Leonardo.Ai gives everyone 150 free tokens a day, which is why so many lists call it the best free AI image generator. Read the terms, though, and the free plan has a twist: the images you make there belong to Leonardo, not to you. This review is about what you actually get for each dollar, and when the paid plan stops being optional.
Do I earn from Leonardo.Ai? No. Leonardo ended its affiliate program effective 31 January 2025 and I couldn’t find a replacement, so every Leonardo link on this page is a plain link and nobody paid for this review.
The short version
Leonardo.Ai at a glance
| Time | Runs in the browser and on iOS and Android; the learning curve is the long model menu, not the interface |
| Cost | Free (150 tokens a day, public images); paid plans $12, $30 and $60 a month, from $10 a month billed yearly |
| Output | Images and short video clips from Leonardo’s own models plus GPT-Image-2, Nano Banana 2, Veo 3.1, Kling and others |
| Real earning path | In-scene product images for small online shops, made privately on a paid plan |
| Overall | 7.4/10 |
Worth paying for if you make images every week for a shop, a blog or social accounts, you want many models under one login, and you’ll use the unlimited relaxed queue on Premium.
Give it a miss if you hoped to sell work made on the free plan, you mainly want premium third-party models (they always cost tokens), or you need a refund window before committing.
How I put this review together
I haven’t used Leonardo.Ai for paid client work, so there are no hands-on test results here. I read the pricing page, the terms of service (last updated 19 January 2026), the refund policy, three help-center articles, the Blueprints page and the API pricing guide, then 1,487 Trustpilot and 32 G2 reviews for patterns, TechCrunch’s report on the Canva deal, and the pricing pages of Midjourney, Ideogram and Adobe Firefly. Everything was checked on 8 October 2026, and every per-token figure below is my own arithmetic.
| Area | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | 8/10 | Ease of use is the most-cited strength on G2, and Blueprints turn common jobs into one-click workflows |
| Output quality | 7.5/10 | Reviewers praise realism, but several say it takes many prompts to get details right |
| Value for money | 7/10 | Relaxed generation on Premium is good value; third-party models and free-plan ownership pull it down |
| Trust and support | 7/10 | Support gets strong praise, set against no change-of-mind refunds and broad rights over public images |
The overall 7.4 is the plain average of the four (7.375, rounded). If you use Leonardo every day and think I’ve misread something, tell me through the contact page and I’ll check it.
Four things in the small print that most reviews skip
- Free-plan images are Leonardo’s property. Clause 8.7 of the terms says ownership of a free user’s outputs “will vest in us upon creation”. The pricing page puts it more gently, offering free users a royalty-free licence for commercial use while noting that Leonardo holds the rights. For anything you plan to sell or hand to a client, that’s a weak footing. On paid plans, clause 8.3 gives ownership to you.
- “Unlimited” only covers models Leonardo runs itself. Premium and Ultimate include unlimited relaxed generation, but only for Lucid Origin, Lucid Realism, Phoenix, Flux Dev and Flux Schnell (plus some video models on Ultimate). Models that run on outside providers, such as GPT-Image-2, Nano Banana 2, Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0 Turbo, “require tokens every time you use them, whatever plan you’re on.”
- The official token table is out of date. The help article on token costs (showing a date of 25 August 2026) still lists legacy features such as Alchemy and a 1-token 768×768 default image. It says nothing about the current models, and the pricing FAQ admits that “a single token doesn’t correspond to a specific image size or a specific action.” Any review quoting “one token per image” is repeating an old number.
- You can pause instead of cancelling. Clause 4.6 lets you pause a subscription for up to three months per subscription period without paying for that time. Handy for seasonal work.
What Leonardo.Ai does in 2026
Leonardo started in Sydney in 2022, founded by Jachin Bhasme, J.J. Fiasson and Chris Gillis. Canva bought it in July 2024, when it had more than 19 million registered users, and said it would keep running independently. The contracting company is still Leonardo Interactive Pty Ltd, under New South Wales law.
- Image and video generation from Leonardo’s own models and a long list of third-party ones.
- Blueprints: ready-made workflows such as Product In Scene, Product Studio Photoshoot, Object Remover, Instant Outpaint and Asset Resize. You supply the input and the Blueprint runs the chain of prompts and models.
- Editing tools: an image editor, a video editor, a background remover and an upscaler.
- API and MCP server for developers, with pay-as-you-go API credit that doesn’t expire.
Leonardo.Ai plans and token allowances, October 2026
| Plan | Monthly price | Fast tokens | Token bank cap | Relaxed (unlimited) generation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 150 a day | 150 | No; images are public |
| Essential | $12 | 8,500 a month | 25,500 | No |
| Premium | $30 | 25,000 a month | 75,000 | Images on selected models |
| Ultimate | $60 | 60,000 a month | 180,000 | Images and video on selected models |
| Team Starter | $72 (3 seats at $24) | 75,000 shared | 225,000 | Images and video on selected models |
| Team Growth | $144 (3 seats at $48) | 180,000 shared | 540,000 | Images and video on selected models |
Prices exclude tax. The pricing page says yearly billing saves “up to 20%”, and the Blueprints page says paid plans start at $10 a month billed yearly, which is about 17% off Essential. Unused tokens roll into a bank capped at three times the monthly allowance on every paid plan. Top-up packs never expire but need an active subscription to use.
