Luma uni-1-max is $0.10 an image against $0.04: when to pay 2.5x

Luma's pricing page lists uni-1-max at $0.1000 per 2K text-to-image, against $0.0404 for uni-1, about 2.5 times as much for what Luma calls higher-quality output. Edits are $0.1030 and $0.0434, and references add $0.003 per extra image on both. Sume's image endpoint takes whatever model ids its own catalog lists, so check GET /v1/images/models rather than assuming Luma's.

The Luma figures are from its pricing page and models page, read 2026-10-03, and are for 2K resolution. Sume's side is from the image generation docs.

What are all of Luma's image rates?

The earlier post on the reference surcharge covers uni-1 alone. Here are both models side by side, as listed.

What does the model page say separates them?

uni-1 is the default for generation and editing, with up to 9 reference images and web-search grounding, and PNG or JPEG output. uni-1-max is described as the premium model with higher-quality output than uni-1, and the same parameter set and wire format. So swapping one for the other is a change of model id, not of request shape.

That makes the choice purely a quality-per-dollar one. Luma does not publish a quality score for either on these pages, so this post has no measurement of how large the gap is.

What does a 100-image budget look like?

At 2K text-to-image, 100 images cost $4.04 on uni-1 and $10.00 on uni-1-max. A practical split is to explore at the cheap rate and re-render only the keepers on the premium one. Generating 100 explorations on uni-1 and re-rendering the best 10 on uni-1-max costs $4.04 plus $1.00, or $5.04, against $10.00 for all 100 on the premium model.

That only works if the two models respond similarly to the same prompt, which is worth checking on five of your own prompts first.

Where does Sume fit?

Sume's image docs describe a catalog with per-model parameters; for instance, ChatGPT Image 2.5 takes up to 16 image references and a quality setting from low to max. The pages read for this post do not list a Luma model, so this is not a claim that you can call uni-1 on Sume. The same tiering idea works there: pick a cheaper model or quality for exploration and a higher one for the final, and read each model's price from the catalog before you budget.

What about the reference surcharge?

References are a smaller part of the bill than the base model choice. Moving from one reference to nine adds $0.0240 on either model, since each extra image is $0.003 and there are eight extra. On uni-1 that takes a reference job from $0.0434 to $0.0674, and on uni-1-max from $0.1030 to $0.1270. If you are watching cost, pick the model first and the reference count second.