> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Recraft vs Ideogram Australia 2026: Vectors or Text? - URL: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/compare-recraft-vs-ideogram-australia/ - Published: 2026-06-27T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T06:42:58.000Z - Description: Two AI image tools that both beat the field at the things rivals botch — Recraft owns editable vectors, Ideogram owns readable in-image text. Recraft scores 18/25, Ideogram 16/25. Here's which one the typical Australian buyer should pick. - Author: Adam - Tags: Image Generation, #comparison Head-to-head verdict [**18**/25RecraftWinner](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/recraft-review-australia-2026/)[**16**/25Ideogram](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/ideogram-review-australia-2026/) **Our pick: Recraft.** The verdict below says who should buy the other. > **Winner for the typical Australian buyer: Recraft.** It does the genuinely hard thing — turning a prompt into a clean, editable SVG logo or icon set — better than anything else, and its text rendering is nearly as good as Ideogram's. Recraft scores **18/25**, Ideogram **16/25**. But the choice is really about your job. If you are a brand designer who needs editable vector output and reusable style sets, buy Recraft. If you are a marketer whose images live or die on legible text — posters, menus, social tiles, flyers — buy Ideogram. Both bill in USD, host in the US, and miss our Australian Fit gate, so neither is a category Top Pick. > > *Compared 28 June 2026 by Adam.* --- ## The tension These two tools both solve a problem most image generators still can't. That makes them easy to confuse and easy to mis-buy. Ask a typical AI generator for a logo and you get a flat picture you can't resize without it turning to mush. Ask it for a poster with words on it and you get gibberish — letters that look like a ransom note. Recraft fixes the first problem. Ideogram fixes the second. Buy the wrong one and you've solved a problem you didn't have. So the question isn't "which is better." Both are good. The question is which problem is yours. **Recraft** is the tool for the brand designer. It generates **true vector graphics** — logos, icons and illustrations that export as editable SVG files you can scale, recolour and open in Illustrator or Figma. Its **brand style** feature learns a reusable look from a few reference images, so everything you make matches your house style. Almost no other generator does real vectors well. Recraft does. **Ideogram** is the tool for the marketer. Its in-image **text rendering** is the best in the consumer field. Ask for a vintage poster that says VISIT TASMANIA in bold serif and the words come out crisp, correctly spelled and styled to match — the one thing most generators reliably butcher. Around that sit Canvas, Magic Fill and Style References, which turn it into a real production environment for posters, menus, flyers and ad creative. There's overlap, which is what makes this a genuine contest. Recraft also renders readable text — unusually well, in fact. And Ideogram also does logos. But each is clearly built around one job, and that's the line we'll draw. In our individual reviews, **Recraft scored 18/25 (⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good)** and **Ideogram scored 16/25 (⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good)**. Neither is re-scored here — this piece compares the two on the trade-off that matters. ## What it costs in Australia Here's the first thing every Australian needs to know: **both tools bill in US dollars only.** Neither has a native AUD price list. The figures below are the vendors' USD prices with an approximate AUD conversion at \~1.40, plus the GST note each one needs. Both run on **credits**, and on both, unused monthly credits expire — only purchased top-ups roll over. | | **Recraft** | **Ideogram** | | --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Free** | $0 — 30 credits/day. Images are **public**, no commercial rights, **trained on**. Try-before-you-buy only | $0 — \~40 images/week (10 slow credits). Generations are **public and undeletable** on Free. No private mode, no editing tools | | **Entry paid** | **Basic — US$12/mo (≈ A$17)**. 1,000 credits/mo, private generation, full commercial rights | **Plus — US$20/mo (≈ A$28)**. 1,000 priority credits/mo + unlimited slow, private generation, Magic Fill, Style References | | **Next tier** | **Pro — from US$20/mo (≈ A$28)+**. More credits, opt-out of model training | **Pro — US$60/mo (≈ A$84)**. 