Recraft
Recraft is an AI design platform that generates and edits raster images, genuinely editable SVG vectors, product mockups and video from a single prompt, with reusable brand styles, a developer API and plugins for Figma, Framer and Chrome.
What is Recraft?
Recraft is an AI design platform published by Recraft Inc., a company founded in the United States in 2022 and headquartered in London. Its core product, Recraft Studio, is an infinite-canvas workspace where images, vectors and mockups are generated, edited and assembled, with real-time collaboration for teams.
The platform runs on four generations of in-house models. V2 arrived in February 2024 as the first models built specifically for designers. V3, known as Red Panda, followed in October 2024 and held first place on the Hugging Face text-to-image leaderboard for five consecutive months. V4 was a ground-up rebuild released in February 2026, and V4.1 landed in mid-May 2026. Sixteen models across those generations are available in the Studio, in the mobile apps and through the API. V4.1 ships in two lines — V4.1 tuned for artistic quality and V4.1 Utility for broader use — each in a standard 1 MP version and a Pro 4 MP version for print-ready work.
What separates Recraft from most image generators is genuine vector output: a prompt returns real SVG files with smooth paths and organised layers, ready for logos, icons and brand assets without tracing or clean-up. Text rendering inside images is a second differentiator, holding up on small, long and formatted typography. Custom brand styles are created simply by dropping in reference images, with no training phase.
Alongside its own models, the Studio hosts third-party image engines — Nano Banana, Flux, Ideogram, GPT Image, HiDream, Imagen, Qwen Image, Seedream, Grok Image — and video models such as Veo, Kling, Sora and Seedance, so several engines share one canvas and one credit pool.
Recraft reaches its users through the web, iOS and Android apps, a REST API, an MCP server, plugins for Figma and Framer, a Chrome extension and add-ons for Google Docs and Google Slides. Exports cover SVG, PNG, JPG, PDF, TIFF up to 300 DPI CMYK and Lottie. The company claims more than three million users across 200 countries and over 350 million images generated, and names Ogilvy, HubSpot, Netflix, Asana and Airbus among the teams that rely on it.
What it does
- Generate photorealistic images, illustrations, icons, logos and 3D visuals from a text prompt
- Produce genuinely editable SVG vectors, exportable to Lottie for animation
- Vectorise an existing JPG or PNG into clean, scalable paths
- Remove, replace or generate an image background
- Upscale, erase objects, inpaint, outpaint, recolour and restyle by prompt
- Build a reusable brand style by dropping in reference images, with no training step
- Place any visual on a realistic product mockup, then export up to 300 DPI CMYK
When to use Recraft / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Recraft is the right fit.
When to use Recraft
- Graphic designers and art directors who need production-ready assets rather than rough concepts
- Brand and creative teams that must hold a visual identity across high volumes, using shared styles, templates and colour palettes
- Anyone who needs truly editable SVG vectors — logos, icons, illustrations — without manual tracing or clean-up
- Print-on-demand sellers and e-commerce teams producing product mockups, packaging and catalogue visuals
- Product and engineering teams automating visual production through the REST API or an MCP connection
When not to use Recraft
- Anyone planning commercial work on the free plan: images generated there belong to Recraft, appear publicly in the community gallery and carry no commercial licence
- Users who want their content excluded from model training without paying — the opt-out is unavailable on the free plan
- People under 13 for the service itself, and under 18 for the API
- Teams looking for a full layout or desktop-publishing suite: Recraft produces assets, not finished documents
- Organisations that require a contractual guarantee of EU data residency, which the site never offers
How to use Recraft
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Create an account at recraft.ai — no password is required: a one-time email code, or federated sign-in with Google, Discord or Apple
- Open Recraft Studio in the browser and start a project on the infinite canvas
- Describe the visual in plain language, pick a model and a style, then generate — no prompt syntax or flags to learn
- Use Exploration mode to get several distinct visual directions from a single description
- Create a custom brand style by dropping in reference images, then reapply it across later generations
- Refine on the canvas: erase, upscale, vectorise, cut out the background, inpaint, outpaint or recolour
- Drop the result onto a product mockup — apparel, packaging, signage or devices — to see it in context
- Export as SVG, PNG, JPG, PDF, TIFF at up to 300 DPI CMYK, or Lottie
- On mobile, choose agentic mode, where an assistant tunes the settings across a conversation, or manual mode for full parameter control
