Flux vs Midjourney vs Recraft
A side-by-side look at Flux, Midjourney and Recraft 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
-
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
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Image and native SVG generation for logos, icons, and brand assets, plus video models in Studio
- Price
- Free (limited credits); Basic $12/mo; Pro $20/mo; Teams $22/seat/mo (monthly billing, annual saves about 20%)
- Learning
- Moderate
- Best for
- Title cards, logos and lower-third graphics that must scale without quality loss
The short version
Where they differ
- Only Recraft offers AI agent.
- Only Recraft offers chat assistant.
- Only Recraft offers third-party models.
- Midjourney is the only one without public API.
- Midjourney is the only one without MCP server.
- Only Flux offers desktop / local.
All 3 offer: text to image, image editing, upscaling.
Feature by feature
Flux vs Midjourney vs Recraft: capabilities
| Flux | Midjourney | Recraft | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | From $10/mo ($8/mo billed annually); 20% off on annual plans | Free (limited credits); Basic $12/mo; Pro $20/mo; Teams $22/seat/mo (monthly billing, annual saves about 20%) |
| Infinite canvas | No | Partial | Yes |
| AI agent | No | No | Yes |
| Chat assistant | No | No | Yes |
| Team collaboration | Not confirmed | Partial | Yes |
| Text to image | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Image editing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Text to video | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Image to video | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Video to video | Partial | No | Not confirmed |
| Native audio in video | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Lip-sync | Yes | No | Not confirmed |
| Voice / TTS | Partial | No | No |
| Music & SFX | Partial | No | No |
| Upscaling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Character consistency | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Camera control | Partial | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Custom training | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Third-party models | No | No | Yes |
| Public API | Yes | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No | Yes |
| Desktop / local | Yes | No | No |
| Open source | Partial | No | No |
| Free tier | Partial | No | Yes |
| Commercial use | 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 |
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) |
Recraft
| Free | $0monthly |
|---|---|
| Basic | $12 ($10/mo billed yearly)monthly |
| Pro | $20 ($16/mo billed yearly)monthly |
| Teams | $22 per seat ($18/mo billed yearly)per seat per month |
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
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
Recraft
Pick it for
- Title cards, logos and lower-third graphics that must scale without quality loss
- Production-design concept boards and set-dressing mockups for a film or series
- Icon and graphic systems for a festival, studio or film brand
Stands out
- Native SVG output from the same prompt box as raster images; most image generators only output PNG or JPEG
- Vector Editor in Studio lets you adjust AI-made SVG paths and colors without a round trip to Illustrator or Figma
Watch out
- Free tier is for personal use only; outputs are public and not licensed for commercial use
- Video is third-party models inside Studio, not Recraft's own model, and is not available through the API
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.