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Google Teases 'Imagen 4,' A Text-To-Image Model With A 'Significantly Improved' Creativity

Imagen 4

In the realm of technology, battles aren’t fought with tanks or missiles — they begin with code.

The war began in November 2022, when OpenAI released ChatGPT, a product that would redraw the borders of digital intelligence forever. At first, it seemed harmless. A chatbot. Trained on lots of data. Useful, maybe even fun.

But behind its friendly interface was a paradigm shift — the rise of large language models, or LLMs, trained to think, reason, create, and converse with eerie fluency.

What came next was no less than an arms race.

Google was caught off guard. Publicly cautious. Internally? A "code red".

Fast forward, Google finally responded with Gemini, the AI model Google hoped could dethrone GPT-4 that powers ChatGPT.

But the war didn’t stop at words. While the early battles raged over text generation, a new front opened up: images. The text-to-image revolution arrived with a bang. With tools like DALL·E from OpenAI, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, users could turn plain words into rich, photorealistic scenes.

Here, Google competes with Imagen.

Now, Imagen 4 is released.

In a blog post, Google said that:

"We're thrilled to bring Imagen 4, our best text-to-image model yet, to paid preview in the Gemini API and for limited free testing in Google AI Studio. Imagen 4 offers significantly improved text rendering over our prior image models and pushes the boundaries of text-to-image generation quality."

This Google's flagship text-to-image model especially designed to handle a wide range of image generation tasks, promises significant improvements in quality, particularly for text generation, over Imagen 3.

The image below is created using Imagen 4 Ultra, and results speak for themselves.

Imagen 4
A 3-panel cosmic epic comic. Panel 1: Tiny 'Stardust' in nebula; radar shows anomaly (text 'ANOMALY DETECTED'), hull text 'stardust'. Pilot whispers. Panel 2: Bioluminescent leviathan emerges; console red text 'WARNING!. Panel 3: Leviathan chases ship through asteroids; console re text 'SHIELD CRITICAL!', screen text 'EVADE!'. Pilot screams, SFX 'CRUNCH!', 'ROOOOAAARR!'.

Google said that the main Imagen 4 model as "your go-to for most tasks" with a price of $.04 per image.

Imagen 4 Ultra, meanwhile, is for "when you need your images to precisely follow instructions" with the promise of "strong" output results compared to high-end image generators. This model is priced at $.06 per image.

Both are already available with limited free access through Google AI Studio, with plans for broader availability and more pricing options in the coming weeks.

But initially following the announcement about the rollout, Google said that Imagen 4 is free for a "limited time" only.

Imagen 4
Front of a vintage travel postcard for Kyoto: iconic pagoda under cherry blossoms, snow-capped mountains in distance, clear blue sky, vibrant colors.

Unlike the old text-to-image model, Imagen 4 does offer significant and takes the text-to-image generation quality to the next level.

Imagen 4
Photograph of an adventurous couple hiking on a mountain peak at sunrise, arms raised in triumph, epic panoramic view of valleys below, dramatic light.

However, some early users aren't particularly surprised, particularly since the improvements are somehow subtle.

Rivals from OpenAI and Midjourney have also stepped up their game.

Published: 
24/06/2025