FigEditor
FigEditor is a browser-based AI workspace that turns text, sketches, reference images, article PDFs or spreadsheet rows into scientific figures, posters and charts, then lets researchers redraw a single region instead of regenerating the whole image.
What is FigEditor?
FigEditor is a browser-based workspace for creating and refining scientific figures. Nothing is installed, and it takes four kinds of input: a written prompt or methods paragraph, a hand-drawn sketch, a reference image whose composition and palette are reused, or an existing PNG or JPG to be vectorised. The announced flow has three steps: describe or upload, generate, then edit and export. Several engines sit behind the interface. Paper Banana runs a five-agent pipeline (Retriever, Planner, Stylist, Visualizer, Critic) derived from a PKU x Google Cloud AI Research project published on arXiv (2601.23265) and evaluated on PaperBananaBench: 584 samples, 292 test cases from NeurIPS 2025 sources, scored on faithfulness, concision, readability and aesthetics. Each generation costs 25 credits. AI Scientific Illustration builds real SVG in five stages: Generator, Segmenter (SAM3), Extractor (RMBG-2.0), Assembler and Optimizer. The Scientific Poster Maker takes an article PDF of up to 50 MB through Index, Summarize, Plan and Render to produce an IMRaD poster. Chart makers (bar, column, pie, donut, heatmap with sequential, diverging and Viridis scales) are deterministic and render locally in the browser rather than through an image model; the Pie Chart Maker works without an account. Users pick the image model (Nano Banana, Nano Banana 2, Nano Banana Pro or GPT Image 2) and pay per generation in credits. Editing is the differentiator: Quick Edit, Region Redraw, Text Edit, Recolor and aspect-ratio changes fix one area instead of regenerating the whole figure. Projects, conversation history, version history and share links are included. Exports cover editable SVG that opens in Illustrator, Inkscape or draw.io, PNG, JPG and TIFF up to 4K depending on the model, PPTX and Journal Format presets. Further generators cover mind maps, concept maps, conceptual and theoretical frameworks, infographics, text-to-diagram, journal covers and graphical abstracts. The interface exists in English, German, Spanish, Korean and both Chinese scripts. FigEditor is explicit about its own limits: AI output is a working draft, and checking labels, relationships, citations and journal requirements remains the researcher's job.
What it does
- Generate a scientific figure from a methods paragraph, a caption or a short brief
- Turn a hand-drawn sketch into a clean figure while keeping its original logic
- Reuse the composition, palette and density of a reference image on your own content
- Redraw a selected region, edit a label, recolour or change the aspect ratio without regenerating everything
- Vectorise an existing PNG or JPG figure to make it editable again
- Convert an article PDF of up to 50 MB into a structured IMRaD scientific poster
- Build charts and heatmaps from CSV or Excel rows, rendered locally in the browser
When to use FigEditor / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if FigEditor is the right fit.
When to use FigEditor
- Researchers writing a paper who need method, mechanism or workflow schematics without a designer
- PhD students and postdocs preparing a thesis figure, a graphical abstract or a conference poster
- Laboratory and research teams producing visuals in volume, the audience the Premium plan is aimed at
- Teachers and instructional designers building mind maps, concept maps and teaching illustrations
- AI and computer-science researchers drawing system architectures, pipelines and flow diagrams
When not to use FigEditor
- Developers who need an API: no public API and no developer documentation exist on the site
- Mobile-first users: there is no iOS and no Android application, only the browser workspace
- Under-18s, including school pupils, since the terms set a minimum age of 18
- Organisations with a procurement checklist: no DPA, no SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA certification is published
- Teams handling confidential, personal, patient or unpublished material, which the terms forbid uploading without permission
How to use FigEditor
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Open figeditor.ai and sign in with Google or with an email verification code; the account is created automatically
- Collect the 50 free credits granted when the account is created
- Pick the tool you need: Studio, Paper Banana, SVG illustration, poster maker, chart maker, mind map and so on
- Provide the input: a prompt or methods text (up to 12,000 characters on Paper Banana), a sketch, a reference image, or a PDF of up to 50 MB for a poster
- Choose the image model (GPT Image 2 is recommended on Paper Banana) and either the Basic preset or Custom settings: figure type, visual style, venue, ratio, resolution
