AI Image Generation Cost Calculator
Calculate per-image and monthly costs across DALL-E 3, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and self-hosted GPU.
About this calculator
AI image generation cost varies enormously by provider and settings because different services price the same underlying capability -- turning a text prompt into a rendered image -- in fundamentally different ways. This calculator models three distinct pricing shapes: hosted API providers (DALL-E, Stable Diffusion API) that charge a fixed price per image based on resolution and quality tier, subscription services (Midjourney) whose per-image cost is really a monthly plan fee divided across however many images you generate (Midjourney's is anchored to its $10/month Basic plan and roughly 200 fast-GPU images per month, not a per-resolution price list), and self-hosted GPU inference where cost comes from renting compute time rather than paying per image directly -- the calculator estimates this as GPU-hours needed per image at an assumed hourly rate. Because pricing for all of these services changes over time as providers update their rate cards, treat the specific dollar figures baked into this calculator as illustrative reference points from when it was built, not live, current pricing -- always confirm current rates on the provider's own pricing page before budgeting a real project.
Batch generation, where supported, typically earns a small discount versus generating the same number of images one at a time, since providers can process a batch more efficiently than equivalent individual requests. Storage is estimated separately from generation cost, since larger resolutions produce proportionally larger files -- a month of high-resolution images at meaningful daily volume can add up to a non-trivial storage bill on top of the generation cost itself, which is easy to overlook when budgeting only for API calls.
Inputs
Results
Cost per image ($)
$0.04
Monthly cost ($)
$120.00
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter Images per Day — how many images your application or workflow generates daily.
- Choose the Resolution (e.g., 1024×1024 for standard, 1024×1792 for HD portrait) as larger sizes cost more.
- Select the Provider: DALL-E 3, DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion API, Midjourney, or self-hosted GPU.
- For DALL-E 3, toggle HD Quality if you need higher-quality renders.
- Review Cost per Image, Monthly Cost, and Monthly Storage to plan your AI image budget.
How the result changes with Batch size
| Batch size | Cost per image ($) | Monthly cost ($) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $0.04 | $120.00 |
| 1.5 | $0.04 | $114.00 |
| 2.5 | $0.04 | $114.00 |
What each input means
- Images per day
- Number of images generated per day.
- Resolution
- Select the resolution. DALL-E 3 only sells 1024x1024 and 1024x1792 (HD) -- selecting 256x256 or 512x512 with DALL-E 3 is priced as 1024x1024.
- Provider
- Select the provider
- HD quality (DALL-E 3)
- Select the hd quality (dall-e 3)
- Batch size
- Images per batch request. Batches >1 receive a ~5% discount.
What each result means
- Cost per image ($)
- Effective cost to generate one image with selected settings.
- Daily cost ($)
- Total daily image generation cost.
- Monthly cost ($)
- Projected 30-day generation cost.
- Annual cost ($)
- Projected 365-day cost.
- Cost per 1K images ($)
- Cost to generate 1,000 images at current settings.
- Monthly images
- Total images generated in a 30-day period.
- Monthly storage (GB)
- Estimated storage needed for one month of generated images.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters5 parametersImages per day = 100, Resolution = 2, Provider = 0, HD quality (DALL-E 3) = 0, Batch size = 1 = 5 input(s) provided
- Calculate Cost per imageCost per image = costPerImage * batchDiscount0.04 = $0.04
- Calculate Monthly costMonthly cost = dailyCost * 30120 = $120
- Calculate Daily costDaily cost = imagesPerDay * effectiveCostPerImage4 = $4
- Calculate Annual costAnnual cost = dailyCost * 3651460 = $1,460
Engine last updated . Checked against 3 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does daily image volume not change the cost per image?
Cost per image is determined entirely by the provider, resolution, and quality settings you select -- it represents the fixed price to generate one image at those settings, independent of how many images you generate that day. Images per day only affects the totals that are built from that fixed per-image cost -- daily cost, monthly cost, and monthly image count -- by multiplying it, not the per-image price itself.
Why are Midjourney and self-hosted GPU costs described as estimates rather than fixed prices?
Midjourney bills through monthly subscription plans rather than charging per image directly, so this calculator estimates an effective per-image cost by dividing a typical plan price across a typical volume of images -- your actual cost per image will differ based on which plan you're on and how many images you actually generate against it. Self-hosted GPU cost is estimated from an assumed hourly rental rate and generation time per image, both of which vary by GPU model, cloud provider, and how efficiently your pipeline is configured.
Does batch size affect how many images I generate per month?
No -- batch size only affects the per-image discount some providers offer for generating multiple images in a single request; it does not change the total image count. Monthly image count is driven entirely by images per day multiplied by 30, regardless of whether those images are requested one at a time or grouped into batches.
Why does higher resolution increase both generation cost and storage cost?
Resolution affects two separate things: the provider's per-image price (higher resolutions require more compute to render and are priced accordingly) and the file size of each generated image (higher resolutions produce proportionally larger files). Both effects compound in the same direction for most providers, so switching to a higher resolution tier raises your generation cost per image and your monthly storage requirement at the same time. The one exception is DALL-E 3: it only actually sells 1024x1024 and 1024x1792 (HD), not the smaller DALL-E 2 sizes, so selecting 256x256 or 512x512 with DALL-E 3 selected is computed (and displayed) as 1024x1024, the smallest size DALL-E 3 offers -- cost and storage stay flat across those two selections and only jump again at 1024x1792.
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