Leonardo AI Pricing 2026: Tokens, Plans and What You Get

Leonardo AI is free for 150 tokens a day, and its paid plans are Essential at $12 a month, Premium at $30 and Ultimate at $60, or $10, $24 and $48 a month on yearly billing, as listed on Leonardo's pricing page on October 17, 2026. Premium is the plan most regular users should price first, because it is the cheapest tier with unlimited relaxed image generation.

Every Leonardo plan is a token budget, and the useful comparison is not the sticker but what a thousand tokens costs you and what happens when the budget runs dry. This guide converts each tier into a per-token price, explains the rollover bank that Ideogram does not offer, and works out when the team plans beat buying separate seats. The full product verdict, model by model, belongs in a review; this page is about the bill.

Toolradar data: Leonardo AI is listed as an alternative to 58 other tools on its Toolradar page, the fourth most-listed alternative among the 171 tools in Toolradar's AI image generation category, as of October 2026. Buyers who shop for Midjourney or Ideogram tend to price Leonardo next, which is why the per-token math below matters.

Plan	Monthly billing	Yearly billing	Fast tokens	Token bank cap	Relaxed (unlimited) generation
Free	$0	$0	150 a day	None, daily tokens expire	None
Essential	$12/mo	$10/mo	8,500 a month	25,500	None
Premium	$30/mo	$24/mo	25,000 a month	75,000	Images, selected models
Ultimate	$60/mo	$48/mo	60,000 a month	180,000	Images and video, selected models
Team Starter	$24/seat/mo	Same	25,000 per seat, shared	3x monthly pool	Images and video, selected models
Team Growth	$48/seat/mo	Same	60,000 per seat, shared	3x monthly pool	Images and video, selected models

Prices exclude tax. The team calculator on the pricing page starts at three seats.

What does a Leonardo token buy?

A token is Leonardo's unit of GPU work, and the price of one image depends on the model and settings you choose. Leonardo's token usage article, updated August 25, 2026, still lists fixed rates for its classic tools: 1 token for a default 768x768 image, 5 tokens for an upscale and 2 tokens for background removal. Newer models cost more per image, and the app shows the cost before you generate.

That makes a per-image budget hard to quote, so price the plans per thousand tokens instead. On monthly billing, Essential works out to about $1.41 per 1,000 tokens, Premium to $1.20 and Ultimate to $1.00. On yearly billing the same plans fall to about $1.18, $0.96 and $0.80. The volume discount is real: Ultimate's yearly rate is 43% cheaper per token than Essential on monthly billing.

The catch is that cheaper tokens only help if you spend them. If you finish most months with tokens left, the rollover bank softens that, as the next section shows, but it has a ceiling.

How does the token bank work?

Leonardo does not wipe unused tokens at the end of the month on paid plans. Its tokens FAQ says unused monthly tokens move into a rollover bank that stores up to three months' worth, which is where the 25,500, 75,000 and 180,000 caps come from. Banked tokens are spent only after the current month's fast tokens run out.

For a buyer whose output is lumpy (a quiet month, then a campaign), that bank changes the math. A Premium user who generates little in August and September can enter October with the banked allowance plus the new month's tokens, instead of upgrading for one busy month. Ideogram, by contrast, wipes unused plan credits at each renewal, so the bank is a real point in Leonardo's favor.

Free accounts get no bank. Their daily tokens expire if unused and do not carry to the next day, so the free plan rewards daily habit rather than occasional bursts.

Is Leonardo AI free?

Yes. Every free account gets 150 fast tokens a day, which adds up to roughly 4,500 tokens over a 30-day month for someone who logs in daily. That is more than half of Essential's monthly allowance, so the free plan is unusually generous for light, regular use.

The limits are elsewhere. Free creations are public, quality settings are Basic rather than Enhanced, and you get one personal collection. Leonardo's FAQ says free users can still use their images commercially, but public images can be used, copied and redistributed by Leonardo, while private images made on a paid plan are assigned to you. For client work or anything confidential, that rights difference is the real reason to pay.

Essential: private images for $10 a month

Essential is the cheapest way to make Leonardo images private. It adds Enhanced quality, unlimited collections, 10 personal AI models, two simultaneous generations and the ability to buy top-up tokens. On yearly billing it works out to $120 over a year, against $144 if you pay monthly.

