Pick Leonardo AI if…
you need many images in a consistent style — characters, items, product shots — and want unused tokens to roll over.
Leonardo is about control and repeatability: fine-tuned custom models for game assets and product mockups. Ideogram is about one hard problem — rendering accurate, readable text inside an image. Both have free tiers that publish your images, and both price generations differently depending on the model.
Pick Leonardo AI ($12/mo) for consistent asset sets from custom models, with private images on its cheapest plan. Pick Ideogram ($20/mo) for logos, posters, thumbnails and memes where the lettering has to come out right.
| App | Free tier | Paid from | Top plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leonardo AI | Yes | $12/mo | $60/mo | Game assets, product mockups, and creators who want fine-tuned custom models |
| Ideogram | Yes | $20/mo | $60/mo | Logos, posters, memes, and any image that needs accurate, readable text inside it |
Monthly prices in US dollars before tax, from each vendor's official pricing (US list price; weekly-billed plans converted to a monthly figure). Updated November 2, 2026
| Leonardo AI | Ideogram | |
|---|---|---|
| Best at | Game assets, product mockups, custom models | Logos, posters, memes — readable text in images |
| Free tier | 150 fast tokens/day, no rollover, public gallery | 30 slow credits/week, public images, no delete |
| Entry plan | 8,500 tokens/mo + 25,500 rollover bank, private | 2,400 priority credits/mo, 8 concurrent generations |
| Top individual plan | Ultimate: 60,000 tokens/mo, unlimited relaxed video | Pro: 7,500 credits/mo, batch generation, 32 concurrent |
| Pricing catch | Fast, relaxed and unlimited vary by model | Credit cost swings widely by model |
you need many images in a consistent style — characters, items, product shots — and want unused tokens to roll over.
your images carry words: brand marks, event posters, social graphics or YouTube thumbnails.
Yes. Text rendering is Ideogram's specialty and the reason it was founded by ex-Google Brain researchers.
Leonardo Essential is $12/mo; Ideogram Plus is $20/mo. Since both charge different amounts per image depending on the model, compare on the models you'll actually use.
Canva acquired Leonardo in July 2024.
How we choose: prices come from each vendor's official pricing page and are re-checked every week. We take no affiliate fees, so rankings aren't for sale.