Z-Image offers three hosted tiers for adult character work, with different output sizes, prompt limits and prices.
Short answer: yes, on our API. We put no content filter in front of Z-Image Turbo, Z-Image Spicy or Z-Image Spicy Pro, and in our September 2026 tests each delivered every level of our five-level ladder, up to the two extreme-category probes at the top (L5). That is a result for these three hosted endpoints, not for Z-Image weights run elsewhere. The one miss: an earlier Spicy L5 frame kept the props but dropped part of the scene. If a frame drops part of the request, check each named element against the picture and re-roll with a new seed.
All three passed the same ladder, so pick by frame size, prompt length, repeatability and price:
- Drafts and phone-style snapshots: Z-Image Turbo, $0.01 an image.
- Exact sizes up to 1,536 pixels, or prompts over 1,000 characters: Z-Image Spicy, $0.01235.
- Frames up to 2,560 pixels, or the Spicy tier with no missed L5 probe in our tests: Z-Image Spicy Pro, $0.019.
- Editing a picture you already have: none of these three. See the FAQ.
"Delivered" does not grade polish: hands, limbs, small text and same-sex couples still go wrong.
The five levels and what each tier delivered
- L1, suggestive: lingerie-level imagery.
- L2, moderate NSFW imagery.
- L3, advanced NSFW imagery.
- L4, a higher-intensity scene between two adults.
- L5, two extreme-category probes: class A is an adult, consensual scene built around restraint-themed props; class B is cinematic graphic violence.
Delivered means what the prompt asked for is in the picture, with nothing covered, blurred, cropped out or swapped. Softened means the picture came back toned down or with part of the request missing. Refused means the request was rejected. We judged by looking at the image. The L4 and L5 prompts are not published.
Every tier delivered all six rows (L1 to L4 and both L5 classes) three times each: 18 of 18, none refused. The only miss is Spicy's earlier L5 class A probe, softened (props kept, part of the scene dropped); Spicy Pro delivered that probe, so treat Spicy's miss as one in four tries, not a ceiling. "Uncensored" on our model pages means we put no content filter of our own in front of the model. Run-by-run tables: Z-Image, Z-Image Spicy, Z-Image Spicy Pro. Both Spicy tiers returned the identical image when the same request was repeated without a seed, so the repeats used different seeds.
What the images look like
L3. The scene came back as prompted on Spicy and Spicy Pro: no sheet or shadow placed over anything, no crop, and the dim red room light from the prompt.
L5 class A. Every named prop was present on both Spicy tiers, but props are where Z-Image stumbles: a handheld prop became a long black cord on Spicy and a stiff broom on Spicy Pro.
Faces and figures. Expressions matched the prompt. One Spicy frame exaggerated the figure well past the prompt; Spicy Pro kept natural proportions.
Same brief, three tiers. On one L1 prompt, Turbo has the sharpest lace, Spicy the glossiest, most retouched skin, and Spicy Pro the most film-like look. Spicy Pro also went a step further than asked on its own in that run. Its three L1 ladder runs stayed as asked, so it is not a rule, but name every garment if a frame must stay at L1.
Skin. Ask for real skin and Turbo delivers it: freckles, pores and stray hairs, no smoothing.
Hands. Two hands on a satin garter strap, every finger in place.
Snapshot realism. Ask Turbo for a phone photo and it looks taken, not rendered.
What "delivered" does not promise
The ladder asks whether the requested content appears, not whether the picture is good. Four limits matter for character work.
- Anatomy can fail inside a delivered frame. In Spicy's L4 frame two figures' limbs merged. Release-day threads on the open weights, such as this r/StableDiffusion thread, report stronger NSFW imagery working out of the box but malformed male anatomy, and a later thread argues over whether that still counts as uncensored. State the body type you want and check limbs on every two-person frame.
- The wrong people can appear. Asked for two grooms sharing a first dance, Turbo drew a groom and a bride. Check same-sex scenes frame by frame.
- Small text and dense layouts go soft. App icon grids and numbered infographics came out blurry, and a poster printed one word twice. Z-Image is a photo-and-character model, not a layout tool.
- Figures of speech get read literally. A croissant's "honeycomb" interior came back with blocks of butter in the holes. Say what you want to see, not what it resembles.
Z-Image may also go past what you asked. Spicy Pro did in one L1 run, and a user report on a third-party API says Turbo returned NSFW images by default. For work that must stay clothed, name every garment and check every frame.
How to write Z-Image prompts
Z-Image draws what you name and fills the rest with its own defaults. Plain words work; no euphemisms needed. A prompt that lands names five things, in this order: who (and what they're wearing), one pose, the light, the lens or film look, the skin.