- Check the credit cost shown before launching the generation
- Start the generation and follow the background steps
- Proofread the output: labels, arrows, values, relationships, citations and scale bars
- Fix what is wrong with Region Redraw, Text Edit, Recolor or a ratio change, and compare versions
- Export as editable SVG, PNG, JPG, TIFF or PPTX, then apply the Journal Format preset
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Editing after generation: a wrong region can be redrawn without rebuilding the whole figure, which is the site's central argument
- Genuinely editable SVG output that opens in Illustrator, Inkscape and draw.io
- Charts and heatmaps are computed locally in the browser, so the underlying table is not sent to an image model
- One tool covers the whole chain, from paper to figure to poster
- 50 free credits on sign-up, with no card announced, and one-off credit packs whose credits never expire
- Credits are automatically refunded when a generation fails for technical reasons
- Low entry price at USD 9.90 per month, with a commercial licence included from the Pro plan onwards
Cons
- The operator is not identified: the terms point to "the legal person identified at checkout", and no company name or address appears anywhere on the site
- No GDPR mention, no data processing agreement and no published security certification
- No no-training guarantee: the site itself states it does not offer a blanket one
- No hosting country or region is disclosed
- Subscription credits expire 30 days after each monthly grant, with no carry-over
- Credit pack prices are loaded dynamically and are not visible in the page source
- No public API, no mobile app, and a single contact channel: support@figeditor.ai, with no phone and no postal address
Pricing & Plans
A free entry point is available: 50 credits are granted when the account is created, downloads are watermarked at that level, and the deterministic chart generators such as the Pie Chart Maker can be used without an account. The lowest paid entry point is the Starter plan at USD 9.90 per month billed monthly, or USD 99 per year, which matches the low price of USD 9.90 declared in the site's structured data, against a high price of USD 599. One-off credit packs are also sold, but their prices are not displayed in the page source.
- USD 9.90 per month
- or USD 99 per year (USD 8.25 per month equivalent
- -17%)
- 7
- 800 credits per year
- around 780 illustrations
- commercial licence on the annual billing only
- USD 29.90 per month
- or USD 299 per year (USD 24.92 per month equivalent
- -17%)
- 36
- 000 credits per year
- around 3
- 600 illustrations
- commercial licence
- USD 59.90 per month
- or USD 599 per year (USD 49.92 per month equivalent
- -17%)
- 93
- 600 credits per year
- around 9
- 360 illustrations
- same options as Pro
- one-off credit packs of 225 credits (around 22 illustrations)
- 680 credits (around 68)
- 2
- 020 credits (around 202) and 4
- 520 credits (around 452)
- prices are not displayed in the page source
- watermark-free downloads up to 4K
- Paper Banana
- Scientific Poster Maker
- Quick Edit
- Region Redraw
- Text Edit
- Recolor and aspect ratio
- Journal Format presets for PNG
- subscription credits last 30 days per grant
- while credits bought in a pack do not expire
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how FigEditor handles your data.
GDPR overview
There is no mention of the GDPR anywhere on the site: a search across every collected page and its HTML returned zero occurrences of GDPR, RGPD or CCPA. No Article 27 EU representative is named, no data protection officer is named, and no data processing agreement is offered or mentioned. The privacy policy does state user rights, but without attaching them to any regulation: "Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or objection. Email support@figeditor.ai to make a request." Identity verification may be required. International transfers are covered by a single generic sentence, "These providers may process data in countries where they operate", with no standard contractual clauses and no country named. The policy is dated 29 August 2026.
Who owns the data?
Under article 4 of the terms, you keep whatever rights you already hold in the prompts, documents and images you submit: "You retain the rights you hold in prompts, documents, images, and other materials you submit." You grant FigEditor a limited, non-exclusive licence to host, copy, process, transmit and modify that material, only as needed to provide, secure, support and improve the service. Depending on the feature used, the same material is passed to third-party model and storage providers. Rights over generated output are left open: the site says they depend on your jurisdiction, your source material and third-party model terms, and warns that output may resemble existing material and may not be protectable as intellectual property.
