Ideogram API Pricing in 2026: Cost per Image for Every Model

Ideogram API pricing starts at $0.03 per image for Ideogram 4.5 at Low quality, $0.06 at Medium and $0.10 at High, paid from a prepaid balance. This guide lists the rates on Ideogram's API pricing page as read on 14 October 2026, compares the cost per image with GPT Image, Nano Banana and Recraft, and prices the same images per run on Wireflow, the node-based AI canvas we build. We sell another way to run these models, so confirm prices on each provider's page.

The short version: Ideogram 4.5 costs the same at 1K and 2K, so a 2K image at Medium is $0.06, or $60 per 1,000. Ideogram's v2 API also resells GPT Image and Nano Banana at the providers' list prices, but not Recraft, whose V4 model costs $0.04 an image when you buy direct. For one of the resold models in detail, see our Nano Banana 2 API guide.

Ideogram API pricing at a glance

Ideogram bills every generated image at a flat rate set by the model and its quality setting. Generate, remix, edit (inpaint), reframe and replace background all share the model's rate, and a request that returns four images costs four times the rate. If you are still choosing a model, our overview of the AI image generator options covers where each one fits.

Model	Cheapest setting	Middle setting	Top setting
Ideogram 4.5, 1K or 2K	Low, $0.03	Medium, $0.06	High, $0.10
Ideogram 4.0	Turbo, $0.03	Default, $0.06	Quality, $0.10
Ideogram 3.0	Flash or Turbo, $0.03	Default, $0.06	Quality, $0.09
P-Image Ideogram, 1K	Very Low, $0.003	Medium, $0.01	Very High, $0.033
P-Image Ideogram, 2K	Very Low, $0.006	Medium, $0.02	Very High, $0.066

Ideogram's pricing page on 14 October 2026, showing the API usage costs tab with Ideogram 4.5 rates per generated image

Two details on that page are easy to miss. Ideogram 4.5 charges the same at 1K and 2K, so rendering small and upscaling later saves nothing. And image to image has its own rates: Generate with source images costs $0.22 at High, more than double the $0.10 text-only rate, while Precise Edit starts at $0.008. Most of these images end up in typography-heavy work such as AI posters for events and marketing.

How Ideogram API billing works

API usage is prepaid and managed in a separate API dashboard. Several guides that rank for this search still describe an older $40 starting top-up that no longer applies. The same prepaid, pay-per-output model shows up across the usage-based AI API pricing tools we compared.

Prepaid balance. You add $10, $20, $50, $100 or a custom amount from $1 to $300, and the balance cannot go above $300.
Auto recharge. It starts off. Once on, it tops the balance up when it falls below a threshold, by default a $10 threshold and a $20 top-up balance.
No balance, no requests. Keys work as soon as you create them, but requests return a 402 error until the account has a payment method and credits, and keys pause when the balance reaches $0.
App subscribers. If you have an Ideogram subscription, API requests use its monthly credits first when they cover the whole request.
Rate limit. The default is 10 in-flight requests. Higher limits and volume pricing go through sales.
Expiring links. Image and video URLs from the API expire, so download and store anything you keep.

An open notebook on a stone window ledge, standing in for a prepaid API balance

Which other models the Ideogram API resells

The v2 API is no longer Ideogram-only. Every endpoint follows one pattern, POST /v2/{content}/{action}/{model}, and the model list now includes OpenAI's GPT Image, Google's Nano Banana, Topaz upscalers and video models. Resold models bill at the provider's list price, so the reason to buy them here is one key and one balance, not a discount. Our guide to chaining multiple AI models in one API call covers the same one-key idea from the workflow side.

