Stable Diffusion

Open-weight text-to-image models from Stability AI you can run and customize on your own hardware.

Open Source Image & Design
Visit Website ↗ by Stability AI

What is Stable Diffusion?

Stable Diffusion is the open-weight diffusion model family from Stability AI (current line: SD 3.5, SDXL, SDXL Turbo) that made AI image generation accessible outside cloud services. Because the weights are public, anyone can run them locally on a consumer GPU and fine-tune or extend them with LoRAs and ControlNets. The Community License allows free use for non-commercial purposes and commercial use under $1M annual revenue.

Key features

  • Open-weight diffusion models (SD 3.5, SDXL, SDXL Turbo) with public code and weights
  • Runs locally on consumer hardware with a modest GPU
  • Full customizability via fine-tuning, LoRAs and ControlNet
  • Inpainting, outpainting and image-to-image generation
  • Community License: free for non-commercial use and commercial use under $1M annual revenue
  • Weights distributed on Hugging Face; hosted access via the Stability AI API

Watch: Stable Diffusion tutorial

Stable Diffusion Tutorial. ULTIMATE Guide Stable Diffusion Tutorial. ULTIMATE Guide — Sebastian Kamph

Video by Sebastian Kamph on YouTube — plays here without leaving this page.

Pros

  • Free to download and run yourself — no subscription required for the core models
  • Unmatched control and customizability through the open ecosystem of fine-tunes and tools
  • Privacy and independence: runs offline with no per-image cloud costs

Cons

  • Requires technical setup and a capable GPU; far less approachable than hosted services
  • Output quality and prompt adherence can lag newer closed models without careful tuning
  • Commercial use above $1M annual revenue requires an Enterprise license

Stable Diffusion at a glance

PricingOpen Source
CategoryImage & Design
Platformsapi
CompanyStability AI
Official websitestability.ai
text-to-imageopen-sourceopen-weightsself-hostedfine-tuningloraimage-generatorlocal-ai

How to choose the right Image & Design tool

For image and design tools, judge by output quality on your kind of project — product shots, social posts, illustrations or brand assets — not by gallery examples. Control matters: can you set sizes and aspect ratios, keep a consistent style or character, edit one part of an image without regenerating everything, and export in the formats you need (PNG, SVG, print resolution)? Check the licence carefully before commercial use: who owns the output, and are stock elements included? Also compare pricing honestly — credit-based plans can get expensive fast if you iterate a lot, so a free trial with your real workload tells you more than any feature list.

Compare all Image & Design tools →

Stable Diffusion FAQs

What is Stable Diffusion?

Stable Diffusion is the open-weight diffusion model family from Stability AI (current line: SD 3.5, SDXL, SDXL Turbo) that made AI image generation accessible outside cloud services. Because the weights are public, anyone can run them locally on a consumer GPU and fine-tune or extend them with LoRAs and ControlNets. The Community License allows free use for non-commercial purposes and commercial use under $1M annual revenue.

What are the main features of Stable Diffusion?

Stable Diffusion offers Open-weight diffusion models (SD 3.5, SDXL, SDXL Turbo) with public code and weights, Runs locally on consumer hardware with a modest GPU, Full customizability via fine-tuning, LoRAs and ControlNet, Inpainting, outpainting and image-to-image generation, Community License: free for non-commercial use and commercial use under $1M annual revenue and Weights distributed on Hugging Face; hosted access via the Stability AI API.

How much does Stable Diffusion cost?

Stable Diffusion is open source, so the software itself is free to download, use and self-host. Your only costs are the infrastructure you run it on and any paid services you connect to it.

What are the pros and cons of Stable Diffusion?

Strengths of Stable Diffusion include Free to download and run yourself — no subscription required for the core models; Unmatched control and customizability through the open ecosystem of fine-tunes and tools; Privacy and independence: runs offline with no per-image cloud costs. On the downside, Requires technical setup and a capable GPU; far less approachable than hosted services; Output quality and prompt adherence can lag newer closed models without careful tuning; Commercial use above $1M annual revenue requires an Enterprise license.