Recraft generates genuine vector output — real SVG files with editable paths, not raster images traced into approximations — which makes it the only serious AI option for logos, icons and brand assets that need to scale cleanly. Paid plans run around $10 to $12 a month with a separate API. Two things to settle first: the free tier bars commercial use entirely, so any client or revenue work requires paying from day one, and its review scores diverge unusually sharply between platforms, which is worth understanding rather than averaging.
Reviewed by EdGrows·Updated Aug 18, 2026Affiliate link — we may earn a commission
This analysis is based on documentation, public user reports, and vendor materials — not yet on our own hands-on testing. How we rate
Most AI image generators produce pixels. Ask for a logo and you get a PNG that looks like a logo.
That's a problem the moment the logo needs to exist in the real world. It has to scale to a billboard and shrink to a favicon. Someone will want the blue changed. It needs to sit on a dark background. Pixels don't survive any of that, and auto-tracing a raster into vector produces messy paths that a designer then spends an hour cleaning up.
Recraft outputs true SVG with editable paths. Open it in Illustrator or Affinity Designer, adjust the curves, change the colours, scale it to anything. It's a design file rather than a picture of one.
That single capability is the entire reason to choose Recraft over Midjourney, and for logo, icon and brand asset work it's decisive rather than marginal.
Recraft's free tier bars commercial use.
Not a usage limit — a licensing prohibition. Any client work, product asset, or design that touches revenue requires a paid plan from the first image.
That's stricter than most competitors, where free tiers typically restrict volume or resolution while permitting commercial output. It also makes evaluation awkward: you can test whether you like the tool, but you can't test it on the actual work you'd be using it for without paying.
Paid plans run around $10 to $12 a month depending on billing and source, with API access priced separately.
At that price the decision is easy for anyone doing design work regularly — it's the cost of a lunch against hours of tracing and cleanup. It's just worth knowing that "try it free" means something narrower here than usual.
One 2026 comparison surfaced an unusually wide gap: 1.8 out of 5 from 27 Trustpilot reviews against 4.7 out of 5 from 457 on G2.
Averaging those would be a mistake. Two things explain the divergence:
Sample size. Twenty-seven reviews is small enough that a handful of frustrated users move the number dramatically.
Platform skew. Trustpilot collects billing, subscription and support complaints — it's where people go when something went wrong commercially. G2 collects product evaluations from business users assessing whether a tool works.
The reasonable interpretation: the output is well regarded, and complaints cluster around the commercial experience rather than the generation quality. That's a specific and actionable warning — read the billing and cancellation terms carefully, and prefer monthly billing until you're confident.
It's not a reason to avoid the tool. It is a reason to pay attention to the parts of it that aren't the images.
Brand asset sets. Twenty icons that look like one designer made them, generated in an afternoon and delivered as editable vectors. This is the strongest case and the hardest thing to do manually.
Logo exploration. Generating twenty directions in editable form compresses the sketching phase enormously. It doesn't make the judgement call about which direction serves the brand — that's still the designer's job, and it's the part clients are actually paying for.
Product icons at scale, particularly through the API, where vector output makes programmatic generation genuinely useful rather than a source of cleanup work.
Illustrations with consistent style across a set, which general generators struggle with even when individual images look better.
What it isn't good at: photorealism and complex illustrative scenes. This is a design tool. Using it for photography-style output means fighting its strengths.
Photorealistic imagery. Midjourney or FLUX.
Free commercial work. The licence prohibits it — budget from day one.
Replacing design judgement. It accelerates exploration; it doesn't decide.
Anyone who won't read the billing terms. Given where complaints concentrate, that's a real caution rather than boilerplate.
Against Midjourney: Midjourney makes the best-looking images in the category and outputs raster only, at $10 to $120 depending on tier. Recraft makes editable design assets at roughly $10 to $12. Hero images and concept art go to Midjourney; anything that needs to scale or be edited goes to Recraft. Plenty of designers keep both.
Against Ideogram: Ideogram is the specialist for legible text inside images, at around $15 annually. Different specialisation — words in the picture versus editable paths in the file.
Against Canva: Canva generates images inside a full design suite at around $15, now with free Affinity attached. Canva's generation doesn't produce true vectors; Recraft's does. For a marketing team already in Canva, Recraft is the specialist addition when logos come up.
Against Adobe Illustrator: the professional vector standard with its own generative features inside Creative Cloud. If you already pay Adobe, check what Illustrator's generation covers before adding a subscription.
Against Figma: Figma is where vector assets get assembled into interfaces rather than generated. Complementary — generate in Recraft, use in Figma.
| Plan | Reported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Commercial use prohibited |
| Paid | ~$10–12/mo | Vector export, style controls, brand tools |
| API | Separate | Priced by usage; verify current rates |
Checked August 2026. Reported subscription pricing appears at both $10 and $12 depending on billing view and source, with API access billed separately. The free tier excludes commercial use, which is stricter than most competitors in this category. Review scores diverge notably across platforms — 1.8/5 from 27 Trustpilot reviews against 4.7/5 from 457 on G2 per one 2026 comparison. Verify pricing and licensing terms on recraft.ai before purchasing.