3,500 credits/mo, Batch Generation via CSV | | **Team** | **Teams — from US$22/seat/mo (≈ A$31)+**. Shared styles, SSO, 24/7 support, training opt-out on by default | **Team — US$30/seat/mo (≈ A$42 min 2)**. 1,500 credits/seat, everything in Pro | | **Commercial rights** | Paid plans only (free tier has none) | **All tiers, including Free** | | **Annual discount** | \~20% (Basic drops to \~US$10/mo) | Up to 20% (Plus drops to \~US$15/mo) | *Recraft pricing per Recraft's paid-plans and free-plan docs (checked 3 June 2026). Ideogram pricing per Ideogram's Available Plans (checked 2 June 2026). Both USD; AUD figures are conversions, not native prices. Note Ideogram's legacy Basic plan (US$8/mo) is closed to new buyers — new Australians start at Plus.* **Value read.** Recraft's entry point is cheaper and simpler: **Basic at US$12/month (≈ A$17)** gets you private generation, full commercial rights and 1,000 credits in one flat tier. Ideogram's cheapest usable paid tier is **Plus at US$20/month (≈ A$28)** — more money, but it buys unlimited slow credits, so a light marketer rarely runs dry. On headline dollars, Recraft wins the entry tier. On "will I run out of credits," Ideogram's unlimited slow queue is the safety net Recraft's flat credit pool doesn't offer. Watch the credit maths on both. Each advertises image counts on cheaper, older render settings — your real-world output on the newest model at top quality is a fraction of the marketing number. Read the meter, not the homepage. ## Feature diff — what actually separates them | | **Recraft** | **Ideogram** | | ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Vector / SVG output** | **Yes — true, editable SVG.** Its defining feature | No — raster (PNG/JPG) only | | **In-image text** | Very good — renders long, legible text | **Best-in-class** — the strongest in the consumer field | | **Reusable style sets** | **Brand style** — learns a house look from references | **Style References** — up to 3 images for consistent look | | **Character consistency** | Limited | **Character Reference** keeps a person/mascot consistent | | **Editing suite** | Background removal, AI eraser, upscaler, mockups | **Canvas, Magic Fill (inpaint), Extend (outpaint)**, upscale | | **Batch / volume** | Top-up credit packs; no CSV batch | **Batch Generation** via CSV (Pro/Team) — dozens of variants in one pass | | **Underlying model** | Recraft V4.1 — top-5 on the public Image Arena, best outside Google/OpenAI | Ideogram 3.0 — leads the vendor's own human eval | | **API / MCP** | API available | API + official MCP server | The split is clean. **Recraft is the design-asset tool**: vectors you can take into Illustrator, a brand style that keeps a set of icons coherent, mockups to put art on products. The brand designer who needs an editable logo and a matching icon family lives here. **Ideogram is the marketing-output tool**: a poster, a menu board, a "Just Listed" tile, fifty localised ad variants from a CSV. The text is correct, the layout tools are real, and Batch Generation is the practical difference between making one poster and making fifty. One honest qualifier on the text point. Recraft is *also* unusually good at in-image text — better than almost everything except Ideogram. So a brand designer who occasionally needs a poster won't be stranded on Recraft. But a marketer producing text-heavy creative all day will notice Ideogram's edge, and will want Magic Fill and Batch Generation, which Recraft doesn't match. The reverse is starker. If you need a true editable vector — a logo that scales to a billboard and shrinks to a favicon — Ideogram simply can't make one. It's raster only. That's not a weakness Ideogram can prompt its way out of; it's a category line. ## Australian fit This is where both tools are honest about being built for a global, US-first audience — and where neither covers itself in glory. | | **Recraft** | **Ideogram** | | ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Available in AU** | Yes — web app, no geo-block | Yes — web + iOS, no geo-block | | **AUD pricing** | No — USD only | No — USD only | | **GST** | Not shown on price list; added at checkout | Not stated; \~10% expected at checkout | | **Data residency** | US (Azure), no AU region | None advertised, no AU region | | **Compliance** | **SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS, AIUC-1** | None advertised (no SOC 2, ISO, IRAP) | | **Local support** | Docs + channel; 24/7 only on Teams | Docs + Discord only | | **Trains on your data** | Free plan only; paid is private (Pro opt-out, Teams default) | Inputs may train the model; private generation needs a paid plan | **Pricing and GST.