Krea releases Krea 3, an image-editing model that returns native 2K edits in under 8 seconds for $0.06, live on krea.ai and via fal, Together AI, OpenRouter and Replicate

Why it matters

【Key points】

On Oct 15 the AI creative platform Krea released Krea 3, its in-house image-editing model. Krea's figures: most edits finish end to end in under 8 seconds, at native 2K, for $0.06 per image, with up to 6 reference images per edit. The pitch is that it "leaves alone what you didn't ask it to touch": product labels and logos stay sharp when the scene changes, a given face and outfit stay the same person in the next image, and it can render a line drawing plus a color palette into a finished shot.

Krea's comparison (median request-to-image time for edit jobs on Krea, Sep 24 to Oct 1, 2026, queue included; list prices): Nano Banana Pro 33 s and $0.135, GPT Image 2 90 s and $0.22. The model launched the same day for Krea's 30 million users and via fal, Hedra, Together AI, Nous Research, OpenRouter and Replicate. Co-founder Víctor Perez also hinted on X at open-source releases.

【Verifiable】

Krea blog: https://www.krea.ai/blog/introducing-krea-3

【Our read】

1. Image-editing competition is shifting from "can it edit well" to "how fast and how cheap." At 8 seconds and $0.06, it suits batch variants for e-commerce and advertising, and it undercuts the editing models from Google and OpenAI on price.

2. The comparison numbers are Krea's own, measured on its platform with queue time included, and have not been independently re-run. Quality comparisons are limited to curated examples, with no public benchmark scores.

3. Distribution through OpenRouter, Replicate and others means developers can plug it in right away. "Open source" is so far one line from a founder, with no timeline.