Model on Ideogram's API	Ideogram's price per image	Provider's own list price
Nano Banana 2, 1K	$0.0672	$0.067
Nano Banana 2, 2K	$0.1008	$0.101
Nano Banana 2, 4K	$0.1512	$0.151
Nano Banana Pro, 1K or 2K	$0.1344	$0.134
Nano Banana Pro, 4K	$0.24	$0.24
GPT Image 2, 2.5 Flare and 2.5 Sunburst	OpenAI's token prices	$30 per million image output tokens

What you give up is batch pricing. Google's Gemini API lists a batch rate that halves Nano Banana 2 to $0.034 at 1K and Nano Banana Pro to $0.067, and OpenAI halves its GPT Image token prices for batch jobs. Ideogram's page lists only the standard rates, so a large job that can wait overnight is cheaper direct from the provider. Our Nano Banana 2 API page covers what that model is best at.

Cost per image: Ideogram vs GPT Image, Nano Banana and Recraft

This table puts each model at its own list price, per image and per 1,000 images, as read on 14 October 2026. GPT Image 2 figures are OpenAI's published estimates for a 1024 x 1024 image; OpenAI does not publish a per-image table for GPT Image 2.5, which bills by tokens. Recraft's figures come from Recraft's API pricing, and our Recraft V4 API examples show what that model produces.

Model	Setting	Per image	Per 1,000 images
GPT Image 2	Low, 1024 x 1024	$0.006	$6
Recraft V4.1 Flash	Raster	$0.007	$7
Ideogram 4.5	Low, 1K or 2K	$0.03	$30
Recraft V4	Raster	$0.04	$40
GPT Image 2	Medium, 1024 x 1024	$0.053	$53
Ideogram 4.5	Medium, 1K or 2K	$0.06	$60
Nano Banana 2	1K	$0.067	$67
Recraft V4	Vector (SVG)	$0.08	$80
Ideogram 4.5	High, 1K or 2K	$0.10	$100
Nano Banana 2	2K	$0.101	$101
Nano Banana Pro	1K or 2K	$0.134	$134
GPT Image 2	High, 1024 x 1024	$0.211	$211
Recraft V4 Pro	Raster, 2K	$0.25	$250

Two patterns stand out. At 2K, Ideogram 4.5 at Medium ($0.06) costs less than Nano Banana 2 ($0.101) or Nano Banana Pro ($0.134), because Ideogram does not charge extra for the larger size. GPT Image 2 has the widest spread, from $0.006 at Low to $0.211 at High for the same 1024 x 1024 image, so its quality setting moves the bill more than the choice of model. Recraft is the only one here that sells native vector output, at $0.08 an SVG, which matters for logo work.

What pushes the real cost higher

The tables show the best case: every image kept. These line items change the real number, as add-ons do across other image editing API tools.

Images per request. Each output image is billed, so asking for four images costs four times the rate.
Retries. At three takes for each image you keep, a kept Ideogram 4.5 image at Medium costs $0.18.
Image to image at High. Generate with source images costs $0.22 at High, against $0.10 from text alone.
Character reference. Ideogram 3.0 with a character reference costs $0.10 to $0.20, against $0.03 to $0.09 without one.
Upscaling. Topaz bills per output megapixel. A 2048 x 2048 image upscaled 2x is 16.8 megapixels, about $0.50 with Topaz Standard V2 at $0.03 per megapixel.
Custom models. Training costs $40 per run, and a custom Ideogram 4.0 model then generates at $0.06 to $0.20, double the base model's rate at every setting.

A glass sphere on a stone plinth beside a pool, standing in for the price of one generated image

Same prompt, three models: what we saw

We ran one poster prompt, with the headline "NORTHLIGHT LIVE" and the line "Friday 8 PM", through Ideogram 4.5 at Medium, Recraft V4 and GPT Image 2.5 Flare at the same 3:4 size. All three spelled the headline correctly. Ideogram's MagicPrompt prompt expansion, which was on in our run, added a venue line and a "Presented by" credit we did not ask for, so turn prompt expansion off when the copy must be exact. The same check is worth running before you pick a model for an AI poster maker pipeline.

The same poster prompt rendered by Ideogram 4.5, Recraft V4 and GPT Image 2.5 Flare, left to right

Side by side is also how you compare cost per kept image rather than cost per call. Ideogram's API can put Ideogram 4.5 next to GPT Image and Nano Banana under one key, but Recraft needs a second account and a second balance. If you want one API over many image models, with Recraft and Ideogram in the same graph, the trade is a per-run price instead of the lowest rate per image.