- For automation, take an API key and call the REST endpoints, or connect Recraft to internal tools over MCP; team admins configure SSO, role-based permissions and audit logs
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Produces genuinely editable SVG vectors from a prompt — a capability few competitors offer
- Handles text inside images reliably, including small, long and formatted typography
- Reusable brand styles created from reference images, with no training step
- Proprietary models and leading third-party engines share a single workspace and credit pool
- Covers the whole chain from generation to editing, mockups and print-ready export at 300 DPI CMYK
- Documented compliance posture: SOC 2 Type 2, AIUC-1, published DPA with SCCs, public subprocessor list, training opt-out, and API inputs never used for training
- Permanent free plan with 30 daily credits, and full commercial rights on every paid plan, kept after cancellation
Cons
- The pricing page renders its amounts in JavaScript: the figures are only readable in the documentation, not on the page a buyer would visit
- The free plan is heavily constrained — public images owned by Recraft, no commercial use, three uploads a day, two images per prompt, and no training opt-out
- Training on user content is on by default for individual plans; the switch has to be turned off manually
- No hosting region choice is documented and no EU data residency is guaranteed
- No Article 27 EU representative is designated, and the Trust Center at trust.recraft.com is not publicly reachable
- Credit-based billing whose cost varies by operation and model makes real spend hard to project; subscription credits do not roll over
- API units are prepaid, non-cancellable and non-refundable, and subscription refunds stay discretionary and narrowly conditioned
Pricing & Plans
Recraft offers a permanent free plan with 30 credits renewed every 24 hours. The cheapest paid entry point is the Basic plan at USD 12.00 per month on monthly billing, or USD 10.00 per month when billed annually (USD 120.00 per year), for 1,000 credits. Annual billing carries a discount of up to 20% across the range. API usage is purchased separately in prepaid units, at USD 1.00 for 1,000 API units. Enterprise terms are quoted on request. The amounts above come from Recraft's own plans-and-billing documentation, the pricing page itself publishing no figures in static HTML.
- Free — 30 credits per day
- three uploads per day
- two images per prompt
- images are public
- owned by Recraft
- carry no commercial licence
- and no training opt-out is available
- Basic — USD 12.00 per month monthly
- or USD 10.00 per month billed annually (USD 120.00 per year)
- for 1
- 000 credits
- with private images
- commercial rights and credit top-ups
- Pro — from USD 20.00 per month for 2
- 000 credits up to USD 160.00 per month for 16
- 000 credits (USD 16.00 to USD 128.00 per month billed annually)
- with the training opt-out available in profile settings
- Teams — from USD 22.00 per month for 2
- 000 credits up to USD 176.00 per month for 16
- 000 credits
- adding shared custom styles
- centralised account management
- premium 24/7 support and SSO
- with the training opt-out applied by default
- API at scale
- SLA-backed availability
- MCP integration
- SSO
- role-based permissions
- audit logs and commercial ownership of API-generated assets
- API — prepaid API units at USD 1.00 for 1
- 000 units
- charged per operation and per model
- never expiring but non-refundable
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Recraft handles your data.
GDPR overview
GDPR implementation is documented and concrete. The privacy policy, last modified on 12 March 2026, grants the core GDPR and CCPA rights to all users regardless of location, and adds rectification, erasure, objection, portability, consent withdrawal and the right to complain to a supervisory authority for EEA, UK and Swiss users. Lawful bases cited are contract performance and legitimate interest. A Data Processing Addendum is published, incorporating the 2021 Standard Contractual Clauses (Module 2, Recraft as processor), the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and Swiss FADP coverage. A public subprocessor list, updated 14 August 2026, names each vendor's jurisdiction. Recraft holds SOC 2 Type 2 and AIUC-1 certifications. No Article 27 EU representative is designated anywhere on the site.
Who owns the data?
Ownership follows the plan. On the free plan, every generated image belongs to Recraft, stays publicly visible in the community gallery and is not licensed for commercial use. On any paid plan, the subscriber holds full ownership and commercial rights over everything generated while subscribed, keeps those images private, and retains both ownership and rights after cancelling. Assets produced through the API belong to the organisation that generated them. One restriction applies to everyone: assets made with Recraft may not be used to train other AI models or similar systems. Personal data is limited to name, email and billing details, and card details are never stored by Recraft — Stripe and Google Pay handle them.