The weakness is volume. Essential has no relaxed queue, so when the 8,500 monthly tokens and any banked tokens are gone, you either buy a top-up pack or wait. Leonardo's FAQ says paid users also get a small free daily reset once they run out, which keeps small jobs moving but will not finish a project.

Buy Essential if privacy is the reason you are paying, not output. If you already know you will burn through the allowance, Premium's relaxed queue is worth more than the $14 monthly gap on yearly billing.

Premium: the plan where generation stops running out

Premium is where Leonardo stops behaving like a meter. After fast, banked and top-up tokens are spent, Premium switches to unlimited relaxed image generation on selected models, which the pricing page lists as including Lucid Origin, Lucid Realism, Phoenix 1.0 and Phoenix 0.9. Relaxed jobs run slower, and Leonardo says concurrency may be throttled at busy times.

Premium also lifts the limits that slow a working session: three simultaneous generations, a queue of 10 jobs and 20 personal models. On yearly billing it comes to $288 over a year.

The limit to know is video. Relaxed generation on Premium covers images only, so every video clip still spends tokens. A creator who mainly animates stills should price Ultimate, or compare Leonardo with the tools in our AI image-to-video generators ranking.

Ultimate: unlimited relaxed video on selected models

Ultimate adds the one thing Premium lacks: unlimited relaxed video generation on selected models, which the pricing page names as including Motion 2.0, Hailuo 2.3, MiniMax H3 at 480p and Wan 2.6. It also more than doubles Premium's monthly fast tokens and raises simultaneous generations to six, the queue to 20 and personal models to 50.

Ultimate is the cheapest Leonardo token on a single-user plan, at about $0.80 per 1,000 on yearly billing. Over a year that is $576, against $720 paying monthly. It suits a small business producing social video every week. A hobbyist who makes stills will not use what the doubled price buys over Premium.

Team plans: the same price as yearly seats, billed monthly

Leonardo's team plans price each seat at the solo yearly rate without the yearly commitment. Team Starter charges Premium's yearly rate per seat each month, with Premium's fast-token allowance per seat, and Team Growth doubles the seat price for 60,000. The calculator starts at three seats, so the floor is $72 a month on Starter and $144 on Growth.

The tokens go into one shared pool, which is the practical difference from buying three solo plans. A team where one designer generates far more than the others does not hit a personal ceiling while a colleague's balance sits unused. Starter also includes relaxed image and video generation on selected models and private team generations, and Growth adds training AI models with team tokens.

Here is the comparison for three people on Leonardo's October 2026 prices:

Setup	Monthly cost	Fast tokens	What you get or lose
3 Premium, yearly	$72	One Premium allowance each, not shared	Relaxed images only, yearly commitment
Team Starter, 3 seats	$72	75,000 shared	Relaxed images and video, monthly billing
3 Ultimate, yearly	$144	One Ultimate allowance each, not shared	Relaxed images and video, yearly commitment
Team Growth, 3 seats	$144	180,000 shared	Shared pool, team model training

For three or more people, Team Starter beats three Premium seats at the same price: it pools tokens, adds relaxed video and drops the annual lock-in. Solo yearly plans only win for a single user or a two-person team.

The costs the plan card does not show

Top-up packs have no list price on the pricing page. Paid subscribers can buy small and large top-up packs at any time, and the tokens never expire, but they require an active subscription to use. If you cancel, purchased tokens stay locked until you resubscribe.

Token order is fixed. Leonardo spends fast tokens first, then the rollover bank, then top-ups, and only then the relaxed queue on Premium and above. You cannot save top-ups for a particular job.

Tax is added on top. Every price on the pricing page is shown before tax.

Refunds are case by case. The FAQ says refund requests are assessed manually by a person through support chat or email, so treat a yearly plan as a commitment.

Relaxed means slower, not guaranteed. Leonardo says relaxed concurrency and queuing may be slowed at busy times to keep access fair, so a deadline still needs fast tokens.

How does Leonardo pricing compare with Ideogram and Midjourney?

Leonardo is the cheapest of the three for private images. Ideogram keeps images private from its Plus plan at $15 a month on yearly billing, and Midjourney's plan comparison puts its Stealth privacy mode only on Pro and Mega, from $576 a year. Leonardo Essential does it for $10.

