Craiyon
Craiyon, once DALL·E mini, makes AI images from text with no sign-up. Free tier with watermark, unlimited images from $10 a month. Styles, credits and limits.
- Categories:
- Pricing Model:
- Freemium · free, paid up to $70/mo
Craiyon Review: The Free AI Image Generator That Started as DALL·E Mini
Craiyon is a free AI image generator you can use without an account. Type a prompt, pick a style, press Draw, and it returns a set of images in seconds. It began in 2021 as DALL·E mini, the open demo that first put text-to-image in front of millions of people. Boris Dayma and the same team rebranded it as Craiyon in 2022 and have run it as a business since. Craiyon LLC is based in the United States.
What does Craiyon do?
The core is text-to-image. You describe a scene, choose Artistic, Photo, Anime, Illustration, Vector or Raw, and set a square, wide or portrait frame. An Exclude field takes the things you do not want, such as text or people. Prompts work in any language. A Reference option lets subscribers start from an image instead of a blank prompt.
Around the generator sits an "image suite" of narrower tools. There are pages for logos, pixel art, anime, tattoos, home design and posters. A background remover and a Studio for edits sit beside them. Paid plans add Animate, Upscale and Vectorize. Image Search is a public gallery where every picture shows the prompt that made it. It is the fastest way to learn what the model can do.
Free use is real but limited. Free images come from the base model and carry a watermark. They sit behind ads and may wait in a queue at busy times. You must credit Craiyon if you publish them. The site says free users get a limited number of images but does not publish the number.
Which features stand out?
- No sign-up to start — the homepage generates without an account, which almost no rival still offers.
- Exclude field — a plain negative prompt that removes unwanted elements without prompt tricks.
- Image Search — a searchable gallery with prompts attached, useful for learning and for finding a starting point.
- Unlimited images on every paid plan — text-only generation never spends credits; only edits and image inputs do.
- Commercial use on the free tier — allowed with attribution, which is unusual for a free generator.
- Style pages — logo, tattoo, anime, pixel art and poster tools tuned for one job each.
How much does Craiyon cost?
Three paid plans, all shown as yearly totals on the pricing page, with a monthly option about 17 percent dearer.
| Plan | Billed yearly | Per month | Edit credits a month | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | none | base model, watermark, ads, attribution required |