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Best free DALL·E alternatives (open source, 2026)

Updated · 20 repos compared · data refreshed nightly from GitHub

Short answer

The best free DALL·E alternative for most people is stable-diffusion-webui (165k GitHub stars, AGPL-3.0 license). All 20 options below are open source and run on your own computer or server, so there's no subscription.

DALL·E (AI image generation) is a paid, closed-source product. The open-source projects below do the same job and run on your own computer or server. Stars and activity come straight from GitHub.

Top picks

  1. 1. Best for: Best overallstable-diffusion-webui165k stars · AGPL-3.0 · updated 7mo ago
    Editor's pick

    Stable Diffusion web UI

    Needs:
    works on Mac (per README)
    Trade-off
    Better than DALL·E: the biggest community (165k stars). Worse: AGPL: if you run it as a service, you must share your changes; slower development (last update 7mo ago).
  2. 2. Best for: Also excellentComfyUI142k stars · GPL-3.0 · updated today
    Editor's pick

    The most powerful and modular diffusion model GUI, api and backend with a graph/nodes interface. The fastest local inference engine in the world.

    Needs:
    a GPU with 4 GB+, works on Mac (per README)
    Trade-off
    Better than DALL·E: very active development. Worse: needs a GPU with 4 GB+.

Comparison

ToolStarsOpen licenseSelf-hostRuns on MacGPU memoryLast update
DDALL·EPaid · cloud only–browsernone–
stable-diffusion-webuiEditor's pickStable Diffusion web UI165k?7mo ago
InvokeAIEditor's pickInvoke is a leading creative engine for Stable Diffusion models, empowering professionals, artists, and enthusiasts to generate and create visual media using the latest AI-driven technologies. The sol29k?today
ComfyUIEditor's pickThe most powerful and modular diffusion model GUI, api and backend with a graph/nodes interface. The fastest local inference engine in the world.142k4 GBtoday
FooocusEditor's pickFocus on prompting and generating54k?10mo ago
diffusers🤗 Diffusers: State-of-the-art diffusion models for image, video, and audio generation in PyTorch.35k?today
stable-diffusion-webui-colabstable diffusion webui colab16k?10mo ago
VAR[NeurIPS 2024 Best Paper Award][GPT beats diffusion🔥] [scaling laws in visual generation📈] Official impl. of "Visual Autoregressive Modeling: Scalable Image Generation via Next-Scale Prediction". An8.8k?11mo ago
ComfyUI-LTXVideoLTX-Video Support for ComfyUI4.2k?2d ago
stable-diffusion.cppDiffusion model(SD,Flux,Wan,Qwen Image,Z-Image,...) inference in pure C/C++7.8k?today
upscayl🆙 Upscayl - #1 Free and Open Source AI Image Upscaler for Linux, MacOS and Windows.51k?16d ago
satoriEnlightened library to convert HTML and CSS to SVG14k?2d ago
krita-ai-diffusionStreamlined interface for generating images with AI in Krita. Inpaint and outpaint with optional text prompt, no tweaking required.11k6 GB19d ago
PromptEnhancer[CVPR 2026] PromptEnhancer is a prompt-rewriting tool, refining prompts into clearer, structured versions for better image generation.3.8k?2mo ago
pwa-asset-generatorAutomates PWA asset generation and image declaration. Automatically generates icon and splash screen images, favicons and mstile images. Updates manifest.json and index.html files with the generated i3.0k?9d ago
custom-diffusionCustom Diffusion: Multi-Concept Customization of Text-to-Image Diffusion (CVPR 2023)2.0k?5mo ago
gpt_image_playground基于 OpenAI gpt-image-2.5 API 的图片生成与编辑工具3.9k?10d ago
OmniGenOmniGen: Unified Image Generation. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.113404.3k?10mo ago
stable-diffusion-videosCreate 🔥 videos with Stable Diffusion by exploring the latent space and morphing between text prompts4.7k?10mo ago
MOSS-ImageOfficial repository for MOSS-Image, a 5B-parameter base DiT model with high-quality text rendering, layout generation, and efficient fine-tuning.1.4k6 GB1d ago
Infinity[CVPR 2025 Oral]Infinity ∞ : Scaling Bitwise AutoRegressive Modeling for High-Resolution Image Synthesis1.6k?6mo ago

✓ yes · ✗ no · – not stated in the README. Hardware details are read from each README and may be incomplete.

DALL·E vs open source: what you give up

  • Setup. DALL·E is ready as soon as you sign up. These projects need installing, usually with Python, Node or Docker.
  • Hardware. 3 of 20 list a GPU requirement, starting at 4 GB of GPU memory. 5 mention Mac support.
  • Polish and support. Paid products usually have a smoother interface, managed updates and customer support. Open source gives you privacy, no usage limits and no monthly bill.
  • Maintenance. 11 of 20 were updated in the last 30 days.
  • License. 17 of 20 use a standard open-source license (MIT, Apache, GPL and similar). Check the license before commercial use.

How we picked

Projects that describe themselves as a DALL·E alternative come first, then projects that do the same job, ranked by how well they match and by GitHub stars. Projects that need a paid API key, and projects from DALL·E's own company, are left out. Stars and activity are verified with the GitHub API every night; hardware details come from each README. Full method.

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to DALL·E?

Yes. We list 20 free, open-source GitHub projects that do the same job as DALL·E. The most popular are stable-diffusion-webui, ComfyUI and Fooocus.

What is the best open-source DALL·E alternative?

It depends on your setup. Best overall: stable-diffusion-webui. Also excellent: ComfyUI. Compare GitHub stars, license and hardware needs in the table on this page.

Can I run a DALL·E alternative on a Mac?

Yes. According to their READMEs, stable-diffusion-webui, ComfyUI and diffusers run on macOS.

Do I need a GPU to replace DALL·E?

3 of the 20 list a GPU requirement, starting at 4 GB of GPU memory.

Are these DALL·E alternatives really free?

Yes. All 20 are open source on GitHub, and projects that need a paid API key are left out. 17 use a standard open-source license such as MIT, Apache or GPL; check the license before commercial use.

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