1. Black lace, low afternoon light (Z-Image Turbo)
Editorial fashion photograph of an adult woman lying back across rumpled white sheets in a fine black lace slip dress, warm low afternoon light from a window behind her, shallow depth of field, 35mm film grain, confident direct gaze.
Push the wardrobe line further and Turbo follows.
2. Real skin, close up (Z-Image Turbo)
Clean natural-light portrait, waist up, 85mm at f/1.8. An adult woman with freckles stands beside a north-facing window in a ribbed oatmeal knit tank top, arms loose at her sides, looking straight into the lens with a small closed-mouth smile. Plain warm-grey wall behind her, soft even falloff into shadow on the far side of her face, twin catchlights in her eyes, every pore and stray hair resolved, neutral honest skin tones, no colour cast, no retouching. Photorealistic. No text, no logos.
Without "pores" and "no retouching" the skin comes back smoother.
3. Phone-snapshot realism (Z-Image Turbo)
iPhone mirror selfie, an adult woman in a charcoal sports top and grey joggers standing in an empty late-night gym, one hand holding the phone, hair damp, casual confident smirk, overhead fluorescent light, slight motion blur, authentic amateur snapshot look.
Ask for the flaws by name: fluorescent light, motion blur, damp hair.
4. After the shower, at an exact portrait size (Z-Image Spicy)
Photograph of an adult woman wrapped in a white towel, standing at a tall bathroom window just after a shower, one hand pushing wet hair off her face. Soft morning light from the left, steam on the glass, natural skin with visible pores and a few freckles, 50mm, medium-format film look, muted cream and grey palette.
Run this prompt on Z-Image Spicy →
Set the size to the frame you'll publish, here 1024 × 1536, instead of cropping afterwards.
5. A set that holds together (Z-Image Spicy)
Bedroom portrait, an adult woman lying on her side across rumpled white linen in a black silk robe, morning sun through venetian blinds casting hard stripes across the fabric and the sheets, one arm stretched above her head, eyes closed, calm and warm, medium format film look, soft grain, honey and cream palette.
Run this prompt on Z-Image Spicy →
Once a frame works, pin its seed and change one thing per run: the room, then the wardrobe, then the light. Hard stripes of light across skin come out soft on Turbo and Spicy; if patterned light is the point, try Seedream 5.0 Pro.
6. Two adults (Z-Image Spicy Pro)
Two adults, a man and a woman, stand close in a dim bedroom lit by one red lamp, her back against his chest, his arms folded around her waist, both looking toward the camera. Deep shadow on one side, warm skin, natural proportions, 50mm, photographic, fine grain.
Run this prompt on Z-Image Spicy Pro →
Say "two adults" and say who is where. One shared pose beats a list of actions; extra pose instructions twist the torso (on Turbo, "one knee drawn up" became a leg sliding in from the edge of the frame). First-person framing ("view from the foot of the bed") broke a body on Spicy Pro, so check POV frames.
7. A big frame (Z-Image Spicy Pro)
Editorial portrait, an adult woman in a black silk slip dress standing against a plain plaster wall, single hard window light from camera right raking across the fabric, deep shadow filling the left of the frame, medium format film look, fine grain, cream and charcoal palette.
Run this prompt on Z-Image Spicy Pro →
Spicy Pro starts at a 1024 square. Set 1728 × 2560 yourself; the price stays $0.019.
Weak vs strong
Weak: "Pretty woman on a bed." Z-Image picks the body, the outfit, the room and the light, and a vague prompt gives a different woman on each fresh draw.
Strong: prompt 1. Same idea, every choice yours. If a prop matters, describe its shape and material, and check it before you ship.
Seeds: hold a draw, or ask for a new one
All three tiers take a seed, an integer from 0 to 2,147,483,647. On Turbo the same prompt, ratio and seed land very close to the earlier image, not pixel for pixel. On the Spicy tiers, omitting the seed (or sending 0) is documented as a random draw, but repeats without a seed returned the identical image, so send a new seed with each request when you want variety. Changing width or height changes the picture even with the same seed, so settle the size first. Turbo varies little between seeds, so if every face looks alike, name the face: age band, hair, build, features.
One-liners: switch on prompt expansion
It is off by default on all three tiers. Switched on, "Adult woman in a silk robe at a rain-streaked window, candlelight." came back on Spicy as a full scene with a brass candlestick, rain on the glass and satin catching the flame. It rewrites your prompt, so leave it off when your wording matters. It costs $0.006 more per image on Turbo ($0.016), $0.00095 more on Spicy, and nothing extra on Spicy Pro.
