Model · Stability AI · Image-Gen
Stable Diffusion 3.5
Stability AI's open image-gen family. Three sizes (Large, Large Turbo, Medium) — runs locally on consumer GPUs and supports a massive ecosystem of LoRAs and ControlNets.
- Modality
- Image-Gen
- License
- Stability AI Community License (Open weights)
- Released
- October 22, 2024
- Last verified
- October 28, 2026
- Runs locally
- Yes
What you need to run it
- Mac
- Yes. Any Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer) with at least 16 GB (32 GB recommended) of memory. Newer chips are faster, but memory is what decides whether it runs.
- Windows / Linux PC
- NVIDIA works best. A graphics card with at least 12 GB (24 GB recommended) of video memory.
- No graphics card
- Not practical. Too slow without a graphics card or Apple Silicon.
The smaller Medium tier suits a 16 GB Mac; Large wants 32 GB, and common Mac apps such as Draw Things and DiffusionKit can run the family.
Numbers are for: Medium (2.5B) for the minimum; Large (8B) for recommended. Our estimate from the model’s size — the maker publishes no figure.
Strengths
- Open weights — fully self-hostable
- Largest community ecosystem (ComfyUI, A1111, LoRAs, ControlNets)
- Three size tiers for different hardware budgets
Weaknesses
- Quality below FLUX.1 [pro] at the very high end
- Community License has revenue thresholds for commercial use
Try it
| Where | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hugging Face | weights | Stability Community License |
| ComfyUI | local | Reference local UI |
| Stable Assistant | product | Hosted offering |
Official sources
- Model card model
Change log
- — Added hardware requirements (Mac support, memory, NVIDIA). Source: an estimate from the model sizes (Medium about 2.5B, Large about 8B).
- — Verified current against Stability's news page: its 2026 posts announce no Stable Diffusion image model after 3.5.
- — Verified current. A full Hugging Face org enumeration by creation date shows no Stable Diffusion 4 repo, and Stability's own 2026 news page never mentions one — the widely circulated 'SD4, April 2026' claim is fabricated.
- — Initial entry.
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