ARENA Leaderboard
See how AI image models stack up against each other. How it works
Best AI Models for Photorealism
Ranking the best AI image editing models for photorealism, based on 4 blind community-voted challenges.
Highlights
10 imagesBest AI Models for Photorealism
| # | Model | Elo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1262 | |
| 2 | 1252 | |
| 3 | 1250 | |
| 4 | 1250 | |
| 5 | 1244 | |
| 6 | 1229 | |
| 7 | 1227 | |
| 8 | 1221 | |
| 9 | 1220 | |
| 10 | 1215 |
Google
OpenAI
Black Forest Labs
ByteDance
Alibaba
| 11 | 1213 | |
| 12 | 1213 | |
| 13 | 1199 | |
| 14 | 1198 | |
| 15 | 1174 | |
| 16 | 1125 | |
| 17 | 1123 | |
| 18 | 1106 | |
| 19 | 1098 |
xAI
Reve AI
Google’s Nano Banana Pro leads the Photorealism category with a 71.3% win rate and 1262 Elo, outperforming GPT Image 1.5 by a 10-point margin despite the latter’s 86% lower price point. While Nano Banana Pro claims the top spot here, it represents a specialized shift from the overall leaderboard where multi-modal generic models often dominate.
Elo vs Cost
Elo vs Speed
6 models waiting for enough speed data
Highlighted Battles
The most competitive head-to-head matchups, selected by closeness and vote count.
Challenges
Man and Car in California Image Editing Photorealism
Edit instruction
“Make a photo of the man driving the car down the California coastline”
Input
Top 3
1
Nano Banana Pro
2
GPT Image 1.5
3
Qwen Image Edit 2511
Bottom 3
Seedream 5.0 Lite
Grok Imagine Image
Seedream 4.0
13 models competed
Outfit Transfer Challenge Image Editing Photorealism
Edit instruction
“Use Image 1 as the base person. Dress them in the exact elaborate outfit from Image 2 (including all layers, accessories, jewelry, and shoes). Carefully adapt the clothing to the body shape and pose in Image 1 while maintaining realistic fabric behavior, correct proportions, and perfect lighting/shadow matching. Keep the person’s exact face, hair, and background completely unchanged.”
Input
Top 3
1
FLUX.2 [klein] 9B
2
Qwen Image Edit Latest
3
Grok Imagine Image
3 models competed
Bald man challenge Image Editing Photorealism Portrait
Edit instruction
“Give the person a full, thick head of natural hair with realistic texture, density, and a natural hairline. Preserve facial features and lighting.”
Input
Top 3
1
Nano Banana
2
Nano Banana Pro
3
Nano Banana 2
Bottom 3
FLUX.2 [pro]
Wan 2.6
Seedream 4.0
15 models competed
Golden Hour Stroll Image Editing Photorealism
Edit instruction
“Add dynamic motion to this photo: make hair blow in the wind, add leaves flying, energetic and lively feel.”
Input
Top 3
1
Wan 2.6
2
Seedream 4.5
3
GPT Image 1.5
Bottom 3
Grok Imagine Image
Qwen Image Edit 2511
Seedream 4.0
13 models competed