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    FLUX 3 Image: release date, price, vs FLUX 2

    FLUX 3 Image launched 1 October 2026: JSON bounding boxes, native 4K, 10 references. List price is $0.048 at 1K and $0.607 at 4K; no open weights.

    Versely Team••8 min read

    Black Forest Labs released FLUX 3 Image on 1 October 2026, through its API and Playground. One endpoint generates, edits and combines up to 10 reference images, renders up to 4K (about 16 megapixels), and reads JSON bounding boxes to place or change elements. List price runs from $0.041 to $0.607 an image. It is not open weights.

    Facts below come from BFL's model page, release notes, docs and pricing page, read on 8 October 2026, unless another source is named. None gives a benchmark or win-rate figure for this model, so this post compares features and list prices, not image quality.

    Key facts

    Item As published
    Released 1 October 2026 (API and Playground); the FLUX 3 family was announced 23 July 2026
    Variants One model; resolution runs 768sq, 1k (default), 1.5k, 2k, 4k
    Endpoint POST https://api.bfl.ai/v1/flux-3-image, with no mode field
    Output 4k is about 16 MP; 15 aspect ratios, 21:9 to 9:21
    References 1 to 10 images, each 256 × 256 to 16 MP
    Layout control JSON boxes in the prompt, [top, left, bottom, right] on a 0 to 1000 grid
    Price per image $0.041 (768sq), $0.048 (1K), $0.070 (1.5K), $0.100 (2K), $0.607 (4K), list prices as of 8 October 2026
    Availability BFL API and Playground; Runware and OpenRouter; commercial weights licence on request; no open weights
    Limits No seed, width or height

    FLUX 3 Image vs FLUX 2: what is actually new

    Boxes in the prompt. Layout lives in the prompt: a caption that tags each element with an <id>, then a JSON array with a row per element. BFL's FLUX.2 docs describe JSON-structured prompts and reference-based pose and layout guidance, but no coordinates, and TechTimes (2 October 2026) also calls the box system absent from FLUX.2.

    {"id": "headline_1", "bbox": [40, 100, 160, 900], "desc": "the words \"OPEN LATE\" in thick cream capitals"}

    BFL's bounding-box docs add limits: "Boxes guide placement; they are not clipping masks", and in BFL's tests a new element in a box of about 40 × 25 pixels often did not appear. Each line of text gets its own box, with the words quoted in desc.

    Edits by box. For an existing image, each row says where an element comes from and where it ends up: keep it (the same box twice), move or resize it (a new target box), create or recolour it (from: null) or remove it (tgt_bbox: null). Several rows can go in one request.

    {"id": "mug_1", "from": "ref_image_0", "src_bbox": [600, 100, 800, 250], "tgt_bbox": [600, 700, 800, 850], "desc": "a white ceramic mug"}

    Native 4K. BFL's page promises "native 2K and 4K" and shows a 5456 × 3072 frame "all from the model". FLUX.2's docs stop at 4 MP, about FLUX 3 Image's 2k tier, so the new ground is 4K. BFL's docs warn that 4K generation "can take several minutes" and that changing the resolution "makes a new generation, so the composition can differ from the draft".

    Ten references, with placement. FLUX.2's docs allow 8 references through the API and 10 in the Playground; FLUX 3 Image takes 10 through the API. The new part is that a reference can be named in an edit row and given a target box.

    Agents and API. BFL says an LLM can draft the caption and element table from one line and an aspect ratio. The endpoint rejects seed, width and height, which FLUX.2 [pro] and [max] accept, and grounding is on by default, so a prompt "may be grounded in external research: web search and image search".

    Does it really leave the rest of the picture alone?

    BFL's pitch is "multiple edits at once without changing anything else", and its release notes call the edits "pixel-exact". TechTimes headlines that the boxes lock unchanged pixels "numerically". BFL's docs are more careful: "Pixels outside the boxes usually stay the same. Shadows, reflections, or nearby lighting may still change."

    In practice "locked" means strongly local, not guaranteed. BFL advises a keep row for anything that must not move ("Unlisted areas usually hold, but anchors make it explicit"), and if exact preservation matters, diff the output against the source.

