Recraft
Buy it for production SVG vectors, brand styles and a €0.03-per-image API — the one image platform that ships a real MCP server; skip it for video-first or document-grounded work.
Element scores
Strengths
The only model family generating production-quality editable SVG, with V4 (02/2026) and V4.1 (05/2026) tuned for design taste, layout and readable typography rather than generic aesthetics. Custom styles give real brand consistency from uploaded assets. The API is cheap and predictable ($0.035/image on V4.1), the MCP story is the best in the image category (hosted + open-source local servers), and SOC 2 Type 2 plus AIUC-1 certification back the enterprise pitch. $30M Series B led by Accel with an NVIDIA extension; 4M+ users and enterprise design teams at Amazon, NVIDIA, Salesforce and Uber.
Honest dings
Free-tier images are public with no commercial rights — real work starts at paid. Observability is thin: no run traces or cost attribution beyond credit counts. Agentic mode and video generation are young, and independent reviews place Recraft as a static-asset specialist — video, talking-head and catalog-scale product photography need other tools. Subscription credits don't roll over, and remote-MCP and API usage draw from two separate, non-interchangeable balances.
Sources
Every audit lists the research it rests on — transparency and traceability are the product. Tools evolve: each audit is a snapshot of its audit date, and re-audits supersede older versions (kept below for reference).
- recraft.ai/blog/introducing-recraft-v4-design-taste… — Official V4 announcement (17/02/2026): ground-up rebuild for design taste, prompt accuracy, typography (accessed 2026-07-21)
- recraft.ai/docs/recraft-models/recraft-v4-1 — Official V4.1 docs (released 14/05/2026): photorealism upgrade, new illustration styles, Utility variants (accessed 2026-07-21)
- recraft.ai/docs/api-reference/pricing — Official API pricing: $1/1,000 units; V4.1 $0.035, V4.1 Pro $0.21, V4 Pro $0.25, vector generation $0.30 per image (accessed 2026-07-21)
- recraft.ai/docs/plans-and-billing/paid-plans — Official subscription pricing: Basic $12/mo (1,000 credits), Pro $20-160/mo (2,000-16,000 credits), Teams with SSO; annual ~20% off (accessed 2026-07-21)
- recraft.ai/docs/plans-and-billing/free-plan.md — Official: free-tier images are public and free plan carries no commercial rights (accessed 2026-07-21)
- recraft.ai/docs/mcp-reference/getting-started.md — Official MCP docs: hosted remote server (OAuth) + open-source local server; tools for generation, editing, styles, vectorize, upscale; separate credit/API-unit balances (accessed 2026-07-21)
- recraft.ai/press-releases/series-b-announcement — Official: $30M Series B led by Accel (05/2025); 4M+ users, 10X growth in two years; enterprise users at Amazon, NVIDIA, Salesforce, Uber (accessed 2026-07-21)
- recraft.ai/press-releases/welcoming-new-investors-s… — Official: Series B extension with NVIDIA as investor (07/2025) (accessed 2026-07-21)
- techcrunch.com/2025/05/05/a-stealth-ai-model-beat-d… — Independent: San Francisco-based, ~$5M ARR at Series B, V3 topped a respected text-to-image benchmark (accessed 2026-07-21)
- recraft.ai/blog-announcements — Official announcement log: SOC 2 Type 2 (15/01/2026), AIUC-1 certification — first in image gen (22/12/2025), Agentic mode (08/12/2025), Exploration Mode (25/03/2026) (accessed 2026-07-21)
- vibedex.ai/blog/recraft-ai-review-2026 — Independent review (verified 13/06/2026): static-ad and design-asset specialist, 11/22 tracked capabilities, clean trust verdict; not a video or product-photo suite (accessed 2026-07-21)