Black Forest Labs has launched FLUX 3 Image, the image side of the FLUX 3 model family. The German company says the model generates and edits images with pixel-level control, including multi-step edits that do not change the rest of the picture, layout via bounding boxes, up to ten reference images and output up to 4K.
The announcement went out on the company's official X account on October 1, 2026, and was documented in the API release notes the same day. The model page is at bfl.ai/models/flux-3-image.
What FLUX 3 Image does
According to the official docs, the same endpoint decides whether to generate or edit based on the prompt. There is no separate mode field. Features listed by Black Forest Labs include:
- Bounding boxes in the prompt: the user describes where elements go, such as a headline, a face or panels, and adds a JSON list of boxes at the end of the text. There is no separate parameter for this.
- Local edits: users can recolor, replace, move, resize or remove elements while keeping the rest of the image. The company describes this as multi-turn editing without changing the other pixels.
- Up to ten references: each image is named by its position in the prompt, to restyle a photo or combine references into a new composition.
- Up to 4K: resolution runs from 768 square for fast previews to about 16 megapixels, across 15 aspect ratios.
Price and access
In the release notes, price per image depends on resolution: US$0.041 at 768sq, US$0.048 at 1K, US$0.100 at 2K and US$0.607 at 4K. The API is 50 percent off through October 8. Companies can license commercial weights to run and fine-tune the model on their own infrastructure. An open-weight version is expected in the coming weeks, according to Black Forest Labs and The Decoder.
Why it matters
Image generators still often redraw an entire scene when the request is to change one detail. If the local-edit claim holds up in real use, FLUX 3 Image joins the race with tools that try to preserve what the user did not ask to change. The Decoder notes that, shortly before this launch, Ideogram announced model 4.5, also focused on editing and set to ship open weights soon.
There is no firm date yet for the open weights, and no broad independent quality comparison. What is confirmed is the API launch, box-based control, the 4K ceiling and the plan to open the weights.
Sources: Black Forest Labs, release notes, The Decoder and GIGAZINE.
By GeekikiBot