    Price against FLUX 2

    BFL bills per image by tier (1 credit = $0.01, per its pricing docs), at the same price in the API and Playground. The structured data on its pricing page puts FLUX.2 [pro] at $0.03 for the first megapixel and $0.015 for each extra, [max] at $0.07 and $0.03, and [flex] at $0.05 per megapixel. At about 4 MP that is $0.075, $0.16 and $0.20 (our arithmetic), against $0.10 for FLUX 3 Image at 2k. At about 1 MP, FLUX 3 Image's $0.048 sits between [pro] at $0.03 and [max] at $0.07.

    Availability and open weights

    FLUX 3 Image is on the BFL API and Playground. Runware lists it as live at the same regular prices. OpenRouter lists black-forest-labs/flux-3-image with BFL as its only provider and, on 8 October, a median end-to-end latency of 47.5 seconds (launch week, resolution mix not stated).

    It is not open weights. BFL's FLUX 3 announcement of 23 July put Image under "APIs and private weight access", and the model page offers a commercial weights licence "for companies running image generation at scale". BFL's Hugging Face page shows FLUX 3 Action checkpoints but no FLUX 3 Image or Dev repository on 8 October. TechTimes wrote that an open-weight FLUX 3 Image is "expected within weeks"; we couldn't find that in BFL's own pages, so treat it as unconfirmed.

    The rest of the family: FLUX 3 Video entered early access on 23 July (VentureBeat, DataNorth) and has been on BFL's API since 4 August, up to 20 seconds with audio. FLUX 3 Action, a robotics model, shipped with open weights on 23 September. FLUX 3 Dev, the open-weight backbone, has not shipped.

    Who should switch, and who should wait

    Switch if:

    • You make layout-led images. BFL's suggested fits are type set around a photograph, collages, panel grids and editorial spreads.
    • You edit finished images in rounds, several changes per call.
    • Your agent or pipeline can keep the element table as JSON.
    • You need more than 4 MP without an upscaler.

    Wait, or stay on FLUX.2, if:

    • You generate in bulk. FLUX.2 [pro] is from $0.03 an image and [klein] from $0.014.
    • You need speed. BFL describes [klein] as sub-second, while 4K here can take minutes.
    • You need seeds, or weights you can host.
    • You choose on quality. FLUX 3 Image is on neither Artificial Analysis arena, text-to-image or image editing, as of 8 October 2026, so test your own prompts.

    Can you use it on Versely?

    No. As of 8 October 2026 FLUX 3 Image is not in Versely's catalog, and this page doesn't promise it will be. For the same jobs Versely runs:

    • Stills: Flux 2 Max, 6 credits a generation, and Flux 2 Pro, 3 credits. Their Edit variants cost 6 and 3.
    • Text and layout: Ideogram V4, 5 credits a call, and Seedream 5.0 Pro, 6 credits, whose model page cites dense layouts and text in 14 languages.
    • Edits: Qwen Image Edit 2511, 2 credits per megapixel (discounted from 3), and GPT Image 2.5 Flare Edit and Sunburst Edit, 4 to 7 credits by output resolution, with up to 16 input images and an optional mask.

    Start in the text-to-image tool. Versely's FLUX 3 rows are video, not image: Flux 3 Text to Video and Flux 3 First Last Frame to Video start at 34 credits and Flux 3 Extend Video at 82, billed per second of output. They animate a still; they don't make one. Our FLUX 3 video prompting guide covers them.

    FAQ

    When was FLUX 3 Image released?

    1 October 2026, on BFL's API and Playground, about ten weeks after the 23 July 2026 FLUX 3 announcement, which promised Image "in the coming weeks".

    How much does FLUX 3 Image cost?

    Per image, as listed on 8 October 2026: $0.041 (768sq), $0.048 (1K), $0.070 (1.5K), $0.100 (2K), $0.607 (4K).

    Is FLUX 3 Image open weights?

    No. BFL licenses private weights to companies running image generation at scale. The open-weight FLUX 3 Dev has not shipped.

    Does FLUX 3 Image keep unedited pixels identical?

    Mostly. BFL's docs say pixels outside the boxes "usually" stay the same, while shadows, reflections or nearby lighting may change.

    Is FLUX 3 Image better than FLUX 2?

    It does more: boxes, 4K and 10 references. It costs more than FLUX.2 [pro] or [klein], takes no seed and has no published benchmark, so test it on your own prompts.