InvokeAI - AI Image Tools Tool

Overview

InvokeAI is an open-source creative engine for Stable Diffusion–family models that provides a locally hosted WebUI, a node/workflow system, and a unified canvas for iterative image creation. The project is published under a permissive, commercially-friendly license on GitHub and is intended both for local installs (Community Edition) and as the basis for commercial/hosted offerings. ([github.com](https://github.com/invoke-ai/InvokeAI?utm_source=openai)) InvokeAI targets artists, studios, and technical users who want an integrated, production-capable toolkit: features include a React-based WebUI, a Unified Canvas that combines text→image, image→image, inpainting and outpainting in one workspace, a node/workflow engine for building repeatable pipelines, model and embedding management, and built-in upscaling/post-processing tools. Recent official release notes highlight major UI and canvas improvements (Invoke 5.0 introduced Control Canvas and Flux model support) and ongoing iterative releases through minor/major updates. ([github.com](https://github.com/invoke-ai/InvokeAI?utm_source=openai)) Community feedback is mixed: many users praise the clean UI and canvas-driven workflow, while threads and issue reports also mention occasional installation or platform-specific problems (mac performance, installer/launcher issues) and feature gaps compared with other UIs. The project is actively maintained with release candidates and community forks visible in the ecosystem. ([reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/invokeai/comments/17eyfsk?utm_source=openai))

Key Features

• Unified Canvas combining text2img, img2img, inpainting, and outpainting in one workspace.
• Node-based workflow builder for repeatable, shareable generation pipelines.
• React-based local WebUI with gallery, prompt history, and drag-and-drop image management.
• Model manager supporting ckpt and diffusers models, LoRA, embeddings, ControlNet integration.
• Built-in upscaling and post-processing tools (Real-ESRGAN/embiggen workflows supported).
• Batch/CLI tooling (invokeai-batch) for templated, parallelized generation runs.
• Community Edition (open-source) plus commercial/hosted offerings from the Invoke team.

Example Usage

Example (python):

import subprocess
import shlex

# Example: run a simple batch generation via the local InvokeAI CLI
# This assumes InvokeAI is installed and 'invokeai-batch' is on PATH (or use full path).
# The command below is illustrative: adapt flags and paths to your install.

prompt = "A photo-realistic portrait of a golden retriever wearing aviator goggles, cinematic lighting"
cmd = f"invokeai-batch --prompt {shlex.quote(prompt)} --steps 30 --seed 12345 --n 1 --outdir ./invoke_outputs"

print('Running:', cmd)
proc = subprocess.run(shlex.split(cmd), capture_output=True, text=True)

if proc.returncode == 0:
    print('Generation completed. Output directory: ./invoke_outputs')
else:
    print('InvokeAI CLI failed:')
    print(proc.stdout)
    print(proc.stderr)

# For more advanced automation, use invokeai-batch templates or launch the local web server and call its endpoints.
# See official docs for invokeai-batch and CLI usage. ([d2wozrt205r2fu.cloudfront.net](https://d2wozrt205r2fu.cloudfront.net/p/invokeai-answer-command-line-usage-cat-ai?utm_source=openai))

Pricing

InvokeAI itself is available as a free open-source Community Edition (Apache-2.0 / commercially-friendly license) that you can download and self-host. The team also maintains a hosted/commercial product (Invoke) with subscription tiers (Starter, Indie, Premier, Enterprise) and add-ons; current hosted pricing and feature limits are published on the vendor site and should be checked there for up-to-date values. ([github.com](https://github.com/invoke-ai/InvokeAI?utm_source=openai))

Benchmarks

Recommended GPU VRAM for SDXL (1024×1024): 10 GB+ VRAM (Source: ([invoke-ai.github.io](https://invoke-ai.github.io/InvokeAI/installation/requirements/?utm_source=openai)))

Recommended GPU VRAM for SD1.5 (512×512): 4 GB+ VRAM (Source: ([invoke-ai.github.io](https://invoke-ai.github.io/InvokeAI/installation/requirements/?utm_source=openai)))

Supported Python versions: Python 3.11 – 3.12 required (Source: ([invoke-ai.github.io](https://invoke-ai.github.io/InvokeAI/installation/requirements/?utm_source=openai)))

Supported model families: SD 1.5 / SD 2.x / SDXL / FLUX; supports ckpt and Hugging Face diffusers, LoRA, ControlNet, embeddings (Source: ([github.com](https://github.com/invoke-ai/InvokeAI?utm_source=openai)))

Platform support: Windows 10+, macOS 14+, Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+ tested) (Source: ([invoke-ai.github.io](https://invoke-ai.github.io/InvokeAI/installation/requirements/?utm_source=openai)))

Key Information

• Category: Image Tools
• Type: AI Image Tools Tool