What 1,000 fast tokens cost on each plan
| Plan | Price per 1,000 fast tokens |
|---|---|
| Essential, monthly | $1.41 |
| Essential, yearly ($10 a month) | $1.18 |
| Premium, monthly | $1.20 |
| Ultimate, monthly | $1.00 |
| Team Growth, monthly | $0.80 |
Leonardo doesn’t publish what a current model costs per image, so I’ve stopped at the token. If most of your work fits the relaxed models, Premium at $30 is the plan to look at, because tokens then only matter for the third-party models. If you live on GPT-Image-2 or Veo, you are buying tokens, and Ultimate is the cheaper rate.
Ownership, privacy and the public feed
Paid users can switch on private mode; if it’s off, “generations will be visible to the public.” That matters because clause 8.6 gives Leonardo a perpetual, worldwide, transferable licence over public content, including for “training AI models” and “any commercial purpose.” Private content is only used to train models with your express written consent (clause 8.5).
Clause 8.9 warns that outputs may not be unique, and the terms ban impersonating any real person. The US Copyright Office said in January 2025 that prompts alone don’t give enough human control for copyright, so owning an image under Leonardo’s terms is not the same as being able to stop others copying it.
On refunds, the policy follows Australian Consumer Law: refunds for faults, wrong descriptions or tokens that never arrive, but Leonardo can refuse if you simply changed your mind. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the billing period.
What 1,519 reviewers on Trustpilot and G2 say
- Trustpilot: 4.7 out of 5 from 1,487 reviews (761 in the past year). It’s lopsided: 86% five-star and 10% one-star, with little in between, and Leonardo had replied to 73% of negative reviews. Most September 2026 five-star reviews I read thank a named support agent for a billing or login fix rather than mention image quality. Complaints centre on confusing billing and token display glitches.
- G2: 4.5 out of 5 from 32 reviews. Ease of use is the top praise (14 mentions), then image and video quality and model variety. On the other side: prompts that need many tries (6), limited credits (5) and high pricing (4).
The good and the frustrating
What works
- A free allowance that refreshes every day
- Unlimited relaxed images on Premium for $30
- Many third-party models under one subscription
- Blueprints for product shots and edits
- Pause option and a token bank that rolls over
What grates
- Free-plan outputs are owned by Leonardo and public
- No published token cost for current models
- Third-party models always cost tokens
- No refund if you change your mind
- Broad licence over anything left public
Leonardo.Ai vs Midjourney, Ideogram and Adobe Firefly
| Tool | Free option | Entry paid price | Look at it if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leonardo.Ai | 150 tokens a day, public | $12 a month, or $10 billed yearly | You want many models and product Blueprints in one place |
| Midjourney | None listed | Basic $10 a month ($8 yearly); unlimited relaxed images start on Standard at $30 | Style and aesthetics matter most; private (Stealth) mode needs Pro at $60 |
| Ideogram | Weekly slow credits for eligible accounts | Plus $20 a month ($15 yearly), 2,400 priority credits | You need readable text inside images |
| Adobe Firefly | Daily generations on some models | Standard $9.99 a month, 2,000 credits | You already work in Photoshop or Express |
Leonardo’s Premium and Midjourney Standard both cost $30 and both include unlimited relaxed images, so that’s the fairest head-to-head. The difference is privacy: Leonardo’s private mode starts on Essential, while Midjourney keeps Stealth mode for Pro and Mega. For animated explainers rather than stills, see my InstaDoodle review.
Should you pay for Leonardo.Ai?
Use the free plan to learn the models and treat what you make there as practice. For business images, the paid plan is the real product, because ownership and privacy start there. I’d look at Premium first: the relaxed queue covers the models Leonardo runs itself, and the tokens cover the occasional GPT-Image-2 or Veo job. Switch private mode on before the first generation.
Can you earn with Leonardo.Ai?
The most realistic route I found is making in-scene product images for small online shops, on a paid plan with private mode on, using the client’s real product photos. My earning guide covers pricing, the marketplace rules and a worked example.
Related reading: Canva review · HeyGen review
Leonardo.Ai questions, answered
Is Leonardo.Ai free?
Yes. Every account gets 150 fast tokens a day. Free generations are public, and under clause 8.7 of the terms, Leonardo owns them.
Can I use Leonardo.Ai images commercially?
On a paid plan, yes, and you own the outputs. Free users get a licence for commercial use while Leonardo keeps ownership, so for client or resale work, a paid plan with private mode is the safer choice. This isn’t legal advice.
Does Leonardo.Ai train on my images?
Public content can be used to train AI models. Private content is not used for training without your express written consent, according to clause 8.5 of the terms.
Does Leonardo.Ai give refunds?
Only in the cases Australian Consumer Law covers, such as major faults or tokens that never arrive. A change of mind isn’t one of them. You can pause your plan for up to three months instead.
Is Leonardo.Ai better than Midjourney?
It’s different. Leonardo has a free plan, private mode from $12, more models and product Blueprints. Midjourney has no free plan listed and keeps private mode for its $60 tier, but many people choose it for its look.
Update log: 8 October 2026: first published, with prices checked that day.
Sources
- Leonardo.Ai pricing and FAQ
- Leonardo.Ai terms of service (clauses 4.6, 4.7, 5.2, 8.3 to 8.9) and refund policy
- Leonardo help: commercial usage and token usage
- Leonardo.Ai Blueprints and API pricing guide
- TechCrunch: Canva acquires Leonardo.Ai
- Kingy AI: Leonardo.Ai affiliate program ends
- Leonardo.Ai on Trustpilot and on G2
- US Copyright Office: Copyrightability report (January 2025)
- Midjourney plans, Ideogram pricing and Adobe Firefly plans
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