 | |
| 57 | Qwen-Image-2512 | 57±1 | api $0.020/image | | |
| 58 | Wan 2.7 Image | 57±2* | api $0.030/image | | |
| 59 | Recraft V4.1 Flash | 57±2* | api $0.0070/image | | |
| 62 | Z-Image-Turbo · gguf-q3_k (+ Qwen3-4B Q4_K_M text encoder) | 56±1 | local | +1 | |
| 65 | HunyuanImage 2.1 | 55±6* | api $0.10/image | | |
| 66 | FLUX.1 Kontext [max] | 54±2* | api $0.080/image | | |
| 68 |  LongCat-Image · gguf-q4_k_m + Qwen2.5-VL q8_0 (sd.cpp) | 54±4 | local | | |
| 70 | FLUX.2 [klein] 9B · gguf-q4_0 + Qwen3 8B q4_k_m (sd.cpp) | 53±2 | local | | |
| 71 | Qwen-Image | 53±1 | api $0.025/image | +5 | |
| 72 |  Kling Image 2.1 | 53±7* | api $0.014/image | | |
| 73 | Ideogram 3.0 | 52±2* | api $0.060/image | | |
| 74 | FLUX.1 Kontext [pro] | 52±2* | api $0.040/image | | |
| 76 | Photon | 51±2 | api $0.019/image | | |
| 77 |  P-Image | 50±2* | api $0.0050/image | | |
| 78 | FLUX.2 [klein] 4B · bf16 + Qwen3 4B bf16 (sd.cpp) | 49±2 | local | | |
| 79 |  Runway Gen-4 Image | 49±2* | api $0.050/image | | |
| 80 |  GLM-Image | 49±2 | api $0.015/image | | |
| 81 | Recraft V3 | 49±2 | api $0.040/image | | |
| 83 |  Lucid Origin | 48±2* | api $0.017/image | | |
| 86 |  Ovis-Image-7B · gguf-q4_0 + Ovis 2.5 (sd.cpp) | 48±7* | local | | |
| 87 | FLUX.1 Krea [dev] | 48±4* | api $0.025/image | | |
| 88 | HiDream-I1-Full | 47±2 | api $0.050/image | | |
| 89 | Ideogram 2.0 | 46±2 | api $0.080/image | | |
| 92 | FLUX1.1 [pro] | 45±2 | api $0.040/image | | |
| 97 | FLUX.1 [dev] · gguf-q4_0 | 43±1 | local | +3 | |
| 98 |  Playground v2 (1024px aesthetic) · fp16 (sd.cpp) | 43±4* | local | | |
| 100 |  Lumina-Image 2.0 | 42±4* | api $0.075/image | | |
| 101 | FLUX.1 [schnell] · mlx-4bit | 42±3* | local | | |
| 105 |  Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) | 41±1 | local | +1 | |
| 106 | BAGEL | 41±1 | api $0.10/image | +2 | |
| 107 | FLUX.1 Kontext [dev] · gguf-q4_k_m (sd.cpp) | 40±2* | local | | |
| 108 | Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium | 40±3* | api $0.035/image | | |
| 111 |  OmniGen2 | 40±4* | api $0.15/image | | |
| 113 | SDXL-Lightning (4-step UNet) · fp16 (sd.cpp) | 40±4* | local | | |
| 114 | Stable Diffusion 3 Medium · fp16 incl. CLIPs + T5 (sd.cpp) | 39±2 | local | | |
| 120 |  Janus-Pro-7B | 37±2 | api $0.0020/image | | |
| 122 |  SSD-1B · fp16 (sd.cpp) | 36±3* | local | | |
| 124 | Janus-Pro-1B | 36±4 | api $0.0005/image | | |
| 127 | Stable Diffusion XL 0.9 (base) · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) | 35±3* | local | | |
| 128 | SDXL-Turbo · fp16 (sd.cpp) | 35±2 | local | | |
| 129 | Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 · fp16 (sd.cpp) | 35±1 | local | +5 | |
| 133 |  Dreamlike Photoreal 2.0 · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) | 34±4* | local | | |
| 146 |  DALL·E Mega (minDALL-E) · fp32 | 31±3* | local | | |
| 149 |  Openjourney · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) | 29±2 | local | | |
| 150 |  Stable Diffusion v1.4 · fp32 | 28±2 | local | | |
| 151 | Stable Diffusion v1.3 · fp32 | 28±4* | local | | |
| 152 | Stable Diffusion v1.1 · fp32 | 27±3 | local | | |
| 153 | Stable Diffusion v1.5 · fp32 | 27±2 | local | | |
| 154 | Stable Diffusion v1.2 · fp32 | 27±3* | local | | |
| 155 |  LCM Dreamshaper v7 · openvino-fp16 (OpenVINO GenAI) | 24±4* | local | | |
| — |  Mage-Flow · bf16 + Qwen3-VL 4B q4_k_m (sd.cpp) | not yet calibrated | local | | |
| — | Mage-Flow-Base · bf16 + Qwen3-VL 4B q4_k_m (sd.cpp) | not yet calibrated | local | | |
| — | Mage-Flow-Turbo · bf16 + Qwen3-VL 4B q4_k_m (sd.cpp) | not yet calibrated | local | |
+ 61 more don't fit your machine or budget · show them
162 of 162 catalogue models listed here · sources and licences
* new or thinly tested: ranked on too few benchmark results · † only the maker’s own numbers so far · ~RAM is estimated; full context may need more memory