Z-Image Turbo — AI Image Generator
Z-Image Turbo is available on Artifio.ai as part of our unified AI workspace. Powered by Alibaba. Starting at about $0.005 per generation.
Start with Z-Image Turbo
Z-Image Turbo pricing
These prices are calculated from the current model settings. Each row describes the configuration used for that price.
| Settings | Per generation |
|---|---|
| Width (pixels): 512 | $0.005 |
| Width (pixels): 640 | $0.005 |
| Width (pixels): 768 | $0.005 |
| Width (pixels): 896 | $0.005 |
| Width (pixels): 1024 | $0.005 |
| Width (pixels): 1152 | $0.010 |
| Width (pixels): 1184 | $0.010 |
| Width (pixels): 1248 | $0.010 |
| Width (pixels): 1344 | $0.010 |
| Width (pixels): 1568 | $0.015 |
| Width (pixels): 2048 | $0.015 |
Review the estimate for your selected settings before submitting. Compare model pricing
About Z-Image Turbo
Z-Image Turbo is the distilled speed variant of Z-Image, the 6B-parameter Single-Stream Diffusion Transformer family from Tongyi-MAI, Alibaba's Tongyi lab. Released on November 26, 2025, it was the first member of the family to ship, and it compresses sampling down to 8 function evaluations through few-step distillation with reward post-training. The result is sub-second generation on an H800 datacenter GPU and a footprint that fits inside 16GB of consumer VRAM, unusual territory for a model that trades punches with 20B-plus systems.
By December 8, 2025 it ranked first among open-source models on the Artificial Analysis text-to-image leaderboard. On Artifio it is one of the fastest image models in the catalogue, running pay-per-generation from the same wallet as everything else.
Features
- 6B-parameter S3-DiT architecture distilled to 8 NFEs (function evaluations) per image
- Sub-second inference latency on H800 GPUs and compatibility with 16GB-VRAM consumer cards
- Photorealistic generation with strong aesthetic quality, the variant's stated specialty
- Bilingual text rendering in English and Chinese
- Apache 2.0 weights with official support merged into the Diffusers library
- Part of a four-variant family alongside Z-Image (base), Z-Image-Edit, and Z-Image-Omni-Base
What people use it for
- Rapid iteration: cycling through prompt variations at interactive speed before committing to a slower model
- High-volume asset generation where per-image latency and cost dominate
- Photorealistic portraits, which the launch material highlights as a particular strength
- Quick bilingual signage, poster, and product mockups with embedded text
Reported strengths
- Ranked first among open-source models on the Artificial Analysis text-to-image Elo leaderboard within two weeks of release
- The technical report describes performance comparable to leading proprietary systems while using the smallest parameter count in the leaderboard's top tier
- 8-step sampling makes it dramatically cheaper to run than 28-to-50-step base models of similar quality
- Open Apache 2.0 license, with weights small enough for ordinary gaming GPUs
Reported limitations
- Distillation lowers output diversity; the family's own comparison table marks Turbo as low-diversity next to the base Z-Image
- No classifier-free guidance and no negative prompting support, so prompt-level control is coarser than on the base checkpoint
- Not intended for fine-tuning; Tongyi-MAI points custom-training work at the undistilled Z-Image instead
Sources
- Tongyi-MAI/Z-Image-Turbo model card (Hugging Face (Tongyi-MAI))
- Z-Image: An Efficient Image Generation Foundation Model with Single-Stream Diffusion Transformer (arXiv)
- Tongyi-MAI/Z-Image repository (GitHub (Tongyi-MAI))
Z-Image Turbo FAQ
What is Z-Image Turbo?
Z-Image Turbo is an AI model (prompt to image) available on Artifio.ai through Alibaba. You can run it in our workspace from a single shared wallet and download your outputs.
How much does Z-Image Turbo cost on Artifio?
Z-Image Turbo has a starting estimate of $0.005 per generation on Artifio.ai. Review the estimate for your settings in the workspace before confirming. Usage-billed models reconcile the final charge after generation.
How do I use Z-Image Turbo on Artifio?
Click Generate Now to open the workspace at /create/alibaba-z-image-turbo. Fill in the form fields, review the live cost estimate, and run your generation.
What kind of outputs does Z-Image Turbo produce?
Z-Image Turbo is configured for prompt to image workflows in the image category. See the technical parameters below for supported inputs and options.
Can I try Z-Image Turbo for free?
Sign up free, top up your wallet from $1, and you can run Z-Image Turbo pay-as-you-go without a separate subscription for this model.
Try Z-Image Turbo on Artifio
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