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Leonardo.Ai Review and Pricing: In-House Models, and the Most Generous Free Tier We've Found

$12/mo, with a recurring 150 tokens/day free tier, rare in this category where most competitors only offer a one-time trial.

By Priya Shenoy · 14 September 2026 · Updated 18 October 2026

Leonardo.Ai, owned by Canva since 2024, prices its in-house models (Phoenix, Lucid Origin, Motion 2.0) on a token system, and, unusually for this category, comes with a recurring rather than one-time free tier.

What it costs

Team plans start at $72/mo for 3 seats. Annual billing is discounted up to 20%. The API is billed separately, pay-as-you-go, with non-expiring credits.

Free tier

150 tokens per day, recurring, plus a 150-token bank. The catch: free-tier generations are public by default, private generation needs a paid plan. Third-party sources claim free-tier images carry a watermark; we could not confirm that on Leonardo's own site, so treat it as unverified until you check at signup.

What the unlimited tier actually covers

The unlimited relaxed-pace list covers Lucid Origin, Lucid Realism, Phoenix 1.0, Phoenix 0.9, Motion 1.0, Motion 2.0 and Motion 2.0 Fast (Leonardo's own models), plus Hailuo 2.3, Hailuo 2.3 Fast and Wan 2.6 (third-party). Premium unlocks unlimited image generation on that list; Ultimate adds unlimited video generation. "Relaxed-speed" means reduced queue priority compared to spending tokens normally.

Leonardo's own announcement of Motion 2.0, its in-house video model.

What the numbers mean per token

Using the monthly recurring allotment (ignoring the one-time bank bonus), Essential works out to roughly $0.00141/token, Premium to about $0.0012/token, and Ultimate to about $0.001/token. The gap between tiers is smaller here than on some competitors, meaning Leonardo does not punish smaller plans as heavily on a per-token basis as some platforms do on a per-credit basis.

These figures only compare Leonardo's own plans against each other; a Leonardo token is not the same unit as a credit on any other platform in this category.

How the rest of the field prices out

For reference, using each platform's own published numbers (credit units are not standardized between platforms, so these are not directly comparable to Leonardo's figures above):

What we found looking past the pricing page

Reviews are more positive here than most platforms we have looked at, and the most consistently praised element is unusual for the industry: customer support. The recurring complaints are content moderation and confusion over how tokens get consumed on certain generations. Quality issues on specific prompt types, full-body shots in particular, also come up.

What we have not tested ourselves

We have not benchmarked Leonardo's proprietary models (Phoenix, Motion 2.0).

Should you subscribe

If you want in-house models built by one team rather than resold access, and a recurring (not one-time) free tier to actually evaluate the platform with, Leonardo is one of the more straightforwardly priced options we cover, and its support gets better reviews than Krea or ImagineArt. Check content moderation limits against your specific use case first.

See our full platform comparison for the rest of the field.

Sources: Leonardo.Ai, Business Wire, Trustpilot.

Related: Leonardo.Ai

Frequently asked

Is Leonardo.Ai's free tier good enough to actually test the platform?

It's more generous than most in this category: 150 tokens per day, recurring, plus a one-time 150-token bank, though outputs are public by default.

What's the cheapest Leonardo.Ai plan?

Essential at $12/mo for 8,500 tokens plus a 25,500-token bank the first month.

Does Leonardo.Ai charge extra for its own models versus third-party ones like Hailuo or Wan?

Not on price; the differentiator is that some third-party models get unlimited relaxed-speed generation starting at the Premium tier.

Who owns Leonardo.Ai?

Canva, since a roughly $300 million acquisition in 2024.

Priya Shenoy: Tracks what AI video actually costs across the platforms that resell access to the same handful of models. Treats a pricing page as a claim, not a fact, until someone checks it.