How much do six gift guide cover images cost at each quality tier?

Six gift guide cover options generated with ideogram/ideogram-v4.5 cost $0.225 at low quality, $0.45 at medium and $1.65 at high on Sume. The per-image rates are $0.0375, $0.075 and $0.275: the fal list prices of $0.03, $0.06 and $0.22 times Sume's 1.25 margin. Size does not change the price, so a 2K cover costs the same as a 1K one.

A cover is the one image in a gift guide that decides whether people open it. It is worth a small round of options, but not at the top tier for every option.

Use the tiers as a funnel

Generate all six options at low, for $0.225. Pick the composition you like, then render only that prompt again at high. If you re-render two finalists at high, the total is $0.775: six drafts plus two finals. That is far less than $1.65 for six finals, and you chose from the same compositions.

The tier is the only price lever on this model. The public low, medium and high values map to the model's rendering speed, so a higher tier is a slower, more careful render of the same prompt, not a bigger picture. Send resolution as 1K or 2K and an aspect_ratio that matches the placement.

Title text on the cover

If the cover carries a title, write it once in the prompt in quotes, and read the result at full size before you use it. If the title is wrong, do not keep rerolling at high. Generate the cover with a clean area for type, and put the title on in your own layout tool, or burn it into a video version with caption cues.

Ideogram's own model page describes 4.5 as its most precise edit model, with edits up to 4,016 by 6,016 pixels. On Sume an edit is the same model with input_references: the first reference is the image to edit and up to four more are references. That is useful when the cover is a photo of your real products and you only want the backdrop changed.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/images \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: giftguide-cover-low-1" \
  -d '{
    "model": "ideogram/ideogram-v4.5",
    "prompt": "Flat lay of wrapped gifts, pine sprigs and red ribbon on a cream table, empty space at the top for a title",
    "quality": "low",
    "resolution": "1K",
    "aspect_ratio": "4:5"
  }'

When to stop at low

A low render is not a sketch in the old sense. It is the same model and the same size, run faster. For a cover that will sit at thumbnail size in a feed, a low result may already be the one you ship. Check it at the size the platform shows it before you spend on high; the difference matters most when there is small type, fine fabric texture or a face.

If you will turn the cover into a short video later, the cover is also your first frame. Generate it once, keep the job id, and pass the image as a frame_images entry with frame_type: first_frame on a video job, so the clip starts on the exact cover you approved. That avoids paying for a second concept of the same scene.

Keep a ledger: one row per prompt with the quality, the job id and billable_amount_usd_micros. After the first week of the campaign you will know your real cost per approved cover, and it is easy to compare with the table above.

The numbers

• Read the exact amount from billable_amount_usd_micros in the submit response; the figures here are list times 1.25 before any rounding.
• If the cover must match a real product photo, use the edit path with input_references rather than a text-only prompt.
• Check GET /v1/images/models for the live catalog before you budget a large batch.