Image API cost

Image generation bills per output, not per token — but the per-image price swings 50× between a 512px draft and a high-res edited output. The real cost driver is your regeneration rate: typical pipelines discard 1–3 images for every keeper, and each discarded attempt is billed.

Final (keeper) images per month

Regeneration overhead % (discarded attempts ÷ keepers)

Price per image $ typical hosted range 2026: $0.003 draft · $0.01–0.08 standard · $0.10–0.25 high-res/edited

Image edits / variations % (inpaint & upscale ops ÷ keepers, priced ≈1.5×)

Storage + CDN $/month

The formula

attempts = keepers × (1 + regen%) images = attempts + keepers × edits% (edits priced at 1.5×) total = images × price + storage

Per-image price is an editable input because vendors quote by size/quality tier and change often — check your provider's current page and paste it. As of . Excluded: moderation retries and video models (different price class entirely).