Google has launched Imagen 4, the latest version of its image generation model, and it is now available through the Gemini API and Google AI Studio. This new release focuses heavily on improving how text appears in generated images, something that previous versions often failed to get right. Whether you are making sci-fi comics, fashion art, or travel postcards, Imagen 4 is supposed to handle it better than ever.
There are two models in the Imagen 4 family. The regular Imagen 4 is aimed at most users and is priced at four cents per image. For those who need images that follow prompts more precisely, there is Imagen 4 Ultra. That version costs six cents per output. Google says Ultra is the better option when you want detailed alignment between your prompt and the final image.
The examples Google shared are surprisingly polished. One shows a three-panel comic with a spaceship named Stardust and phrases like ANOMALY DETECTED and SHIELD CRITICAL rendered cleanly on screens inside the ship. Another shows a Kyoto travel postcard that actually looks like it could be printed. There is also a dramatic sunrise shot of two hikers and a surreal fashion editorial with an alien landscape. In all of these, text is readable and scene composition is sharper than what we have seen in past models.
This is clearly a push to bring Imagen into more serious creative and professional workflows. If you are someone who works with visuals, these updates could be a reason to give Imagen another try. Earlier models struggled with accuracy and detail. Imagen 4 appears to fix a lot of that.
Google says all images generated with Imagen 4 will include an invisible digital watermark using its SynthID system. That is meant to help people identify which images were created by AI. The watermark cannot be seen with the naked eye but can be verified later if needed. It is a small but important move in a world where fake images are increasingly common online.
You can try Imagen 4 now in AI Studio with some limited free testing, or pay to use it through the Gemini API. Google says new billing tiers are on the way and higher usage limits can be requested now.
Whether this is enough to pull people away from other models like DALL E 3 remains to be seen. But Google has momentum right now, and Imagen 4 looks like a serious step forward in making AI image generation not only powerful but more usable in real-world creative projects.