For unlimited slow generation, the gap narrows. Midjourney Standard costs the same as Leonardo Premium on yearly billing and includes unlimited Relax images, but Midjourney's images stay public below Pro. Ideogram's paid plans also have an unlimited slow queue, though edits and reference images still cost credits there. Our Ideogram pricing and Midjourney pricing breakdowns carry the full plan tables.

The three tools meter different units (tokens, credits and GPU minutes), so no allowance converts cleanly. Run the same prompts on each free or entry plan before you commit. Our best AI image generators ranking compares output across the field, the Midjourney alternatives list covers buyers leaving Midjourney, and the free AI image generators guide covers the zero-cost tier.

Which Leonardo AI plan should you buy?

Stay on Free if you generate a little most days and your images can be public. Around 4,500 tokens a month costs nothing.

Buy Essential yearly if you need private images and modest volume. Buy Premium yearly if you hit your token budget regularly and make mostly stills, since its relaxed queue keeps you generating after the allowance runs out.

Buy Ultimate only for weekly video on the relaxed models. Buy Team Starter for three or more people, because the shared pool and relaxed video cost the same as three Premium seats.

Developers should skip the subscriptions: Leonardo's API runs on separate pay-as-you-go credit that does not expire. AIpresso's AI tool pricing statistics page tracks how image and video prices move across the category, and our Kling AI pricing guide covers a video-first alternative.

How we checked these prices

Louis Corneloup, founder of Dupple and Toolradar, prepared this guide for people choosing a Leonardo AI plan. We read Leonardo's pricing page on both monthly and yearly billing, its team pricing, its tokens FAQ, its token usage article and its general FAQ on October 17, 2026. Ideogram and Midjourney figures come from their own pricing pages the same day. Per-token rates, yearly totals and the team table are our arithmetic on those published prices. The alternative count is from Toolradar's live tool record that month. Publishing rules for this site are on the AIpresso about page.

FAQ

How much does Leonardo AI cost in 2026?

Leonardo AI has a free plan with 150 tokens a day. Essential costs $12 a month, Premium $30 and Ultimate $60, or $10, $24 and $48 a month on yearly billing. Team Starter is $24 per seat a month and Team Growth doubles that, starting at three seats. Prices exclude tax and were read on Leonardo's pricing page in October 2026.

How many tokens do you get on each Leonardo plan?

Free accounts get a daily allowance that expires each day. Essential includes 8,500 a month, Premium 25,000 and Ultimate 60,000, and unused paid tokens roll into a bank capped at three months' worth. Team plans give 25,000 (Starter) or 60,000 (Growth) per seat into one shared pool.

Do Leonardo AI tokens roll over?

On paid plans, yes. Unused monthly tokens go into a rollover bank that holds up to three months of your plan's allowance, and they are spent after the current month's tokens. Free daily tokens do not roll over, and top-up tokens never expire but need an active subscription to use.

Is Leonardo AI free for commercial use?

Leonardo's FAQ says free users can use the images they generate for commercial purposes. The difference on paid plans is ownership and privacy: free images are public and Leonardo can reuse them, while private images made on a paid plan are assigned to you. For client or confidential work, even Essential, the cheapest paid plan, is the safer choice.

What happens when I run out of Leonardo tokens?

Free users wait for the daily reset. Paid users can buy top-up packs or wait for a free daily top-up to the free-plan allowance. On Premium, Ultimate and the team plans, generation continues in an unlimited relaxed queue on selected models, slower and subject to throttling when the platform is busy.

Is Leonardo AI cheaper than Midjourney?

For private images, yes. Leonardo Essential keeps images private on its cheapest paid plan, while Midjourney's privacy mode starts only on its Pro plan. For unlimited slow image generation the two cost the same on yearly billing, but Midjourney's images on that tier are public.

Is the Leonardo team plan worth it?

For three or more people, usually yes. Team Starter costs the same per seat as Premium on yearly billing, but pools everyone's tokens, adds relaxed video generation and bills monthly. For one or two people, solo plans are cheaper because the team calculator starts at three seats.

When Leonardo changes a tier or its token rates, get the AIpresso brief instead of rechecking the pricing page yourself.

Cite this: AIpresso, "Leonardo AI Pricing 2026: Tokens, Plans and What You Get", October 2026.

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