Cartoon Style Bake-Off: Same Scene, Competing Cloud Image APIs

July 30, 2026

One locked James+Milo lab prompt, run across the cloud image APIs we can actually reach today. Pick a style with your eyes, not a vendor deck.

Method: identical text prompt for every run (James curly salt-and-pepper + thick black glasses + full beard; Milo as a full anthropomorphic raccoon; dual-Spark lab debug scene; exactly two characters). No provider-specific prompt tuning. Gemini used the working OpenClaw AI Studio key; FAL came through Hermes/Nous image_generate; OpenAI and xAI used vault keys. Gemini vault entry was stale/invalid and was skipped after a failed probe.

Contact sheet overview:

Contact sheet of all bake-off cartoon variants

Gallery

FAL FLUX 2 Klein 9B · (Hermes default)

Approx cost: ~$0.004 · fal-flux2-klein-9b.png

Current Hermes image_generate backend. Fast/cheap; character consistency weaker without refs.

OpenAI gpt-image-1 · high · 1536x1024

Approx cost: ~$0.25 · openai-gpt-image-1-high.png

Strong prompt following; expensive at high quality.

OpenAI gpt-image-1 · medium · 1536x1024

Approx cost: ~$0.06 · openai-gpt-image-1-medium.png

Same model family, cheaper quality tier.

xAI Grok Imagine · quality

Approx cost: ~$0.02–0.05 · xai-grok-imagine-quality.png

Grok Imagine quality tier via xAI API.

xAI Grok Imagine · standard

Approx cost: ~$0.002–0.02 · xai-grok-imagine.png

Grok Imagine standard/cheaper tier.

Gemini 3.1 Flash Image · (Nano Banana 2)

Approx cost: ~$0.067–0.10 · gemini-3.1-flash-image.png

cartoon2 default target model family; multi-ref capable.

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image

Approx cost: cheaper flash tier · gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image.png

Faster/cheaper Gemini image variant.

Gemini 3 Pro Image

Approx cost: premium / higher · gemini-3-pro-image.png

Pro/hero asset tier.

Gemini 2.5 Flash Image · (Nano Banana)

Approx cost: ~$0.039 · gemini-2.5-flash-image.png

Older Nano Banana flash path.

What to look for

Character lock: Is there exactly one human (James) and one raccoon (Milo)?
James face: curly salt-and-pepper hair, full beard, thick black glasses — not stubble-only, not a second random engineer.
Milo anatomy: fur + bandit mask + ringed tail, not a human in a raccoon mask.
Scene fidelity: lab desk, dual monitors, dual server boxes / interconnect vibe.
Style taste: painterly blog-hero vs plastic/3D vs photoreal drift.
Cost: FAL/xAI standard are cents; OpenAI high is ~quarters; Gemini flash is the middle path cartoon2 targets.

Next: James picks favorites. We can then pin a default provider/style in cartoon2 and optionally re-bake weak blog cartoons with the winner.