Black Forest Labs releases Flux 1.1 Pro and an API

Black Forest Labs (BFL), a startup founded by the creators of the popular Stable Diffusion AI image generation model that underpins many AI image generation apps and services (such as Midjourney), has announced the release of a new, faster text-to-image model called Flux 1.1 Pro, and with it, a paid application programming interface (API) on which developers can build third-party apps powered by the model (or incorporate it into their existing apps).

This means that a company that offers creative tools can add Flux as an option to their offerings, if they (and by extension, their end users) are willing to pay the API costs.

Individual users can access the new Flux 1.1 Pro model not through Black Forest Labs’s site, but rather, through partners together.ai, Replicate, fal.ai, and Freepik. Some of these services refer to the model under a different name, such as “Flux Fast.”

No details were immediately provided about Flux 1.1 Pro’s training dataset, an issue of contention for generative AI companies with the original Stability AI and rival Midjourney being sued by artists who accuse the firms and others of violating their copyright by scraping and training en masse without consent or compensation on human-created images posted to the web. One key class action lawsuit against Stability AI and Midjourney remains in court.

The news comes following the success of Flux’s initial open source text-to-image AI model which powers Elon Musk’s Grok 2 chatbot from xAI and available to subscribers of his social network X.

Unlike its earlier model Flux.1, which was open source and free for anyone to download, fine-tune, customize, and otherwise use for all commercial or personal uses as they saw fit, the new Flux 1.1 Pro model appears to be, like Flux 1.0 Pro, a paid proprietary offering only. However, it is still available for commercial and enterprise usage.

BFL sees the launch of its API and Flux 1.1 Pro as major steps in its growth as a company, offering both developers and enterprises access to powerful and customizable tools for image generation.

Codenamed “Blueberry,” Flux 1.1 Pro takes the new top spot on the Artificial Analysis image arena leaderboard

Flux 1.1 Pro improves on the earlier Flux 1.0 Pro model by delivering six times faster generation speeds, while also enhancing image quality, prompt adherence, and diversity.

It enables workflows that prioritize speed without sacrificing quality, generating output three times faster than its predecessor.

Additionally, BFL announced an update for the original Flux 1.0 Pro, doubling its generation speed to improve efficiency across the board.

The performance of Flux 1.1 Pro has been validated through its secret debut on Artificial Analysis, an independent third party benchmark platform for comparing AI model performance, where the model was tested in the days prior to today’s announcement under the code name “blueberry.” (Some erroneously speculated on X that this was OpenAI testing Sora following its tests of the o1 LLM as “strawberry.”)

As of October 1, 2024, Flux 1.1 Pro holds the highest ELO score on the platform at 1153, surpassing other generative models in terms of visual fidelity and prompt accuracy, including Midjourney 6.1 (ELO score of 1100) and Ideogram v2 (score of 1108).

The ELO third-party benchmark was established earlier this summer of 2024 by Artificial Analysis co-founder and CEO Micah Hill-Smith and co-founder and Product Lead George Cameron, and uses human ratings of pairs of images to derive its scores.

For users demanding high-resolution outputs, Flux 1.1 Pro will soon support ultra-high-resolution images (up to 2k), maintaining its precision and speed through upcoming API updates.

BFL API offers developers AI image generation starting at 4 cents per image

Complementing the Flux 1.1 Pro release is the BFL API in beta, which brings BFL’s generative capabilities directly to businesses and developers looking to integrate state-of-the-art image generation into their own applications.

The API offers advanced customization, enabling users to adjust model choice, resolution, and content moderation to meet their specific needs. It also promises scalability, making it suitable for projects ranging from small-scale to enterprise-level.

BFL’s API comes with competitive pricing, making it attractive for users seeking high-quality outputs without excessive costs.

For example, the Flux 1.1 Pro image generation is priced at USD $0.04 per image, while the older Flux 1.0 Pro is available at $0.05 per image.

Developers can begin integrating the API today, and BFL promises ongoing improvements as the beta progresses.

The company envisions its API opening the door to countless creative applications, especially in industries like design, advertising, and entertainment, where demand for high-quality AI-generated media continues to grow.

Building on initial strong success

Black Forest Labs is no stranger to the spotlight. Just two months earlier, the company secured $31 million in seed funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with backing from high-profile investors such as Brendan Iribe, Michael Ovitz, and Garry Tan.

As reported by VentureBeat, the launch of BFL and its earlier Flux 1.0 model was widely seen as a milestone in the AI community.

BFL co-founders Robin Rombach, Patrick Esser, and Andreas Blattmann brought their expertise from Stability AI, the team behind Stable Diffusion, into this new venture, with a vision for more accessible, open-source generative AI tools.

Flux 1.0, which came in three variants (Flux 1.0 Pro, Flux 1.0 Dev, and Flux 1.0 Schnell), gained early praise for its 12-billion parameter architecture and its ability to match or even surpass the output quality of competing models like MidJourney and DALL-E.

The open-source nature of these models, especially Flux 1.0 Dev and Flux 1.0 Schnell, positioned BFL as a critical player in the debate over open-source versus proprietary AI.

Industry context and competition

Black Forest Labs’ move to launch Flux 1.1 Pro comes at a time of heightened competition in the generative AI media space, with many creators looking to harness text-to-image AI models alongside image-to-video models such as those from Pika, Runway, and Luma.

Midjourney and Ideogram are both competing directly with Flux in the paid proprietary text-to-image AI model space, while Stability AI continues to offer both open source and proprietary models under the leadership of former Weta (film special effects) CEO Prem Akkaraju and Hollywood director James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar, Terminator), who recently joined the company’s board.

This integration into a social platform signals how generative AI is becoming more accessible to mainstream users, raising the stakes for other players in the field.

What’s next for BFL?

Looking ahead, Black Forest Labs is already working on expanding its generative AI capabilities beyond images.

The company has set its sights on text-to-video systems, a development that could further solidify its leadership in the AI-driven media space.

If successful, BFL’s expansion into video could further disrupt industries such as advertising, content creation, and virtual reality. It also comes as Midjourney is reportedly pursuing generative AI video models and hardware as well.

For now, Flux 1.1 Pro and the BFL API represent significant advancements in generative technology, offering users faster, more efficient tools without compromising quality.

Whether through their own API or partner platforms like together.ai, Replicate, fal.ai, and Freepik, BFL is looking to make Flux 1.1 Pro the AI image generation model of choice for most users.

As BFL continues to push the boundaries of generative AI, the company is also expanding its workforce, seeking talented innovators to join its mission. Interested candidates can explore open positions via the company’s website.