Leonardo AI

Use it when

You need campaign or concept visuals from prompts and references—and you’ll stay inside a token-metered image/video studio rather than only enhancing existing photos.

What it does well

• Text-to-image and image workflows with presets, quality settings, and personal AI models on paid Solo tiers
• Private creations from Essential upward (Free stays public to the community)
• Token Bank plus top-ups on paid plans so unused Fast Tokens can buffer heavier months
• Premium unlocks unlimited relaxed image on selected models; Ultimate adds relaxed video on selected Motion models (fair-use slowdowns possible)
• Essential is also noted as included with Canva Business—useful if your team already pays that stack

Skip it when

• Free’s ~150 daily tokens and public gallery terms cannot support client or production work
• You only need upscale/restore of existing shots—use Let’s Enhance, VanceAI, or Magnific instead
• Heavy video will burn tokens fast—Essential is a weak fit; budget Ultimate or check current Motion costs
• You want a Stable Diffusion–first official web entry—compare Stability AI
• You need absolute unlimited generation with no queue/model limits—relaxed “unlimited” is model-gated

Fits your workflow

Prompt or drop references → pick model/settings → generate (spend Fast Tokens) → edit/upscale or export. Stay Free for casual public experiments; Essential for private daily hobby volume; Premium when you need ~25k tokens/mo and relaxed image; Ultimate for higher concurrency and relaxed video. Finish layout in Figma/Canva; treat Leonardo as the generative media source.