Budget from day one if the work is commercial. The free tier can't be used for client output.
Prefer monthly billing initially. Complaints concentrate on the commercial side; a cheap exit is worth the small premium.
Use it for vectors, not photographs. Playing to the specialisation is the whole point.
Pair it rather than replacing. Recraft for assets, Midjourney for imagery, Figma for assembly.
Recraft solves a problem the rest of AI image generation ignores: design assets need to be editable and scalable, and pixels are neither. True SVG output with adjustable paths means a generated logo can be refined, recoloured and scaled without the tracing-and-cleanup ritual that makes every other generator's output a starting point rather than a deliverable. For logos, icons and brand asset sets — particularly sets that need to look consistent — it's the only serious AI option, and at around $10 to $12 a month it's inexpensive against the hours it removes.
Two things to handle before subscribing. The free tier prohibits commercial use outright, so evaluation and real work are separated by a paywall in a way most competitors avoid. And review scores diverge sharply — 1.8 from a small Trustpilot sample against 4.7 from a much larger G2 one — with the complaints clustering on billing and support rather than output. That pattern argues for reading the terms and starting monthly rather than for avoiding the tool.
The scope is honest and narrow: photorealism and complex illustrative scenes aren't its strengths, and using it for those means fighting the specialisation that makes it valuable.
For designers producing brand assets, recommend on a paid plan from the start. For photorealistic imagery use Midjourney or FLUX, and keep Recraft for the work that has to survive being resized.
Note: Recraft does not currently have an affiliate program with AIVario. We earn no commission, and this rating carries no commercial incentive.
Best for: Logo and icon generation, brand asset sets needing consistency, designers who need editable output, programmatic asset generation via API Not ideal for: Photorealistic images, complex illustrative scenes, free commercial evaluation, anyone expecting AI to make brand judgements Bottom line: The only AI generator producing genuinely editable vectors, priced cheaply — just budget from day one, because the free tier can't legally touch client work.
Reported around $10 to $12 a month depending on billing and source, with a free tier and separately priced API access. The critical detail is that the free tier bars commercial use, so any client work, product asset or revenue-generating design requires a paid plan from the first image. That's stricter than most competitors, where free tiers typically carry usage limits rather than licensing prohibitions.
Yes, and this is the genuine differentiator. Recraft produces true SVG output with editable paths rather than raster images auto-traced into approximations. The practical difference is that a generated logo can be opened in Illustrator or Affinity Designer, its paths adjusted, colours changed and scaled to any size without quality loss. Midjourney and most competitors output pixels; tracing those afterwards produces messy paths that a designer then has to clean up.
One 2026 comparison notes Recraft rating 1.8 out of 5 from 27 Trustpilot reviews against 4.7 out of 5 from 457 on G2 — an unusually wide gap. Small sample sizes explain part of it, and platform skew explains more: Trustpilot attracts billing and support complaints while G2 attracts product evaluations from business users. The useful read is that the output quality is well regarded and the commercial experience is where complaints concentrate. Test the workflow and read the billing terms carefully.
Logos, icons, illustrations and brand asset sets that need consistency and scalability. Style controls let you generate a series that looks like it came from one designer rather than five, which matters when you need twenty icons for a product rather than one attractive image. It also handles raster output competently, but the vector capability is why designers choose it over general generators.
Different jobs entirely. Midjourney produces the best-looking images in the category and outputs pixels. Recraft produces design assets you can edit and scale. For a hero image or concept art, Midjourney wins comfortably. For a logo that needs to work at favicon size and on a billboard, Midjourney's output requires tracing and cleanup while Recraft's doesn't. Many designers keep both for opposite ends of the same project.
It can produce usable marks quickly, and it can't make the judgement calls that make a logo good. Recraft generates options fast and in editable form, which compresses the exploration phase considerably. What it doesn't do is understand a brand's positioning, decide which direction serves the business, or defend a choice to a client. Treat it as accelerating the sketching, not replacing the thinking.
For teams generating design assets programmatically — product icons at scale, automated brand variants, marketplace listings — yes, and vector output makes it more useful than a raster API for those cases. It's priced separately from the subscription. Worth verifying current rates directly, since API pricing across image generation has moved frequently and published figures date quickly.
Photorealism is not its strength — this is a design tool, not a photography generator. Complex illustrative scenes are weaker than what dedicated generators produce. And the free tier's commercial prohibition means evaluation and production are separated by a paywall, which makes proper testing harder than with competitors offering limited-but-commercial free usage.
The leading AI voice platform — text-to-speech, voice cloning, and conversational AI in 70+ languages.
The design suite everyone already uses, now bundled with a free professional toolset — and a credit system worth understanding first.
Category-defining design tool with unusually smart seat pricing — provided you assign the right seat type to each person.