Compare AI tools

	Leonardo.ai A	Elicit S	Recraft S	Replicate S
Tagline	Gamer + creator image gen with model fine-tuning built in.	AI research assistant for academic literature.	Vector + raster AI for designers. Actually controls the output.	Run any open-source AI model with an API call.
Category	Image	Research	Image	Dev Platform
Pricing	Free + $12-$60/mo	Free + $12-$42/mo	Free + $12-$48/mo	Pay per second of compute
Best for	Indie game devs, illustrators, anyone training custom style models.	Grad students, researchers, anyone doing literature reviews.	Designers, brand teams, anyone needing vector output or tight style control.	Developers using open-source models (Flux, SDXL, Whisper, etc).
Strengths	Train your own models on your style/character Great for game art + concept art Generous free tier	Searches 125M+ papers Extracts + synthesizes findings across papers Systematic review workflow	Exports SVG vectors — rare in AI image gen Strong style control + consistency Brand kit for consistent outputs	Tens of thousands of models (image, video, audio, LLMs) One-line API for any model Cog framework for custom model deploy
Weaknesses	General output behind Midjourney Can be overwhelming	Academic-only Can hallucinate citations — verify everything	Less hyped than Midjourney Learning curve for non-designers	Cold starts on less-popular models Pricing gets real at scale
Kai's verdict	A-tier for creators training custom looks. B-tier for general use.	S-tier for academic research. Nothing else comes close for systematic reviews.	S-tier for designers. The only one that takes vectors seriously.	S-tier for open-source model APIs. The default in this space.
Link	Open →	Open →	Open →	Open →