The best free AI services for creating and editing photos
Digital images have become an integral part of our lives in just 20-30 years – from preserving personal memories to creating professional content and memes. Artificial intelligence has revolutionized this field, providing incredible opportunities to generate unique images from scratch and professionally edit existing photos. You no longer need to be an experienced designer or spend years learning complex software – AI makes magic accessible to everyone.
So it’s no surprise that AI image generation services have started popping up one after another. Even your smartphone probably already has a built-in image creation app. Or, your standard gallery can remove unnecessary objects from photos.
Who are AI photo services relevant for?
- Content creators and bloggers: Quickly create unique images for social media, articles, and advertising campaigns.
- Designers: Idea generation, rapid prototyping, photo enhancement and retouching.
- Photographers: Restoring old photos, improving quality, removing unwanted objects.
- Marketers: Creating visual content for promotional materials without large budgets for stock photos.
- Regular users: Just for fun, creating avatars, unique wallpapers, memes, etc.
The main advantage of many modern AI services is the ability to try them for free. This allows each user to evaluate the functionality, quality of generation or editing, and choose the tool that best suits their needs without spending money.
To clearly demonstrate the capabilities of each service in creating images, we suggest you evaluate how they coped with the following task. This prompt is detailed enough to reveal the nuances of the work of different AI models:
Prompt: "A vibrant, panoramic view of a sunflower field in Ukraine under a clear blue sky. In the distance, a small, traditional Ukrainian village with white houses and blue roofs. The style should be realistic, with warm, golden hour lighting."
(A bright, panoramic view of a sunflower field in Ukraine under a clear blue sky. In the distance is a small traditional Ukrainian village with white houses and blue roofs. The style should be realistic, with warm lighting at sunset.)
Let's consider the most interesting and accessible tools:
1. DALL-E 3 (via ChatGPT / Microsoft Copilot / Bing Image Creator)
OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, integrated into ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Bing Image Creator, is one of the most powerful image generators available. It has an extraordinary ability to understand complex prompts and produce highly detailed and aesthetically pleasing images.
Features: Generating images from text, high quality and realism, well understands the nuances of queries.
Free access: Available for free via ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Bing Image Creator with a certain number of "boosts" (fast generations) per day.
What to expect from the prompt: Very high probability of getting a realistic image of a sunflower field with a correctly positioned village and desired lighting. DALL-E 3 perfectly captures the details and atmosphere.
2. Leonardo.ai
A platform that provides access to a variety of image generation models based on Flux and Stable Diffusion, as well as its own unique models. Very popular among artists and designers due to its flexible settings.
Features: Generating images from text, converting images to video, upscaling, various styles and settings, the ability to train your own models.
Free access: Daily free credits (usually 150-200), enough for several dozen generations per day.
What to expect from the prompt: Ability to get very high-quality and detailed images. Thanks to different models, you can experiment with the level of realism. The result will be close to the desired one.
3. Ideogram.ai
A relatively new but very promising image generator that is particularly notable for its ability to accurately generate text within images. This is a big plus for creating logos, posters, or images with inscriptions.
Features: Generating images from text, excellent work with text in images, variety of styles.
Free access: Provides free access to image generation with a certain number of daily generations.
What to expect from the prompt: You'll get bright, stylized images. The style may be a little less realistic than DALL-E 3 or Leonardo.ai, leaning towards artistic rendering, but details (sunflowers, village, sky) will be well rendered.
A set of generative AI tools from Adobe, integrated into their products and available as a separate online service. Particularly strong in Generative Fill and image enhancement.
Features: Image generation from text, generative fill/expansion (add/remove objects), text effects, recoloring vector graphics.
Free access: A certain number of free generative credits are provided each month.
What to expect from the prompt: Adobe Firefly creates high-quality and aesthetic images. It may take a few tries to achieve perfect realism, but overall the result will be very good. Its strengths are more evident in editing.
One of the most popular AI art generators, available as a mobile app and web service. Known for its ease of use and large number of artistic styles that can be applied to generated images.
Features: Generation of images from text, choice of artistic styles (fantasy, dark fantasy, photorealism, etc.).
Free access: Most features are available for free, with the option of paid improvements and generation acceleration.
What to expect from the prompt: You will receive vibrant, often artistically interpreted images. The service is great for creating unique and stylized visualizations.
6. Google's Image Generation (via Gemini)
As a large language model, Gemini has access to image generation tools powered by Google technologies. This allows visual content to be created right during a conversation, making the process intuitive.
Features: Generation of images from text description, quick creation of concepts and visualizations.
Free access: Available when interacting with Gemini and other Google products that integrate this functionality.
What to expect from the prompt: Ability to get a fairly accurate and realistic image as described, with good detail and color reproduction. Results may vary, so it's worth trying a few times or refining the prompt.
Popular online editor Canva has integrated an AI-powered image generation feature, allowing you to create visual content directly within the design environment. Perfect for creating graphics for social media, presentations, and more.
Features: Generating images from text, integration into Canva design projects, wide selection of styles.
Free access: Available for free accounts with certain generation limits.
What to expect from the prompt: You'll get images that may be a bit more stylized or artistic than hyper-realistic. Good for quickly creating backgrounds or illustrations.
An online platform that allows users to create images using various AI algorithms, including Flux, HiDream, and DALL-E. Known for its community and the opportunity to experiment with different styles.
Features: Image generation from text, image conversion, various algorithms and artistic styles, contests and community.
Free Access: Provides free credits every day (usually for logging in and participating in the community), enough for several generations.
What to expect from the prompt: Depending on the model you choose, you can get either very realistic or artistically interpreted images. The platform gives you a lot of control over the style.
Popular mobile and web photo editor Picsart has integrated powerful AI tools, including a text-to-image generator, allowing users to add AI-generated elements or create new images for their projects.
Features: Generating images from text, photo editing tools (background removal, retouching, filters), collages, creating stickers.
Free access: Available in a free version of the app/web platform with limitations or as part of a trial period.
What to expect from the prompt: Get bright and often stylized images. Picsart tends to create visually appealing content that is well-suited for social media.
10. RunwayML
A platform specializing in generative video and images. Offers advanced capabilities for creating images from text, as well as powerful tools for image transformation, styling, and editing.
Features: Generating images from text, converting image to image, various generation models that are constantly updated.
Free access: Provides a free plan with a limited number of credits, allowing you to try out the basic features.
What to expect from the prompt: RunwayML can produce very high-quality and realistic images thanks to its advanced models. The results often have a professional look.
AI services for creating and editing photos truly open up new horizons for creativity and productivity. Regardless of whether you are a professional or just an amateur, these tools allow you to create captivating visual content quickly and efficiently. The main thing is to learn how to formulate requests (prompts) correctly - the clearer and more detailed you describe the task, the better the result you will get.
Write in the comments which service, in your opinion, created the best image from the given prompt? And which service do you use for your tasks?