Muse Image
Top 10 image quality for about a cent an image, free in Meta AI. Pick Nano Banana 2.1 if you want the higher rank.
Should you use it?
Pick it if
People who make lots of images on a small budget, free in Meta AI or about a cent each through an API.
Best for: Lots of images on a small budget, free in Meta AI (Image models Top 20)
Skip it if
You want the highest ranked images and edits; GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst leads every board.
You give up: Ranks below Nano Banana 2.1 and both GPT Image 2.5 models; no data-use statement
The short version
- What this is
- Meta's image model for making and editing pictures, built into Meta AI, Instagram and WhatsApp, and offered to developers at about a cent an image.
- Why it matters
- It gets you near-top image quality for the lowest price of any top 10 model we review, or free in Meta AI.
- Scores 59 for images: 9th of 82 on arena.ai Text to Image and 9th of 168 on Artificial Analysis.
- About $0.01 per image through the API; free for everyday use in Meta AI.
- Meta's pages we could open say nothing about how your images are used.
Good at
- Top 10 on both arena.ai image boards and on Artificial Analysis text to image, with enough votes that its arena.ai rank is not preliminary s1 s2 s3.
- About $0.01 an image, under a third of Nano Banana 2.1's $0.0336 on Artificial Analysis s3 s6.
- Meta says it can reason and use web search before drawing, and lets you circle or sketch on an image to mark edits s5 s6.
Our take
Muse Image is the cheapest top 10 image model we review. It ranks 9th on arena.ai Text to Image and 9th on Artificial Analysis s1 s3, at $0.01 an image on Meta's own API page s6. Nano Banana 2.1 ranks a few places higher on every board but costs about three times as much per image s3.
For everyday use it is free in Meta AI s5. The gap is privacy: none of Meta's pages we could open says whether your prompts and photos are used to train its models, so treat uploads as if they might be.
Score
A score from 0 to 100 per job, against everything available today. Overall 59 across 1 job, the average of the job scores.
New to this? What the scores and labels mean
- 0 to 100
- Our score for one job, like writing or coding, compared with everything else out today. 100 is the best available today. For AI models we build it from public data, such as Arena's blind votes and Epoch AI's independent tests; apps and tools are scored on our own checklist. The same tool can score differently for different jobs, and where two likely ranges overlap, we call it a tie.
- Our verdict
- Use it: a top choice for most people. Worth trying: good, and worth a go. Depends: good for some people or one kind of job. Wait: too early to tell, or not out for everyone yet. Skip: something else does the job better.
- First look
- Just released. We say what it is and whether to bother, and give it a score once public results exist.
- No score yet
- None of the public sources we use covers it yet, or the only evidence is from a source whose numbers we can't use, so we describe it in words instead.
- Best buy
- Nothing cheaper scores as well for that job.
- Best free
- The best score for that job that costs nothing, through a free plan or by running on your own computer.
- Pay as you go
- No monthly plan: you pay for each use, usually through a developer account.
- Checked
- The day we last confirmed the score and the price against the sources. Prices change often, so check the date.
- AI model
- The engine underneath, like GPT or Claude. You use it through an app or, if you code, directly.
- Open source
- Free to download and run on your own computer, so nothing leaves your machine.
#4 of the 5 we have scored for this job.
From blind votes (Arena) · Arena data, CC BY 4.0
1 source so farData read 20 Oct
Alternatives
Better or cheaper for images, from our scores, then the ones we'd also look at. The same kind of product comes first.
- GPT Image 2.5 SunburstBetterImage model100Pay as you goScores 100 in images, against 59 here; price not checked. The top scorer on every board, for about twenty times the price per image. Side by side
- Nano Banana 2.1Image model73FreeRanks a few places higher on every board, at about three times the price per image. Side by side
- FLUX 3 ImageImage model–Pay as you goTakes up to ten reference images; similar rank on Artificial Analysis, about five times the price. Side by side
Value for money
Where it sits in images: higher is a better score, further left is cheaper to run. Green dots are the best value.
Evidence
Everything behind the call and the scores, folded so the page stays short. Spotted a wrong price, score or link? Report a mistake.
How we scored this
The images score is our own, built from public data: blind votes on Arena and, where they cover the job, Epoch AI's independent tests. How we combine them is our method and we don't publish it.
Public leaderboard
Reviews are drafted with help from AI models, including Anthropic's Claude. Model scores come only from outside leaderboards and independent evaluations, by a written rule.
No one paid for this review or gave us free access, and we earn nothing if you sign up. How we score
Sources 6
- s1arena.ai Text to Image leaderboard
- s2arena.ai Image Edit leaderboard (Single Image Edit)
- s3Artificial Analysis text-to-image leaderboard
- s4Artificial Analysis image editing leaderboard
- s5Meta newsroom: Introducing Muse Image
- s6Meta Model API: Muse Image
Something here out of date or wrong? Report a mistake and we will check it against the source.
History 1 change
Every change to a rating, the price or our call, with the reason. Scores are against what exists on the day, so they drift down as better things ship. Older entries come from before we moved to scores.
- New: Images ratedReviewed: images (rank 9 of 82 on arena.ai Text to Image).
Use it well 4 guides on this site
Pages on this site that help with the jobs above.