** Both charge in USD on a US card, so the landed cost runs higher than the headline once your bank's FX margin and GST are added. Neither surfaces GST up front. Under Australia's imported-digital-services rules, expect roughly 10% added at checkout on both. On either tool, download the invoice from your account and check it carries the vendor's tax details and a separate GST line before you hand it to your accountant for the BAS. Recraft's own Terms confirm fees exclude taxes and that it "may invoice you for such Taxes" — so tax is added on top, not absorbed. **Data residency.** Same answer for both: none for Australia. Recraft hosts in US Azure databases with US-region replication. Ideogram advertises no AU hosting region at all. For a café menu or a social tile this rarely matters. For anything touching confidential client briefs or regulated material, it does. **The privacy trap on Free.** Both free tiers are traps for the unwary, but Ideogram's is worse. On Recraft Free, images are public and trained on — but you fix that by paying. On Ideogram Free, generations are public **and cannot be deleted**. For any business or client work on either tool, skip Free and start on a paid plan. **Where Recraft pulls ahead on AU fit.** Recraft carries real security credentials — **SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS and an AI-specific AIUC-1 certification**. Ideogram advertises none. Neither has IRAP or an AU data region, so neither is enterprise- or government-ready locally. But for an Australian business that has to answer a "what's your security posture" question, Recraft has an answer and Ideogram doesn't. **The Australian Fit gate.** Both tools score **Australian Fit 2/5**. Under our methodology, a category Top Pick requires Australian Fit of at least 4/5\. Neither clears it. So while Recraft is the winner of *this* head-to-head, neither tool can be crowned the Image category Top Pick on Australian fit — the USD-only billing, US hosting and thin local support are the reason. ## Who should buy which **Buy Recraft if you are a brand designer — or anyone who needs editable assets.** If your output is logos, icon sets, editable illustrations or a coherent house style across a website, deck and socials, Recraft is the only one of the two that can actually do it. The vector export is the whole point: a clean SVG you open in Illustrator, not a flat PNG you can't resize. Add a top-5 Image Arena model, genuinely good text rendering, and real security credentials, and at **Basic US$12/month (≈ A$17)** it's the cheaper entry point too. This is the pick for the typical Australian buyer. **Buy Ideogram if you are a marketer whose images are mostly text.** If your day is posters, menu boards, event flyers, "Just Listed" tiles and ad creative — where the words have to be legible, correctly spelled and deliberately styled — Ideogram's text rendering is a notch above everything, Recraft included. Magic Fill lets you edit compositions, and Batch Generation turns one poster into fifty localised variants from a spreadsheet. At **Plus US$20/month (≈ A$28)** with unlimited slow credits, a busy marketer won't run dry. Commercial rights on every tier are a bonus. **Buy neither if** you only need the occasional image and already pay for Canva or Adobe. Both of those bill in AUD with GST handled, and for a small business that mostly lays text over images in a design editor, they may already cover the job. Recraft and Ideogram are specialist tools — buy one when you specifically need vectors or specifically need text. ## The verdict For the **typical Australian buyer — a designer, marketer or founder making brand assets — Recraft is the winner.** It does the genuinely hard thing better than anything else, renders text nearly as well as Ideogram, and costs less to get started. Its **18/25** edges Ideogram's **16/25**, and its security credentials give an Australian business something to point to. But this is a contest decided by your job, not by a single score. If your work is text-first marketing creative, Ideogram is the smarter buy and you should ignore the two-point gap — its text rendering and Batch Generation are exactly the tools you'll use, and Recraft's vectors are a feature you don't need. Both bill in USD, host in the US, and miss our Australian Fit gate at 2/5 — so neither earns a category Top Pick, and Australians should go in clear-eyed on FX, GST and data residency. Start each on the free tier to test the one thing it's built for, then move straight to the cheapest paid plan for