Which option fits your workload

Pick by the output you need first, then by volume. The same order works when you weigh GPT Image 2.5 against the other models.

Ideogram API direct: the cheapest route to Ideogram 4.5, plus one balance for GPT Image and Nano Banana.
Google or OpenAI direct: large jobs that can wait for batch pricing.
Recraft direct: vector output, or raster images from $0.007 with V4.1 Flash.
A per-run canvas: pipelines that chain generate, edit and upscale steps, where one call and one bill matter more than the lowest rate.

The bottom line

Budget $0.06 for an Ideogram 4.5 image at Medium on Ideogram's own API, then multiply by your real number of takes and add any upscaling. Nano Banana and GPT Image cost the same through Ideogram as direct, without the batch discounts, and Recraft stays a separate account. Our Higgsfield AI pricing guide does the same sum for video credits.

For comparison, the table prices the same images per run on Wireflow, using the credit rates on its pricing page on 14 October 2026: Starter at $24 for 1,600 credits and Professional at $45 for 4,300. The direct APIs are cheaper per image in almost every row; on Professional, Ideogram 4.5 costs more than three times its direct Medium rate. Our poster run above used 44 credits. Paying per run suits work where the image is one step in a pipeline you call from a canvas, an API or an agent: Wireflow's API runs a saved graph with POST /api/v1/workflows/{id}/run and a Bearer key, charges only for model nodes that finish, and its rate limits allow 10 workflow executions a minute on every plan. Settings change the cost of some nodes, so check the cost shown before each run.

Image	Direct API, per image	Credits per image	Wireflow Starter, $24	Wireflow Professional, $45
Ideogram 4.5	$0.03 to $0.10	19	$0.29	$0.20
Recraft V4	$0.04	13	$0.20	$0.14
GPT Image 2.5 Flare	Usage-based	17	$0.26	$0.18
GPT Image 2	$0.006 to $0.211	44	$0.66	$0.46
Nano Banana 2	$0.067 to $0.151	20	$0.30	$0.21
Nano Banana Pro	$0.134 to $0.24	20	$0.30	$0.21

Try it yourself: Run this three-model poster comparison in Wireflow. The nodes are pre-configured: one prompt feeds Ideogram 4.5, Recraft V4 and GPT Image 2.5 Flare side by side.

FAQ

How much does the Ideogram API cost per image?

Ideogram 4.5 costs $0.03 at Low, $0.06 at Medium and $0.10 at High per generated image, at 1K or 2K, as listed on 14 October 2026. Ideogram 4.0 and 3.0 cost $0.03 to $0.10, and the budget P-Image Ideogram model starts at $0.003.

Is the Ideogram API free to use?

No. A free Ideogram account is enough to create an API key, but requests are rejected with a 402 error until the account has a payment method and credits. If you have an Ideogram app subscription, its monthly credits pay for API requests first when they cover the whole request.

How do I pay for the Ideogram API?

Through a prepaid balance in the API dashboard, paid through Stripe. You can add $10, $20, $50, $100 or a custom amount from $1 to $300, the balance is capped at $300, and auto recharge can top it up below a threshold you set.

Does a 2K image cost more than a 1K image on Ideogram?

Not with Ideogram 4.5, which charges the same at 1K and 2K. P-Image Ideogram costs about twice as much at 2K, and Nano Banana 2 costs $0.1008 at 2K against $0.0672 at 1K.

Is Nano Banana cheaper through Ideogram or through Google?

The standard price is the same: Nano Banana 2 is $0.0672 at 1K on Ideogram's page and $0.067 on Google's. Google's batch rate halves that to $0.034, and Ideogram's page does not list a batch rate.

How does Ideogram compare with Recraft on price?

Recraft is not part of Ideogram's API. Direct from Recraft, V4 costs $0.04 per raster image and $0.08 per vector image, and V4.1 Flash costs $0.007. Ideogram 4.5 at Low costs $0.03, close to Recraft V4 raster.