Tongyi-MAI's 6-billion parameter distilled text-to-image model optimized for speed, achieving high-quality generation in 8 steps or fewer with support for bilingual text rendering
Details
z-image-turbo
Providers & Pricing (2)
Z-Image Turbo is available from 2 providers, with per-image pricing starting at $0.005 through Replicate.
replicate/z-image-turbo
Output
Pricing Notes (2)
- • PrunaAI optimized version of Tongyi-MAI Z-Image-Turbo
- • Sub-second generation with 8 steps
fal/z-image-turbo
Provider Performance
Fastest generation through replicate at 1,363ms median latency with 69.3% success rate.
Aggregated from real API requests over the last 30 days.
Generation Time
Success Rate
Time to First Byte
Provider Rankings
| # | Provider | p50 Gen Time | p95 Gen Time | Success Rate | TTFB (p50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | replicate | 1,363ms | 6,969ms | 69.3% | 1,375ms |
| 2 | fal | 1,733ms | 7,522ms | 92.3% | 1,745ms |
Z-Image Turbo API OpenAI-compatible
Integrate Z-Image Turbo through Lumenfall’s OpenAI-compatible API to generate images or execute edits using its 6-billion parameter distilled architecture optimized for 8-step inference.
https://api.lumenfall.ai/openai/v1
z-image-turbo
Text to Image Generate
Create images from text descriptions
curl -X POST \ https://api.lumenfall.ai/openai/v1/images/generations \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $LUMENFALL_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "model": "z-image-turbo", "prompt": "A serene mountain landscape at sunset", "size": "1024x1024" }'# Response:# { "created": 1234567890, "data": [{ "url": "https://...", "revised_prompt": "..." }] }import OpenAI from 'openai';const client = new OpenAI({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY', baseURL: 'https://api.lumenfall.ai/openai/v1'});const response = await client.images.generate({ model: 'z-image-turbo', prompt: 'A serene mountain landscape at sunset', size: '1024x1024'});// { created: 1234567890, data: [{ url: "https://...", revised_prompt: "..." }] }console.log(response.data[0].url);from openai import OpenAIclient = OpenAI( api_key="YOUR_API_KEY", base_url="https://api.lumenfall.ai/openai/v1")response = client.images.generate( model="z-image-turbo", prompt="A serene mountain landscape at sunset", size="1024x1024")# { created: 1234567890, data: [{ url: "https://...", revised_prompt: "..." }] }print(response.data[0].url)Image Editing Edit
Transform existing images with text instructions
curl -X POST \ https://api.lumenfall.ai/openai/v1/images/edits \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $LUMENFALL_API_KEY" \ -F "model=z-image-turbo" \ -F "[email protected]" \ -F "prompt=Add a starry night sky to this image" \ -F "size=1024x1024"# Response:# { "created": 1234567890, "data": [{ "url": "https://...", "revised_prompt": "..." }] }import OpenAI from 'openai';import fs from 'fs';const client = new OpenAI({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY', baseURL: 'https://api.lumenfall.ai/openai/v1'});const response = await client.images.edit({ model: 'z-image-turbo', image: fs.createReadStream('source.png'), prompt: 'Add a starry night sky to this image', size: '1024x1024'});// { created: 1234567890, data: [{ url: "https://...", revised_prompt: "..." }] }console.log(response.data[0].url);from openai import OpenAIclient = OpenAI( api_key="YOUR_API_KEY", base_url="https://api.lumenfall.ai/openai/v1")response = client.images.edit( model="z-image-turbo", image=open("source.png", "rb"), prompt="Add a starry night sky to this image", size="1024x1024")# { created: 1234567890, data: [{ url: "https://...", revised_prompt: "..." }] }print(response.data[0].url)Benchmarks
Alibaba's Z-Image Turbo holds a top 10 position in global text-to-image rankings with a 1253 Elo rating. It remains competitive in high-speed workflows, maintaining a rank of 16 for complex image editing tasks with an Elo of 1021.
Competition Results
Modern Clean Menu
Text-to-Image“Modern minimalist restaurant menu design, white background with colorful food photos in grid, sections for appetizers/pizza/mains, bold sans-serif fonts, vibrant accents, clean professional layout for casual dining.”
Adorable Baby Animals in Sunny Meadow
Text-to-Image“Hyper-photorealistic scene of fluffy baby animals—a golden retriever puppy, tabby kitten, baby bunny, and red fox kit—with big expressive eyes and ultra-detailed soft fur, playfully chasing butterflies and tumbling together in a lush wildflower meadow, warm golden sunrise light with god rays and dew sparkles, joyful wholesome vibe, 8K masterpiece.”
Fantasy Warrior
Text-to-Image“Close portrait of a battle-worn paladin in ornate engraved plate armor, hair braided with small beads, faint scars and dirt on the skin, warm torchlight reflecting off metal, shallow depth of field, bokeh sparks, lifelike eyes, highly detailed texture on leather straps and cloth underlayer.”
Geometric Composition
Text-to-Image“A glass cube on a wooden table. Inside the cube is a small blue sphere. On top of the cube sits a red book. A green plant is behind the cube, partially visible through the glass. Soft window light from the left.”
