Ideogram 4.5 vs Ideogram 4.0
Ideogram 4.5 is the model Ideogram released on 30 September 2026, four months after 4.0, its first open-weight model. Both ran through the same twelve prompts on fal: 4.0 on 9 September at its default Balanced speed, 4.5 on 22 October at its default medium quality.
Anvisha Pai, Co-founder & CEO, Voyager
Which to use
Switch, unless you need the weights. On our prompts 4.5 is the better type model: its poster, infographic and logo were set correctly and fully designed, where 4.0 left the poster mostly empty and the infographic sparse, and 4.5 spelled the poster right even at its cheapest tier, where 4.0 at Turbo did not. It also has a real edit endpoint, where 4.0 has only image-to-image, and its edits leave the rest of the picture alone. It costs more: $0.06 a medium image against about $0.016 for a 1K image at Balanced, read on 22 October and 9 September 2026. Stay on 4.0 to run the model yourself under Apache 2.0, or for the lowest price per image. Neither drew a correct chart. One run per prompt is a fair first look, not a ranking.
Side by side, measured
| Ideogram 4.5 | Ideogram 4.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Ideogram | Ideogram |
| Released | 2026-09-30 | 2026-06-03 |
| Price | $0.06 per image, medium quality via fal | $0.015 per 1024 by 1024, balanced via fal |
| Seconds per image | 12 to 27 | 9 to 33 |
| 12 pictures cost | $0.72 | $0.2352 |
| Sizes | Presets or one of 36 listed sizes, from 720 by 1280 to 3328 by 1248, all at the same price | Presets or any width and height, priced by the megapixel |
Seconds and cost are from our own runs of the same 12 prompts through each model.
The same 12 prompts, Ideogram 4.5 against Ideogram 4.0
One try each, nothing re-rolled or retouched, generated by us. Ideogram 4.5 is on the left, Ideogram 4.0 on the right. Every prompt has its own page with the whole roster.
Text in an image
Every model on this prompt →Both spelled all three lines. 4.0 left most of the poster empty; 4.5 filled it with a sunburst, a rule and a small record motif, plus an unrequested 'LONDON' tag.
›What we asked for
A concert poster that reads 'MODA SUMMER SESSIONS' in large bold type, with the subtitle 'Friday 12 June, 8pm, Roundhouse' and a smaller line 'Tickets at the door'. Risograph style, two colours, tangerine and navy, grainy ink texture.
Product on white
Every model on this prompt →
›What we asked for
Studio product photograph of a matte black ceramic pour-over coffee dripper on a seamless white background, soft top light, subtle contact shadow, centred, catalogue style.
Face and hands
Every model on this prompt →
›What we asked for
Close-up portrait of a woman in her 40s with short grey hair, laughing, holding a red ceramic mug with both hands, natural window light, 85mm lens, shallow depth of field.
Logo mark
Every model on this prompt →Both drew a chain-link mark with a spaced wordmark. 4.5 worked spokes into the link, closer to the brief, and added a tagline.
›What we asked for
A flat vector logo mark for a bicycle repair shop called 'Spoke & Chain': a single-colour icon combining a chain link and a wheel spoke, with the wordmark below in a geometric sans-serif, black on white.
Busy scene
Every model on this prompt →4.0 returned a cut-out collage; 4.5 a coherent, legible market, with two dogs and an invented banner.
›What we asked for
A crowded Saturday farmers market seen from slightly above: at least twelve stalls with striped awnings, shoppers carrying tote bags, a dog on a leash, crates of oranges, a musician with a guitar, bunting overhead, late morning light.
Specific art style
Every model on this prompt →
›What we asked for
A lighthouse on a rocky cliff during a storm, in the style of a Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print, with visible wood grain texture, flat colour areas and a bokashi gradient sky.
Neither is usable. 4.0 inverted the axis; 4.5 printed all six values correctly over bars that do not match them.
›What we asked for
A clean bar chart titled 'Monthly active users' showing six months, January through June, with the values 120, 150, 180, 170, 220 and 260, labelled axes, white background, one accent colour, no 3D effects.
Wide aspect ratio
Every model on this prompt →
›What we asked for
Website hero banner: a wide panorama of a sunlit modern co-working space with plants, the left third of the frame kept as clear wall space for text, warm neutral palette.
Infographic with steps
Every model on this prompt →4.0's card is sparse to the point of unfinished; 4.5's has exact headings, an icon each and a line of explanation under every step.
›What we asked for
An infographic card titled 'How to brew pour-over' with four numbered steps in this order: 1. Rinse the filter, 2. Bloom for 30 seconds, 3. Pour in slow circles, 4. Wait 3 minutes. A simple icon beside each step, muted palette, clean sans-serif type.
Food photography
Every model on this prompt →
›What we asked for
Overhead photograph of a margherita pizza on a wooden board, fresh basil leaves, one slice pulled out with the cheese stretching, restaurant menu photography, natural light.
Hard composition
Every model on this prompt →
›What we asked for
A glass of water on a wooden table with exactly three ice cubes in it, a yellow pencil resting across the rim of the glass, a blue book to the left of the glass and a red apple to the right, photographed from table height.
Edit an existing image
Every model on this prompt →4.0 ran through fal's image-to-image endpoint, added in October: it turned the dripper green but added no brass handle. 4.5's edit endpoint made both changes and nothing else moved.