Reuse rights
On a paid plan the user may reuse generated images freely and without asking permission: marketing, branding, product packaging or any other professional purpose is explicitly covered by the commercial rights attached to the subscription, and that licence survives cancellation. API-generated assets carry the same freedom. The free plan is the exception — those images remain Recraft's property, stay public and may not be used commercially, which typically rules out stock platforms that require proof of ownership. Regardless of plan, one use is forbidden: feeding Recraft output into the training of another AI model, system or network. On Recraft's side, user images, prompts and chat content may be used to improve its own models unless the account has opted out; API inputs and outputs never are.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Recraft operates no data centres of its own and relies on third-party cloud providers. Its public subprocessor list names Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Corporation in the United States, and Nebius Group in the United States and the EU, for cloud infrastructure. Daily backups are held in Azure Postgres databases with regional replication and end-to-end encryption, while source code lives in GitHub mirrored to Azure. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with continuous monitoring for unauthorised access. Physical access is controlled by the providers through biometrics, round-the-clock monitoring and escorted visits; no Recraft employee or vendor has direct physical access to the servers. A disaster recovery plan targets restoration within 24 hours through automated failover and alternate cloud regions. The privacy policy states only in general terms that information may be stored in countries other than the user's own, and no customer-selectable hosting region is documented.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Recraft.
- Images made on the free plan belong to Recraft, stay public and cannot be used commercially — never produce client work there, however convenient the moment feels
- Training on your content is enabled by default on individual plans, so the opt-out is something you must remember to go and switch off in Profile settings
- Credit-based billing rewards inattention: costs vary by operation and model, subscription credits expire at the end of each cycle, and top-ups are easy to burn through
- Refunds are discretionary and narrowly conditioned — under 30 days, fewer than 30 credits used — and become impossible once the account is deleted, so cancel before deleting
- Prices shown on the pricing page are injected by JavaScript; confirm the current rate before committing rather than trusting a figure found elsewhere
- Leaning on generated visuals can quietly erode a team's own art direction: the model proposes a taste of its own, and accepting it by default flattens a brand over time
- No EU data residency is guaranteed and no Article 27 representative is named, which matters for European organisations handling identifiable people in uploaded images
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Very low for everyday use. Recraft Studio needs no installation: sign-in is passwordless, through a one-time email code or a Google, Discord or Apple account, and prompts are written in plain language with no syntax to learn. Mobile apps install from the App Store or Google Play. Plugins take a few clicks from Figma Community, the Chrome Web Store or the Google Workspace add-on menu, and Framer needs none at all. Only two tasks require real technical work: wiring the REST API or MCP server into a pipeline, and configuring SSO, permissions and audit logs for a team.
Deployment
Apps stores
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind Recraft
Fundraising
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement Recraft.
Frequently asked questions
Does Recraft have a free plan?
Who owns the images I generate?
Is my content used to train Recraft's models?
How much does a paid plan cost?
Is there an API, and how is it billed?
Which export formats are supported?
Can I use Recraft inside the tools I already work in?
What security and privacy certifications does Recraft hold?
Is there a minimum age?
What happens to my data if I delete my account?
Should you pick Recraft?
Recraft occupies a clear position: it is a production tool for design professionals rather than a consumer image generator. Its two real differentiators are editable SVG vector output from a prompt and dependable text rendering inside images — the two things most competing models still handle badly. Around them sits a complete chain: generation, editing, mockups, brand styles, and export up to 300 DPI CMYK, reachable from the web, mobile, an API, an MCP server and plugins for Figma, Framer, Chrome and Google Workspace.
Its compliance posture is stronger than the segment average. A published DPA with Standard Contractual Clauses, a dated public subprocessor list, SOC 2 Type 2 and AIUC-1 certifications, a documented training opt-out and a firm commitment that API inputs and outputs are never used for training all point to a vendor that has done the work. Two reservations temper that: no EU data residency option is documented, and no Article 27 EU representative is designated.
The commercial reading needs care. Credit-based pricing whose cost shifts with the operation and the model makes budgeting an exercise in projection, subscription credits do not carry over, and the pricing page publishes its figures only through JavaScript — a buyer has to reach the documentation to find them. The free plan deserves particular attention: it is permanent and generous enough to evaluate the product, but the images it produces belong to Recraft, remain public and cannot be used commercially, and training cannot be switched off there.
For a design team that needs vectors, brand consistency and volume, Recraft is a serious candidate. For anyone testing it, the sensible move is to reach a paid tier before producing anything a client will see.
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