Is FLUX Free? Which FLUX Models You Can Run Free, What the Licences Allow, and What an Image Costs Otherwise (November 2026)
Live figures last changed · 4 min read · The GenMagic team
FLUX is free in one way: some of Black Forest Labs' models have open weights you can download and run on your own graphics card at no charge, each under its own licence. FLUX 3 Image Klein's weights, released on October 15, 2026, allow commercial use by individuals and businesses under $5 million in yearly revenue and run on a consumer GPU with 8 GB of video memory. FLUX 3 Image itself is API only, and Black Forest Labs' API has no free tier: it sells credits at one cent each, with FLUX 3 Image Klein from $0.009 an image.
This guide covers which FLUX weights are free, and for what, what you need to run them, Black Forest Labs' API and playground, what an image costs without a GPU, and questions.
A note on who wrote this: GenMagic sells the FLUX models per image and is one of the routes below; its prices come from its live catalog. Licence facts come from Black Forest Labs' model cards and licences, read for our FLUX API guide on October 31, 2026; the FLUX 3 Klein release from VentureBeat's report of October 15, 2026.
Table of contents
- The short answer
- Which FLUX weights are free, and for what
- What you need to run FLUX yourself
- Black Forest Labs' API and playground
- A FLUX image without a GPU
- Questions
The short answer
- Free to run yourself: FLUX 3 Image Klein (commercial use under $5 million revenue), FLUX.2 [klein] 4B and FLUX.1 [schnell] (Apache 2.0, commercial use allowed), and several [dev] and 9B models for non-commercial use only.
- Not free: FLUX 3 Image and FLUX 3 Video, which are API only, and Black Forest Labs' API, paid in credits (1 credit = $0.01) with no free tier on its pricing page.
- Cheapest paid image: FLUX 3 Image Klein, $0.009 for a 1K image on Black Forest Labs' API.
- Without a GPU or an API account: on GenMagic a FLUX 3 Klein image costs $0.014 today and a FLUX 3 image $0.072, from a top-up of $5 whose credit never expires; a new account gets $0.50 of credit with a verified email.
Which FLUX weights are free, and for what
| Weights | Licence | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|
| FLUX 3 Image Klein (and Base) | FLUX Kommunity License | "Non-commercial use, plus commercial output generation by Qualifying Users with less than US$5M in gross annualized revenue" |
| FLUX.2 [klein] 4B (and Base) | Apache 2.0 | Yes |
| FLUX.1 [schnell] | Apache 2.0 | Yes |
| FLUX.2 [klein] 9B | FLUX Non-Commercial License | No |
| FLUX.2 [dev], FLUX.1 [dev], Kontext [dev] | FLUX [dev] Non-Commercial License | No (outputs may be used commercially) |
Sources: the licence tags on Black Forest Labs' Hugging Face models, its non-commercial licence and the FLUX 3 Image Klein model card. The non-commercial licence counts any use "for revenue-generating activity" as commercial, so those weights cannot run a paid product. Larger companies buy a commercial licence from Black Forest Labs.
What you need to run FLUX yourself
- A graphics card. Black Forest Labs says FLUX 3 Image Klein runs on consumer GeForce RTX cards with as little as 8 GB of video memory, by VentureBeat's report.
- A tool to run it, such as ComfyUI or Hugging Face's Diffusers library, and the weights from Black Forest Labs' Hugging Face page.
- Time and electricity. The model is free; the machine, the setup and your time are not. For a few images a month, paying per image is usually simpler.
Black Forest Labs' API and playground
Black Forest Labs sells every FLUX model through its API and its playground at the same credit prices: "1 credit = $0.01 USD", with no free plan or sign-up credit listed on its pricing page. You sign up, confirm your email and add credits by card. FLUX 3 Image Klein starts at $0.009 for a 1K image and FLUX 3 Image at $0.048; a request its moderation turns down is not charged. Every model, price and route is in our FLUX API guide.
A FLUX image without a GPU
Pay per image, with no graphics card and no API account. On GenMagic today:
| Model | An image | 100 images |
|---|---|---|
| FLUX 3 Image Klein | $0.014 | $1.35 |
| FLUX 3 Image | $0.072 | $7.20 |
In our image generator test, FLUX 3 Klein was the cheapest and fastest of nine models, at 1.2 cents and 7 seconds an image, and it set every word right on two text-heavy ads in our ad test. Every FLUX model and its price: FLUX pay as you go.
Questions
Is FLUX free to use? Some FLUX models are: their weights are free to download and run on your own GPU, under licences that differ by model. FLUX 3 Image, FLUX 3 Video and Black Forest Labs' API are paid.
Is FLUX 3 free? FLUX 3 Image Klein's weights are free to run, with commercial use allowed under $5 million in yearly revenue. FLUX 3 Image is API only and paid, from $0.048 a 1K image on Black Forest Labs' API.
Can I use FLUX images commercially? Outputs of the [dev] models may be used commercially, but the weights may not run a revenue-generating product; FLUX.2 [klein] 4B and FLUX.1 [schnell] are Apache 2.0; FLUX 3 Image Klein allows commercial output generation under $5 million in revenue. Images made through Black Forest Labs' API are yours to use commercially.
Is there a free FLUX API? Not from Black Forest Labs, whose API is paid in credits. On GenMagic, a new account with a verified email gets $0.50 of credit, about 37 FLUX 3 Klein images.
What hardware do I need to run FLUX locally? For FLUX 3 Image Klein, a consumer GeForce RTX card with at least 8 GB of video memory, by Black Forest Labs' figure in VentureBeat's report.