FLUX 3 Image

FLUX 3 Image is the newest image model from Black Forest Labs, the Freiburg start-up behind the FLUX family and FLUX.2 Pro. It launched on 1 October 2026 and does two jobs in one: it makes new pictures from a text prompt and edits existing ones. Its big selling point is control. Rather than describing a scene and hoping for the best, you can say where each element should sit, and change one part of an image without disturbing the rest.

What's new

You can mark out boxes in the prompt to tell the model where to put things, such as a person on the left and a sign in the top corner. When you edit, Black Forest Labs says the change stays local, so you can make several rounds of edits and every pixel outside the area you touched is left exactly as it was. It can work from up to ten reference pictures at once, and produces images from small squares up to 4K. The company also says it handles complicated prompts and lettering better than earlier FLUX models, including text in several languages.

Part of a bigger family

FLUX.2 was an image model and nothing else. FLUX 3 is different. Black Forest Labs announced it in July 2026 as a single model trained on images, video and audio together, on the idea that learning from moving pictures teaches it more about how the physical world behaves. The video version arrived first, and the image model followed after a period of early access.

Paid, with an open little sibling

The full FLUX 3 Image is a paid model, available through Black Forest Labs' own service and through resellers such as OpenRouter. Larger companies can also license the weights to run and fine-tune it on their own computers. In keeping with the family's habit of releasing something anyone can download, a smaller version called FLUX 3 Image Klein followed on 15 October with open weights. It shares the main features, including 4K output, box placement and precise editing, and is free for individuals and small businesses to use.

Most of what is known about FLUX 3 Image so far comes from Black Forest Labs itself. Early coverage, such as The Decoder's launch report, repeated the company's claims without independent testing, so how it really compares with its rivals is still being worked out.