Reuse rights
The terms allow reuse without asking permission: "Subject to these Terms and applicable law, you may use generated outputs for lawful purposes." Commercial use is a paid feature, however. A commercial licence is included on the Pro and Premium plans, and on Starter only when billed annually; watermark-free downloads are likewise reserved for paid plans and credit packs, while the free tier watermarks its exports. Two responsibilities stay with the user: checking that uploaded references and the use made of outputs do not breach copyright, trademark, privacy, confidentiality or employer, institution and publisher rules, and respecting the acceptable-use policy, which bans NSFW, violent, hateful, CSAM, counterfeit and misleading deepfake content.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
No hosting jurisdiction is published. Neither a country nor a region is named anywhere on the site, and no standard contractual clauses or certifications are cited. What the privacy policy does say is which kinds of providers may be involved: "Depending on the feature and payment method you use, data may be processed by AI, infrastructure, analytics, and payment providers such as Waffo Pancake, OpenRouter and its model providers, KIE, an S3-compatible storage provider, Cloudflare, Stripe, PayPal, PostHog, Plausible, and Google Ads." The wording "such as" makes that list illustrative rather than an exhaustive subprocessor register. Transfers are covered by a single generic sentence: "These providers may process data in countries where they operate." Outside the site itself, and to be read as such, the domain resolves to 172.67.152.22 on the Cloudflare network (AS13335, anycast node), and the registrar is Spaceship, Inc. in the United States. None of that establishes where user files are actually stored.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting FigEditor.
- Publishing a false figure: the tool checks neither labels, values, relationships nor citations, and the burden of proof stays with the author
- Research integrity: several journals require a declaration when images are AI-assisted, and the site hands that obligation back to the user
- Confidentiality of research material: the terms forbid uploading unpublished, personal or patient data without permission, and files transit through third-party providers
- No guarantee that submitted content is excluded from model training
- An unidentified operator means no named counterparty in a dispute, with governing law tied to "the legal person identified at checkout"
- Deactivating an account erases neither database records nor stored files, and subscription credits are lost 30 days after each grant
- Skill erosion: letting the tool produce every first draft weakens the habit of building a scientific figure yourself, and generated images can distort lettering, which is why the site advises adding titles as real text
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Very low. Nothing is installed: everything runs in the browser. You sign in with Google or with an email verification code, and the account is created automatically; some generators, such as the Pie Chart Maker, work without an account at all. Basic presets carry recommended settings, and the Custom mode is optional for figure type, style, venue, ratio and resolution. The credit cost is displayed before each generation, and the SVG illustration page states that no design skills are required. The only real effort lies elsewhere: proofreading and correcting the figure, and meeting the target journal's format.
Deployment
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind FigEditor
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement FigEditor.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI scientific figure generator?
Are my papers, prompts and images used for training?
Who owns the uploaded material and the generated output?
Are credits returned when a generation fails?
Can I meet the size, resolution and format a journal requires?
What types of figures can I create?
Can I start from a hand-drawn sketch?
What happens to unused credits, and can I cancel?
Is there an API or a mobile app?
Should you pick FigEditor?
FigEditor takes a clear position: the interesting part is not generating a scientific figure, it is editing the one you just generated. Region redraw, text editing, recolouring and ratio changes let a researcher fix one wrong arrow or one wrong label without starting over, and the SVG that comes out really does open in Illustrator, Inkscape or draw.io. The coverage is wide for a young product: figures, SVG illustrations, posters built from an article PDF, deterministic charts and heatmaps computed in the browser, mind maps, concept maps, theoretical frameworks, journal covers and graphical abstracts. The entry price is low, credit packs do not expire, and the tone is unusually cautious for the category, since the site itself insists that its output is a working draft and that scientific verification stays human. The structural weakness is on the other side of the ledger. No company is named anywhere: the terms simply refer to the legal person identified at checkout. There is no postal address, no phone number, no data processing agreement, no GDPR mention and no disclosed hosting country. The service is also very young, with the domain registered on 02/05/2026, policies dated 29 August 2026 and no Wayback Machine capture at all, so there is no track record to lean on. Subscription credits expire after 30 days, and deactivating an account erases neither database records nor stored files. The practical arbitration is therefore about the material you upload rather than about the output quality. For published or non-sensitive content, the editing workflow and the price are compelling. For unpublished results, confidential data or anything covered by an institutional confidentiality rule, the combination of an unidentified operator, undisclosed hosting and no no-training guarantee deserves a deliberate decision rather than a reflex.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.