{"schema_version":"1.2","slug":"leonardo-ai","url":"https://www.launchpadhq.io/platform/leonardo-ai/guide","data_url":"https://www.launchpadhq.io/data/v1/guides/leonardo-ai.json","title":"Getting Started with Leonardo.Ai","tagline":"An image generator with a free allowance that refills every day — built for characters, worlds and concept art.","archetype":"prompts","last_reviewed_at":"2026-09-07","changelog_url":"https://intercom.help/leonardo-ai/en/collections/5295455-feature-releases","how_it_works":"You type a description of the picture you want — that description is a prompt, the message you type — and Leonardo draws it in seconds. You look at what came back, change a few words, and go again, each attempt spending from a balance on screen.","what_it_is":["A browser tool at app.leonardo.ai — nothing to install, no card to start.","The free plan is why beginners land here: a daily allowance of credits (Leonardo calls them tokens), with a standard image among the cheapest things to make. Midjourney has no free tier; Firefly and Ideogram give a monthly allowance that runs dry and makes you wait. Leonardo's tomorrow brings more.","It leans toward game art and character work, and the controls show it — reference-image slots, character consistency, trainable styles. There are also Blueprints: prebuilt setups where you fill in a field or two instead of writing a prompt."],"before_you_start":["You need an email address and a browser, plus a reference image if you already have a character in mind.","Free credits reset every 24 hours and do not carry over, so you cannot save up for something big. Paid plans swap that for a monthly allowance that banks what you don't spend. Costs vary by feature and are shown before you commit.","Learning costs nothing. What pushes people to pay is privacy — free work is public — and video, where one clip can eat a day's allowance. Paid plans come in several monthly tiers, cheaper billed annually; current prices are on its Launchpad page.","First step: sign up, open the image generator, type one plain sentence describing a scene, and generate. Don't touch a setting yet."],"getting_set_up_safely":null,"security":[{"kind":"text","text":"Understand this before your first generation: on the free plan, everything you make is public. Others can see, copy and remix your images, and Leonardo's policy states free-tier content is used to improve its models. Private generation needs a paid plan — you pay with visibility, not money."},{"kind":"list","label":"What that means in practice","items":["Generate nothing on the free plan you'd mind seeing in a public gallery — nothing you agreed to keep confidential, no unreleased designs, no personal photos.","Reference images you upload are content submitted to the service — treat other people's work with public-site caution.","Commercial use is allowed on every tier including free — but on free that is a licence to use your images, not exclusive ownership of them.","On paid plans you keep full ownership and copyright, and that survives if you later downgrade to free."]}],"triad":{"best_at":["Characters, creatures and concept art — what the platform was built around","Stylised illustration, fantasy and sci-fi, painterly game-art looks","Cheap, high-volume iteration without watching a meter","Getting a usable result with no prompt-writing skill, via Blueprints"],"okay_at":["Photorealistic product shots — good, not always best in class","Readable text in an image — newer models are far better, but check every character","Short video clips from a still — capable, but expensive on a free allowance"],"avoid":["Confidential or client work on the free plan — it all lands in a public gallery","Expecting images to be exclusively yours on free: commercial use is allowed, exclusivity is not","Video on the free daily refill; one clip can swallow the lot","Layout-critical design — logos, exact typography, brand fonts"]},"starter_actions":[{"title":"Generate one image with no settings touched","what_it_does":null,"why_here":"Leonardo picks a model — the AI \"brain\" doing the drawing — when you don't, so you get a competent result before you know what a model is. A plain image costs very little of a daily allowance that refills, so you can run it dozens of times for nothing.","tweak":"Change only the last clause — swap the warm side light for flat overcast light. One variable at a time is how you learn which words do work.","prompt":"A weathered brass diving helmet on a wooden dock at sunrise, salt crust on the metal, background softly out of focus, low warm light from one side"},{"title":"Run a Blueprint instead of writing a prompt","what_it_does":"Opens a Blueprint, fills in the one or two fields it asks for, checks the credit cost it shows, and generates.","why_here":"Blueprints are Leonardo's answer to the blank prompt box, and each shows its credit cost before you generate — which matters here, because some cost more than a free user's whole daily allowance.","tweak":null,"prompt":null},{"title":"Make a character concept sheet","what_it_does":null,"why_here":"This is the work Leonardo was shaped around: its models are built and sold for game and concept art rather than photography, which is why the concept-sheet convention — several views, neutral background, painted finish — is the thing to ask it for.","tweak":null,"prompt":"Character concept sheet for a swamp ranger, front view and side view, muted green leather armour, oversized canvas satchel, weathered boots, flat neutral grey background, painted concept art style"},{"title":"Hold one character steady across several images","what_it_does":"Uploads a picture of your character into the character-reference slot in the generation panel, then generates new scenes with the reference in place.","why_here":"Character reference sits in the generation panel as a plain image upload, not behind prompt syntax you must memorise. That is what turns a pile of nice pictures into a set.","tweak":null,"prompt":null}],"pitfalls":["Free generations are public — that is the actual price. Others can view and remix them, and free content feeds model training.","Free credits don't roll over. Unused ones vanish at reset, so a little most days beats planning a marathon.","Costs vary enormously by feature. A plain image costs very little; video and heavy workflows many times that. Read the number first.","Much of the advice online points at legacy features. Alchemy, PhotoReal and Elements still work but are no longer core — if a guide leads with those, check its date."],"where_to_next":[{"label":"Compare it with other image tools","url":"https://www.launchpadhq.io/discover?category=image-generation-editing"},{"label":"Turn your images into motion","url":"https://www.launchpadhq.io/discover?category=video-creation-editing"}],"tool":{"slug":"leonardo-ai","name":"Leonardo AI","url":"https://www.launchpadhq.io/platform/leonardo-ai","data_url":"https://www.launchpadhq.io/data/v1/tools/leonardo-ai.json","category":{"slug":"image-generation-editing","name":"Image Generation & Editing"},"cost_tier":"FREEMIUM","lifecycle":"active","free_tier":{"available":true,"summary":"150 tokens/day; basic image generation; community models; limited features"},"starting_price":"Free, from $28/mo","lowest_paid":{"name":"Pro","price_text":"$28/mo","amount":28,"currency":"USD","period":"month","limits":null,"is_free":false},"data_as_of":null},"prices_removed":0,"pricing_note":"Prices in this text come from the catalog, the same data as each tool's page and its record (tool.starting_price, tool.lowest_paid, and plans in /data/v1/tools/{slug}.json). Any sentence that typed a price by hand is removed; prices_removed counts them.","generated_at":"2026-10-27T02:04:11.344Z","sponsored":false,"attribution":"Data from Launchpad HQ (https://www.launchpadhq.io). Please credit Launchpad HQ and link to the tool's Launchpad HQ page."}