Heroic Super Hero Portrait
Text-to-Image“Hyper-photorealistic full-body portrait of a female superhero standing triumphantly on a New York skyscraper rooftop at golden sunset, wearing a classic modest superhero costume with flowing cape, chest emblem, gloves, and boots in red and blue colors, practical design, short hair, strong determined heroic expression looking into the distance, powerful confident stance with hands on hips and cape billowing dramatically in the wind, detailed urban cityscape background, warm natural sunlight with sharp shadows and fabric highlights, ultra-sharp textures on suit, hair, and concrete, 8K masterpiece, empowering family-friendly style.”
Vintage Cafe Logo
Text-to-Image“Vintage minimalist restaurant logo for "Caffè Florian", retro cloche dome with steam and "Est. 1720" banner, classic typography, warm brown and cream tones, subtle texture on light background, vector emblem style.”
Victorian Greenhouse Oasis
Text-to-Image“Hyper-photorealistic interior of a lush Victorian glass greenhouse filled with exotic tropical plants, vibrant blooming orchids, tall ferns, colorful butterflies in flight, sunlight filtering through ornate glass roof creating realistic caustics and dew on leaves, intricate iron framework visible, misty atmosphere, 8K masterpiece.”
Candid Street Photography
Text-to-Image“A candid street photo of an elderly Japanese man repairing a red bicycle in light rain, reflections on wet pavement, shallow depth of field, 50mm lens, natural skin texture, imperfect framing, motion blur from passing cars, cinematic but realistic, no stylization.”
Isometric Miniature Diorama Scenes
Text-to-Image“Create a clear, 45° top-down isometric miniature 3D cartoon scene of Japan's signature dish: sushi, with soft refined textures, realistic PBR materials, gentle lighting, on a small raised diorama base with minimal garnish and plate. Solid light blue background. At top-center: 'JAPAN' in large bold text, 'SUSHI' below it, small flag icon. Perfectly centered, ultra-clean, high-clarity, square format.”
Night Sky Transformation
Image Editing“Change the scene to night: a deep, dark sky with subtle, glistening stars visible behind the mountain.”
Bald man challenge
Image Editing“Give the person a full, thick head of natural hair with realistic texture, density, and a natural hairline. Preserve facial features and lighting.”
Fantasy Warrior
Text-to-Image“Close portrait of a battle-worn paladin in ornate engraved plate armor, hair braided with small beads, faint scars and dirt on the skin, warm torchlight reflecting off metal, shallow depth of field, bokeh sparks, lifelike eyes, highly detailed texture on leather straps and cloth underlayer.”
Best for
All categoriesGallery
View all 16 imagesZ-Image Turbo FAQ
Z-Image Turbo starts at $0.005 per image through Lumenfall. Pricing varies by provider. Lumenfall does not add any markup to provider pricing.
You can use Z-Image Turbo through Lumenfall's OpenAI-compatible API. Send requests to the unified endpoint with model ID "z-image-turbo". Code examples are available in Python, JavaScript, and cURL.
Z-Image Turbo is available through Replicate and fal.ai on Lumenfall. Lumenfall automatically routes requests to the best available provider.
Z-Image Turbo supports images up to 2048x2048 resolution.
Overview
Z-Image Turbo is a 6-billion parameter text-to-image model developed by Alibaba’s Tongyi-MAI team. It distinguishes itself by utilizing distillation techniques to enable high-quality image synthesis in eight steps or fewer, making it significantly faster than standard diffusion models. The model is specifically optimized for bilingual text rendering, supporting both Chinese and English characters within generated imagery.
Strengths
- Inference Latency: By reducing the required sampling steps to a range of 1 to 8, the model provides near-instantaneous image generation suitable for real-time applications.
- Bilingual Text Rendering: The model excels at accurately rendering complex Chinese characters and English text, a task where many Western-centric models often fail or produce “gibberish.”
- Visual Fidelity at Low Step Counts: Despite the aggressive distillation for speed, the model maintains high structural integrity and aesthetic consistency that typically requires 25-50 steps in non-distilled models.
- Multimodal Input Support: It can process both text prompts and image-based references (image-to-image) to guide the generation process, offering flexibility beyond simple text descriptors.
Limitations
- Fine Detail Saturation: While excellent for rapid generation, the model may lack the extreme micro-detail or complex texture depth found in larger, 12B+ parameter models that utilize longer sampling chains.
- Step Count Sensitivity: Moving beyond the 8-step threshold does not necessarily improve quality and can sometimes lead to visual artifacts, as the model is strictly tuned for low-step schedules.
- Stylistic Range: Compared to broader foundation models, the output may lean toward a specific “polished” aesthetic favored by its distillation process, which might require more aggressive prompting to deviate from.
Technical Background
Z-Image Turbo is part of the Z-Image model family and utilizes a distilled architecture derived from a larger latent diffusion framework. To achieve its speed, the developers employed a consistency-based distillation approach that maps the probability flow of the original model into a single or few-step inference trajectory. The integration of a specialized text encoder allows the model to handle bilingual tokens more effectively than models trained solely on English datasets.
Best For
This model is ideal for interactive applications such as live drawing assistants, rapid prototyping for UI/UX design, and social media content creation where speed is prioritized over granular control. It is also a leading choice for projects requiring accurate Chinese typography within images. Z-Image Turbo is available for integration and testing through Lumenfall’s unified API and interactive playground.
Top Matchups
See how Z-Image Turbo performs head-to-head against other AI image models, ranked by community votes in blind comparisons.
Try Z-Image Turbo in Playground
Generate images with custom prompts — no API key needed.