Flux vs Ideogram vs Leonardo.ai vs Midjourney
A side-by-side look at Flux, Ideogram, Leonardo.ai and Midjourney for filmmakers: what each one can do, what it costs, and where they actually differ.
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Image model family for accurate text and photoreal stills, plus FLUX 3 video with native audio
- Price
- Pay per image on the API, from $0.014 (FLUX.2 klein 4B). Open weights are free for non-commercial use; commercial open-weights licences are quoted by sales.
- Learning
- Moderate
- Best for
- Key art and concept frames where legible text in the image matters
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Text-accurate AI images for title cards, posters, key art and on-screen type
- Price
- Free plan; API pay-per-image from $0.03 (4.0 Turbo)
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Title cards and text plates that must be spelled exactly, composited over footage in Premiere or DaVinci Resolve
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Image and video generation with a canvas, Motion animation and third-party video models
- Price
- See the vendor's pricing page
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Concept art and key-art stills that later become motion tests
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AI image generator for concept art, previs, boards and client-safe stills, with private Stealth mode
- Price
- From $10/mo ($8/mo billed annually); 20% off on annual plans
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Concept art, key art and look development for features and series
The short version
Where they differ
- Midjourney is the only one without public API.
All 4 offer: text to image, image editing.
Feature by feature
Flux vs Ideogram vs Leonardo.ai vs Midjourney: capabilities
| Flux | Ideogram | Leonardo.ai | Midjourney | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Pay per image on the API, from $0.014 (FLUX.2 klein 4B). Open weights are free for non-commercial use; commercial open-weights licences are quoted by sales. | Free plan; API pay-per-image from $0.03 (4.0 Turbo) | See the vendor's pricing page | From $10/mo ($8/mo billed annually); 20% off on annual plans |
| Infinite canvas | No | Partial | Yes | Partial |
| Node / flow builder | No | Not confirmed | Partial | No |
| Team collaboration | Not confirmed | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Text to image | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Image editing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Text to video | Yes | Partial | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Image to video | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Video to video | Partial | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | No |
| Native audio in video | Yes | No | Partial | Not confirmed |
| Lip-sync | Yes | No | Not confirmed | No |
| Voice / TTS | Partial | No | Not confirmed | No |
| Music & SFX | Partial | No | Not confirmed | No |
| Upscaling | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Character consistency | Partial | Not confirmed | Partial | Partial |
| Camera control | Partial | Not confirmed | Partial | Not confirmed |
| Custom training | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes | Partial |
| Third-party models | No | Partial | Yes | No |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| MCP server | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | No |
| Mobile app | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Desktop / local | Yes | Partial | No | No |
| Open source | Partial | Partial | No | No |
| Free tier | Partial | Yes | Yes | No |
| Commercial use | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes |
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page. "Not confirmed" means the vendor doesn't say.
Plans
Pricing compared
Flux
| Open weights, non-commercial | Freeone-time download |
|---|---|
| API pay-as-you-go | From $0.014 per imagepay-per-image |
| Builder (open-weights licence) | Contact saleslicence |
| Platform (open-weights licence) | Contact saleslicence |
| Professional (open-weights licence) | Contact saleslicence |
| Enterprise | Contact salescustom |
Ideogram
| Free | $0monthly |
|---|
Leonardo.ai
| Free | $0monthly |
|---|---|
| API | Pay as you gousage |
Midjourney
| Basic | $10monthly ($8/mo billed annually) |
|---|---|
| Standard | $30monthly ($24/mo billed annually) |
| Pro | $60monthly ($48/mo billed annually) |
| Mega | $120monthly ($96/mo billed annually) |
The verdict
Which one should you pick?
Flux
Pick it for
- Key art and concept frames where legible text in the image matters
- Environment plates and set-design variations at 2K or 4K, priced per megapixel
- Studios that want open weights and custom LoRAs running locally in ComfyUI
Stands out
- Open weights: FLUX.2 [dev] and the klein models can be downloaded, self-hosted and fine-tuned, with LoRA rights on the licensed tiers. Midjourney is closed.
- Pay per image with no subscription: FLUX.2 [klein] 4B from $0.014 per image, FLUX.2 [pro] from $0.03. Midjourney and Adobe Firefly sell monthly plans.
Watch out
- Video is new. FLUX 3 Video availability and FLUX 3 Image early access have been described differently across sources, and video pricing is not published
- Open-weights models are non-commercial by default, and commercial use needs a licence quoted by sales
Ideogram
Pick it for
- Title cards and text plates that must be spelled exactly, composited over footage in Premiere or DaVinci Resolve
- Movie poster and key-art concepts with a title treatment
- Festival, screening and social thumbnails with readable copy
Stands out
- Typography is the product: text inside the image is the main claim, and 4.0 coverage stresses small type, multilingual copy and signage over general aesthetics.
- Cheapest hosted route to exact-text stills: 4.0 API at $0.03 to $0.10 per image, and a free tier for testing.
Watch out
- Video is only offered through partner models in the API; there is no native Ideogram video model
- Credit costs and plan allowances changed several times in 2026, so budgets drift
Leonardo.ai
Pick it for
- Concept art and key-art stills that later become motion tests
- Animatic and previz stills turned into 5-second motion clips
- Custom-trained visual styles for a short film or music video look
Stands out
- Canvas-first editing (AI Canvas for inpainting and outpainting, plus a realtime mode) in the same tool as image and video generation
- Several model families under one account, including Leonardo's own Lucid and Motion 2.0 alongside third-party video models such as Kling 3.0 and Veo 3.1
Watch out
- Video is short (about 5 seconds on Motion 2.0) and not built for sequences or dialogue scenes
- Hosted third-party models are removed on short notice, so a workflow that depends on one can break mid-project
Midjourney
Pick it for
- Concept art, key art and look development for features and series
- Storyboard frames and mood boards where the look matters more than shot control
- Client-confidential previs on Pro or Mega using Stealth mode
Stands out
- Stealth mode on Pro and Mega keeps confidential client and NDA work out of the public gallery, which the tools above do not offer on an equal basis.
- Consistent, art-directed default look across prompts with the V8.2 personalization profile, which is trained on your ratings rather than a LoRA you build.
Watch out
- No free trial
- Video is still the 2025 V1 image-to-video model, with no text-to-video or audio
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page, checked against vendor pricing and changelog pages (oldest check: ). Sources are listed on each tool's page.
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