Leonardo AI vs Recraft

The Short Answer

Leonardo AI and Recraft both sell creative AI subscriptions with a free tier, monthly credits and a separate API, but they optimize for different outputs. Leonardo is a broad creator platform: images, video, design and motion, many models, personal model training, presets and a large monthly token allowance. Recraft is a design-asset tool: native vectors, brand styles and palettes, mockups and a per-image API tuned for production.

Choose Leonardo when you need a flexible studio for creative exploration across images and video, especially if you want to train personal models or generate a lot at a relaxed pace. Choose Recraft when you need editable vectors, brand-consistent graphics and predictable per-image API costs.

Prices below come from Leonardo's and Recraft's official pricing pages and Recraft's API pricing documentation, checked on September 30, 2026. Leonardo pricing, Recraft pricing, Recraft API pricing.

What Each Platform Offers

Leonardo positions one subscription across image, video, design and motion, available on the web and in its apps. Paid plans include private creations, enhanced quality settings, unlimited personal collections, personal AI models that you train on your own images, and a token bank that stores unused tokens up to three months of allowance. Higher plans add unlimited image generation, and on the top plan video generation, for select models at a relaxed pace. Leonardo also sells team plans with shared tokens and a separate developer API.

Recraft's current models are the V4.1 family: standard, Pro and Flash for raster images, plus V4.1 Vector and V4.1 Pro Vector for native vector output. Its canvas adds brand tools such as custom styles, custom color palettes, a style library, a magic wand and creative upscale. Paid plans include third-party image models such as Nano Banana, Seedream, GPT Image and Flux, and the Pro plan adds video models such as Kling, Veo and Seedance.

In short, Leonardo gives creators more generation capacity and customization; Recraft gives designers more control over the format and consistency of the final asset.

Plans and Pricing

Leonardo offers up to 20% off with yearly billing. Recraft's annual prices save 20%. Recraft's subscription credits reset each billing cycle and do not roll over, while top-up credits never expire. Leonardo's token bank lets unused tokens accumulate up to three times the monthly allowance.

On raw allowance, Leonardo's plans are generous: Premium's 25,000 monthly tokens plus unlimited relaxed image generation on select models suit creators who generate constantly. Recraft's allowances are smaller in credits, but its value is in the type of output, particularly vectors, rather than the number of generations.

Where Leonardo AI Wins

Generation volume. Premium and Ultimate include unlimited relaxed image generation on select models, and Ultimate adds unlimited relaxed video generation on select models. For creators producing large numbers of concepts, variations or social visuals, that is hard to beat at $30 to $60 a month.

Personal models. Leonardo lets you train personal AI models on your own images: 10 on Essential, 20 on Premium and 50 on Ultimate. That helps keep a character, product or illustration style consistent across many generations.

Image and video in one studio. Leonardo's subscription covers image, video, design and motion, so a creator can move from a still to an animated clip without another tool.

Token bank. Unused tokens roll into a bank up to three months of allowance, which smooths out uneven months. Recraft's subscription credits reset each cycle.

Where Recraft Wins

Native vectors and design formats. Recraft generates true vector images and can vectorize existing ones, which is essential for logos, icons and illustrations that must scale or be edited in design software.

Brand consistency tools. Custom styles, custom palettes and shared team styles help a design team keep hundreds of assets on brand. Leonardo's personal models address consistency too, but Recraft's tools are built around brand systems.

Predictable API pricing. Recraft publishes a per-image price for every model: $0.035 for V4.1 raster, $0.08 for V4.1 Vector, $0.21 for V4.1 Pro, $0.30 for V4.1 Pro Vector and $0.007 for V4.1 Flash, at $0.001 per API unit. Vectorization and background removal cost $0.01 each. That makes it simple to budget a pipeline.

Model variety in the canvas. Recraft's paid plans include third-party image models such as Nano Banana, Seedream, GPT Image and Flux next to Recraft's own, and Pro adds video models.

Cost Scenarios

The team comparison shows the plans are close in price per seat. The choice depends on output: Leonardo for high-volume raster and video creation, Recraft for vector and brand assets.

Commercial Rights and Privacy

On both platforms, free-plan output is public. Recraft states that its Free plan is for personal use only and that free images cannot be used commercially; every paid Recraft plan adds commercial rights and private generations. Leonardo's Free plan makes creations public, and paid plans make them private. Leonardo's commercial-use terms differ between free public generations and paid private ones, so buyers should confirm the current terms for their plan before using outputs in client work.

For teams, both offer shared workspaces. Leonardo's team plan pools tokens across seats; Recraft's Teams plan shares custom styles, adds centralized account management and billing, premium support and single sign-on.

Workflow Differences in Practice

A typical Leonardo session starts with a model or preset, a prompt and optional reference images, then moves through variations, upscaling and, where needed, a short video. Personal models trained on your own images keep a character or product consistent across a whole series, and unlimited relaxed generation on select models makes large batches affordable.

A typical Recraft session starts from a style or brand palette. You generate within that style, refine on the canvas with tools such as the magic wand and creative upscale, then export raster or vector files. Because Recraft publishes a per-image API price for every model, the same brief can later be automated with a predictable budget.

Decision Framework

Choosing a Plan Size

For Leonardo, the jump that matters most is from Essential to Premium. Essential at $12 gives 8,500 monthly tokens, which suits steady but moderate use. Premium at $30 triples the tokens to 25,000 and adds unlimited relaxed image generation on select models, which is the better value for anyone who generates daily. Ultimate at $60 is for creators who also want unlimited relaxed video generation on select models or need up to 50 personal models.

For Recraft, Basic at $12 a month, or $10 billed annually, covers commercial rights, private generations and third-party image models with 1,000 credits. Pro at $20, or $16 annually, doubles the credits and adds video models and more parallel generations, and larger credit tiers are available when a team needs more. If most of your volume goes through code rather than the app, the API's per-image prices may be cheaper than a larger subscription.

Final Recommendation

Choose Leonardo AI if you are a creator or content team that generates a lot, explores many styles, wants video in the same workspace, or needs personal models for consistent characters and products. Choose Recraft if you are a designer or brand team that needs vectors, consistent brand assets and a clean per-image API.

Both have free plans, so test before paying. Use the same three briefs in each: an icon set in one style, a product hero image and a short series of social visuals. Count attempts, check how much editing the outputs need, and confirm commercial terms for the plan you choose, because free outputs on both platforms are public.

Revisit the choice after a quarter. If most delivered files turn out to be vectors and brand graphics, Recraft deserves the larger plan; if most are raster images and clips, Leonardo does.