›What we asked for
Change the coffee dripper to a deep forest green and add a small brass handle on its right side. Keep the background, lighting and composition exactly as they are.
Additional workflow tests
Separate from the common benchmark above. These tests examine longer shots, successive edits or specialized controls. One attempt per test, including failures. Costs are estimates from published rates.
Edit 1: change only color
View the generated starting image
Ideogram 4.5
Sequential editing from the same starting image; look for changes outside the requested region.
›What we asked for
Change only the black coffee dripper to deep forest green. Preserve its exact shape, position, lighting, shadow and white background.
ideogram/v4.5/edit
quality: medium, edit_precision: high, num_images: 1
returned 1024 by 1024 pixels
Generated . Cost basis: fal's Ideogram 4.5 price of $0.06 per image at medium quality, size not priced, edit_precision high; fal lists no separate price for precision (fal.ai/models/ideogram/v4.5/edit, read 2026-10-22); fal does not return the charge. Original output.
Run at high edit precision. Only the dripper changes colour; the white background and shadow are almost identical to the source. A faint pink fringe appears along the rim.
Edit 2: add a brass handle
View the generated starting image
Ideogram 4.5
Edits the previous output above.
Sequential editing from the same starting image; look for changes outside the requested region.
›What we asked for
Add one small brass handle on the right side of the forest green coffee dripper. Change nothing else.
ideogram/v4.5/edit
quality: medium, edit_precision: high, num_images: 1
returned 1024 by 1024 pixels
Generated . Cost basis: fal's Ideogram 4.5 price of $0.06 per image at medium quality, size not priced, edit_precision high; fal lists no separate price for precision (fal.ai/models/ideogram/v4.5/edit, read 2026-10-22); fal does not return the charge. Original output.
A brass handle on the right and nothing else moved: the background differs from the previous step by a fraction of a level on a 0 to 255 scale.
Edit 3: restore black
View the generated starting image
Ideogram 4.5
Edits the previous output above.
Sequential editing from the same starting image; look for changes outside the requested region.
›What we asked for
Change only the forest green ceramic to matte black. Keep the brass handle, dripper geometry, background, shadow and framing unchanged.
ideogram/v4.5/edit
quality: medium, edit_precision: high, num_images: 1
returned 1024 by 1024 pixels
Generated . Cost basis: fal's Ideogram 4.5 price of $0.06 per image at medium quality, size not priced, edit_precision high; fal lists no separate price for precision (fal.ai/models/ideogram/v4.5/edit, read 2026-10-22); fal does not return the charge. Original output.
Back to near-black with a slight green cast, handle kept. Across the three edits the background stayed closer to the source than either GPT Image 2.5 model's did on the same chain.
Identity in a new setting
View the generated starting image
Ideogram 4.5
Preserve the same person and clothing while changing the setting.
›What we asked for
Move this same person into a bright photography studio with a plain light grey background. Preserve their face, age, hairstyle, clothing, pose and the objects in their hands. Only change the background.
ideogram/v4.5/edit
quality: medium, edit_precision: high, num_images: 1
returned 896 by 1200 pixels
Generated . Cost basis: fal's Ideogram 4.5 price of $0.06 per image at medium quality, size not priced, edit_precision high; fal lists no separate price for precision (fal.ai/models/ideogram/v4.5/edit, read 2026-10-22); fal does not return the charge. Original output.
Same face, hair, shirt and mug against plain grey, but the frame pulled back to show more of her, so 'only change the background' was not followed exactly.
Identity after a second edit
Ideogram 4.5
Edits the previous output above.
Keep recognizable features through a second style change.
›What we asked for
Convert this image into a delicate watercolor illustration. Preserve the same person, facial features, hairstyle, clothing, pose and objects. Keep the studio background plain.
ideogram/v4.5/edit
quality: medium, edit_precision: high, num_images: 1
returned 896 by 1200 pixels
Generated . Cost basis: fal's Ideogram 4.5 price of $0.06 per image at medium quality, size not priced, edit_precision high; fal lists no separate price for precision (fal.ai/models/ideogram/v4.5/edit, read 2026-10-22); fal does not return the charge. Original output.
A faithful watercolour of the same person, pose and mug on a plain ground.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ideogram 4.5 better than 4.0?
On our twelve prompts, yes for text, layout and editing: 4.5 produced finished posters and infographics where 4.0 left them sparse, and it can edit. 4.0 is cheaper per image and its weights are public.
Is Ideogram 4.5 open source like 4.0?
Not yet. Ideogram says 4.5's weights will follow; as of 22 October 2026 only 4.0's are published, under Apache 2.0.
How are they priced?
4.5 is a flat $0.03, $0.06 or $0.22 per image at low, medium or high quality, whatever the size. 4.0 is per megapixel: $0.0075 at Turbo, $0.015 at Balanced and $0.025 at Quality, so a 1K image is cheaper on 4.0 and a large one can be cheaper on 4.5.
Were both run the same way?
Same prompts, one attempt each, both through fal at their default quality settings. 4.0 ran on 9 September, except its edit, which ran on 22 October once fal added an image-to-image endpoint. 4.0 used our standard sizes; 4.5 accepts only its own list, so its 3:4, 4:3 and 21:9 images are 864 by 1152, 1152 by 864 and 3072 by 1280.
Voyager
Run any of these inside Voyager
Voyager is an agent for creative work that runs every model on this page. Brief it, and it picks the model for the job, makes the thing and hands back something you can edit. Create an account to get started.