private, commercial-rights work: **Recraft Basic at ≈ A$17/month**, or **Ideogram Plus at ≈ A$28/month**. We'll refresh this if either adds AUD billing or an Australian data region. ## Read next - [Recraft Review Australia 2026](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/recraft-review-australia-2026/) - [Ideogram Review Australia 2026](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/ideogram-review-australia-2026/) - Category guide: [Best AI Image Generators in Australia 2026](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-image-generators-australia-2026/) ## Sources 1. Recraft paid plans (Basic/Pro/Teams names, USD prices, credits, commercial rights, training opt-out) — [recraft.ai/docs/plans-and-billing/paid-plans](https://www.recraft.ai/docs/plans-and-billing/paid-plans?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — Wayback: [archived 28 Jun 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260628000000%2A/https://www.recraft.ai/docs/plans-and-billing/paid-plans) — checked 28 June 2026 2. Recraft free plan (30 daily credits, public images, no commercial rights) — [recraft.ai/docs/plans-and-billing/free-plan](https://www.recraft.ai/docs/plans-and-billing/free-plan?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — Wayback: [archived 28 Jun 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260628000000%2A/https://www.recraft.ai/docs/plans-and-billing/free-plan) — checked 28 June 2026 3. Recraft compliance & certifications (SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS, AIUC-1; no ISO/IRAP) — [recraft.ai/docs/trust-and-security/compliance-and-certifications](https://www.recraft.ai/docs/trust-and-security/compliance-and-certifications?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — Wayback: [archived 28 Jun 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260628000000%2A/https://www.recraft.ai/docs/trust-and-security/compliance-and-certifications) — checked 28 June 2026 4. Recraft data use & model training (free-plan training, paid privacy, Pro opt-out, Teams default) — [recraft.ai/docs/trust-and-security/data-use-and-model-training](https://www.recraft.ai/docs/trust-and-security/data-use-and-model-training?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — Wayback: [archived 28 Jun 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260628000000%2A/https://www.recraft.ai/docs/trust-and-security/data-use-and-model-training) — checked 28 June 2026 5. Recraft Terms of Service (fees exclude taxes; "may invoice you for such Taxes") — [recraft.ai/legal/terms](https://www.recraft.ai/legal/terms?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — Wayback: [archived 28 Jun 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260628000000%2A/https://www.recraft.ai/legal/terms) — checked 28 June 2026 6. Ideogram — Available Plans (Plus/Pro/Team pricing, credits, features, usage rights on all tiers) — [docs.ideogram.ai/plans-and-pricing/available-plans](https://docs.ideogram.ai/plans-and-pricing/available-plans?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — Wayback: [archived 28 Jun 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260628000000%2A/https://docs.ideogram.ai/plans-and-pricing/available-plans) — checked 28 June 2026 7. Ideogram 3.0 — features and text-rendering capabilities — [ideogram.ai/features/3.0](https://ideogram.ai/features/3.0/?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — Wayback: [archived 28 Jun 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260628000000%2A/https://ideogram.ai/features/3.0/) — checked 28 June 2026 8. Ideogram — Privacy Policy (public-by-default, undeletable on Free, inputs may train model, no AU residency) — [ideogram.ai/legal/privacy](https://ideogram.ai/legal/privacy?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — Wayback: [archived 28 Jun 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260628000000%2A/https://ideogram.ai/legal/privacy) — checked 28 June 2026 *Scores cited from our standing reviews (Recraft 18/25, reviewed 3 June 2026; Ideogram 16/25, reviewed 2 June 2026) and not re-scored here. AUD figures are conversions at \~1.40, not native prices; confirm GST on your first invoice. Wayback URLs above are the day-of-comparison capture targets for each primary source.* --- *The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. We don't accept payment for positive reviews. Read our Methodology and Affiliate Disclosure pages.* *Compared by* [*Adam*](mailto:adam@theaidirectory.com.au) *for* [*The AI Directory Australia*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/)*. First published 28 June 2026.*