SD3 is free for most users now.

Stability AI just made their AI models free for most users, including small businesses. They're doubling down on open-source and trying to win back the community after a rocky SD3 launch.

What's going on here?

Stability AI released a new "Community License" that's way more permissive for using their AI models.

What does this mean?

Stability AI was under fire from its most loyal users because of their shift away from the “open-source” approach. Looks like they have heard the complaints and made changes to their license.

Commercial use is now free for individuals and small businesses under $1M annual revenue. Only big commercial users (>$1M revenue) need to pay for an enterprise license.

Same as before, non-commercial use is still totally free (researchers, students, hobbyists, etc.) and there are no more limits on how many images you can create. Stability’s team is also working on improving SD3 Medium after quality issues were highlighted by the community.

Why should I care?

LLMs get disproportionate attention in the AI discussion. One reason is that they are easy to use for software developers who build everyday products. Most image generation on the other hand is limited to a few discord servers and license-gated image models. More relaxed licenses will create incentives for builders to build AI products with image generation at the core.

Another thing to notice is that Stability AI is going back to its roots after the recent leadership change and funding (it was in a serious cash crunch too).