Which Z-Image to pick, and what it costs
| Z-Image (Turbo) | Z-Image Spicy | Z-Image Spicy Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frame size | 5 preset ratios, no free sizes | Any size, 256 to 1,536 px a side | Any size, 256 to 2,560 px a side |
| Prompt length | 1,000 characters | No cap | No cap |
| 1 image | $0.01 | $0.01235 | $0.019 |
| 100 images | $1 | $1.235 | $1.90 |
| With prompt expansion on | $0.016 | $0.0133 | $0.019 |
| Median job time | 12 s | 18 s | 17 s |
| Stays at L1 when asked | Yes | Yes | Went a step further once |
A practical loop is twenty Turbo drafts for $0.20, then the wording that worked re-run on Spicy or Spicy Pro at the exact size. You pay per image, not per pixel: a 2560 × 2560 Spicy Pro frame costs the same $0.019 as a 1024 square; each model page shows the live estimate before you submit. The Spicy tiers are our names for uncensored, LoRA-tuned branches of Alibaba's open Z-Image architecture; plain Z-Image on our catalogue is the Turbo version.
In short: Turbo for drafts and phone-style snapshots, Spicy for exact sizes up to 1,536 pixels and long prompts, Spicy Pro for frames up to 2,560 pixels. None edits an image.
Z-Image vs Qwen Image, Seedream and Flux
On one L1 prompt all six models below deliver. Seedream 5.0 Pro lands the blind stripes on her skin best; Z-Image Turbo has the sharpest lace and the most awkward pose, at a third or less of the other five's price.
The differences start further up the ladder. Each cell is delivered out of runs tried, one to six runs, so use the table to shortlist, not to rank.
| Model | Ladder reading, text-to-image | Edits images | 1 image (1k) | Pick it for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Z-Image | L1 to L5: 18 of 18 | No | $0.01 | Volume drafts, phone-snapshot realism |
| Z-Image Spicy | L1 to L5: 18 of 19 (1 softened L5 class A run) | No | $0.01235 | Exact sizes, a repeatable set |
| Z-Image Spicy Pro | L1 to L5: 19 of 19 | No | $0.019 | Frames up to 2,560 px |
| Qwen Image 2.1 | L1, L2: 3 of 3; L3: 2 of 2; L4: 2 of 3 (1 softened); L5: 3 of 3 each class | Yes | $0.024 | Edits next to generation |
| Qwen Image 3.0 | L1, L2: 3 of 3; L3: 2 of 2; L4: 3 of 3; L5: 3 of 3 each class | Yes | $0.03 | 2k at the 1k price |
| Seedream 4.0 | L1, L2: 3 of 3; L3: 2 of 2; L4: 2 of 3 (1 softened); no L5 runs | Yes | $0.03 | Edits next to generation |
| Seedream 5.0 Pro | L1, L2: 3 of 3; L3: 2 of 2; L4: 3 of 3; L5: 3 of 3 each class | Yes | $0.036 | Patterned light on skin |
| Pony XL | One run each at L2, L3, L4, all delivered | No | $0.015 | A cheap option; the record is too thin to rank |
| Wan 2.7 | L1, L2: 3 of 3; L3: 1 of 2; L4: 0 of 3 (softened); L5: class A 0 of 3, class B 3 of 3 | Yes (separate edit task) | $0.03 | Milder levels, plus a separate edit task |
| FLUX.1 Dev LoRA | L1, L2: 3 of 3; L3: 0 of 3 (softened); L4: 0 of 6 (softened); L5: class A 3 of 3, class B 0 of 3 (softened) | Yes (separate edit task) | $0.018 | Where you need the FLUX look; see our FLUX test |
| Krea 2 Medium | L1: 3 of 3; L2: 0 of 3 (refused); L3: 2 of 4; L4 and L5: all softened | No | $0.03 | Clothed work only |
Qwen Image 2.1 and Seedream 5.0 Pro cost twice as much at 2k; Z-Image Spicy Pro stays $0.019 at 2,560.
Which one? Lowest-price generation, from drafts to 2,560 pixels: Z-Image. Generation plus editing: Qwen Image 2.1 or Seedream. Patterned light on skin: Seedream 5.0 Pro. Deeper tests: Seedream, Krea 2, Qwen Image 2.1 and the image model comparison.
And Flux? The Flux on our platform is FLUX.1 Dev LoRA, which softened L3, L4 and one L5 class where every Z-Image tier delivered them; details in our FLUX test. FLUX.2 isn't in our catalogue; Black Forest Labs' [model card for FLUX.2 [klein] 4B](https://huggingface.co/black-forest-labs/FLUX.2-klein-4B) says its pre-training data was filtered for NSFW material and that the repository includes input and output filters. Tongyi's Z-Image weights are Apache 2.0, and the diffusers pipeline for Z-Image has no safety-checker stage.
Try it in the Playground, then the API
In the Playground. Create an account, then:
- Open a model page: Z-Image for Turbo, Z-Image Spicy or Z-Image Spicy Pro. Use the Playground tab.
- Paste one of the prompts above into Prompt.
- On the Spicy tiers set Width and Height (Spicy Pro starts at 1024; set 1728 and 2560 for the large frame). Turbo has an Aspect ratio field instead (1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 16:9, 9:16). Add a Seed once a frame works. Leave Prompt expansion off unless you want a one-liner expanded.
- Check the price shown for your settings and press Run model.
The Z-Image (Turbo) text-to-image page in the Playground: the Form view with the Prompt field and the Run button.
Settle the wording and the size here, at $0.01 a draw, before you write any code. To work in a browser workspace instead of a model page, Spicy Studio makes images and short videos with no code.
Then the API, once a prompt works and you want it in your own app. Change model to switch tiers; Turbo takes aspect_ratio where the Spicy tiers take width and height.
curl -X POST https://api.spicyapi.ai/api/v1/jobs/createTask \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SPICY_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
--data '{
"model": "alibaba/z-image-spicy-pro/text-to-image",
"input": {
"prompt": "Editorial portrait, an adult woman in a black silk slip dress standing against a plain plaster wall, single hard window light from camera right, medium format film look, fine grain.",
"width": 1728,
"height": 2560,
"seed": 20260907
}
}'Results, errors and every field are in the API reference.
Or let an Agent run it. An agent can make the same call through the CLI, the MCP server or the Agent Skill. The CLI and MCP server read the live model schema, show the price and ask you to confirm before a paid task. With SPICY_API_KEY set:
# CLI
npx @spicyapi/cli tasks create --model alibaba/z-image-spicy-pro/text-to-image \
--input-json '{"prompt": "Editorial portrait, an adult woman in a black silk slip dress against a plaster wall, hard window light, film grain.", "width": 1728, "height": 2560}' --wait
# MCP server: the command your assistant's MCP config runs; then ask it:
# "Run Z-Image Spicy Pro with this prompt at 1728 x 2560."
# It calls spicyapi_task_create, which stops for your price confirmation, then spicyapi_task_wait.
npx --yes --package=@spicyapi/mcp spicyapi-mcp
# Agent Skill
npx skills add spicyapi-ai/spicy-skillFAQ
Is Z-Image uncensored?
On our API, yes, on all three tiers: each delivered all five levels and we add no content filter. Hands and limbs can still come out wrong.
Is Z-Image Spicy more uncensored than Z-Image Turbo?
No. Choose on size, prompt length and price.
What is the difference between Z-Image Turbo and Z-Image?
Tongyi's Z-Image-Turbo is the distilled version: 8 steps, no guidance, very high visual quality, low diversity between seeds. The full Z-Image model, released in January 2026, takes about 50 steps and supports negative prompts. The model called "Z-Image" on our catalogue is the Turbo version.
Does Z-Image Turbo use negative prompts?
No. Turbo runs without guidance, and none of our Z-Image pages has the box. Write what you want to see; to keep clothes on, name the clothes.
Can Z-Image do image-to-image or editing?
Not the three tiers above. Tongyi's Z-Image-Edit was still marked "To be released" on its README. A separate product, Z-Image Turbo LoRA, has an image-to-image task that restyles a picture with a strength control and up to three LoRAs, at $0.012 an image; it delivered L1 to L3 and L5 but softened all three L4 runs. For other edits, use Qwen Image 2.1 or Seedream (Qwen Image Edit test, uncensored image-to-image guide).
Will Z-Image go further than I ask?
Sometimes. Spicy Pro did once at L1, so for clothed work name every garment and check every frame; see the limits above.
Is Z-Image better than Flux 2 for uncensored work?
Pick Z-Image: FLUX.1 Dev LoRA, the Flux on our platform, softened L3, L4 and one L5 class that every Z-Image tier delivered. FLUX.2 isn't in our catalogue.
Is Z-Image Turbo open source, and can I use it commercially?
Yes. The weights are Apache 2.0, and Tongyi says Turbo fits comfortably within 16 GB of VRAM on consumer devices. On our API you need no GPU at all: $0.01 an image.
Your part
We add no extra content filter of our own. Everyone in an image must be an adult. Don't depict a real, identifiable person without their consent. You're responsible for the law where you publish.
Make your first image
Open Z-Image in the Playground and paste prompt 1. A hundred drafts cost a dollar; move the wording that works to Spicy or Spicy Pro when you need the exact size.
