Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 1, 2026

DALL-E 3 vs FLUX.1 [schnell] benchmark

Name: DALL-E 3 vs FLUX.1 [schnell] AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Comparing verified benchmark accuracy, speed, and token pricing between DALL-E 3 and FLUX.1 [schnell]. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Share Analysis:

Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

4 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

DALL-E 3 (1)FLUX.1 [schnell] (3)

DALL-E 3

1 of 4 Wins

✓Image Elo

FLUX.1 [schnell]

3 of 4 Wins

✓Generation time✓Price per 1k images✓Text rendering

OpenAI

Leads 1 of 4 metrics

DALL-E 3

Legacy OpenAI image model benchmark baseline. Retained for historical comparisons.

Img Elo 1,145$40/1k imgs

Black Forest Labs

Leads 3 of 4 metrics

FLUX.1 [schnell]

Apache 2.0 4-step distilled open weights model optimized for local inference and instant preview generation.

Schnell 4-StepImg Elo 1,142$15/1k imgs

Top Rival Showdowns for DALL-E 3

All Matchups

Compare vs:vs Reve 2.1 vs Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image)vs FLUX.2 [max]vs Ideogram 4.0 (Quality)vs Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro

Image Quality LeaderDALL-E 3 Wins

DALL-E 3

Δ 3 Image Elo pts

Generation Speed LeaderFLUX.1 [schnell] Wins

FLUX.1 [schnell]

1.2s per render

Value per Dollar LeaderFLUX.1 [schnell] Wins

FLUX.1 [schnell]

$15/1k images

Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

DALL-E 3 (1)vsFLUX.1 [schnell] (3)

DALL-E 3: 1W (25%)Overall: FLUX.1 [schnell]FLUX.1 [schnell]: 3W (75%)

← DALL-E 31 tiesFLUX.1 [schnell] →

Tied (1-1)

Visual Quality & Adherence

Arena Preference Elo, prompt fidelity & typography score

Benchmark

DALL-E 3vsFLUX.1 [schnell]

Image Elo

1,145vs1,142+3

Prompt adherence

84%vs84%

Text rendering

81%vs82%+1%

DALL-E 3: 1WFLUX.1 [schnell]: 1W

🏆FLUX.1 [schnell](1/1)

Generation Latency

Time to render full-resolution image snapshot (seconds)

Benchmark

DALL-E 3vsFLUX.1 [schnell]

Generation time

6.2svs1.2s+5s

DALL-E 3: 0WFLUX.1 [schnell]: 1W

🏆FLUX.1 [schnell](1/1)

Cost Efficiency

API inference cost per 1,000 generated images

Benchmark

DALL-E 3vsFLUX.1 [schnell]

Price per 1k images

$40/1kvs$15/1k+$25/1k

DALL-E 3: 0WFLUX.1 [schnell]: 1W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Image Elo+3

DALL-E 31,145

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

FLUX.1 [schnell]1,142

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Generation time+5s

DALL-E 36.2s

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

FLUX.1 [schnell]1.2s

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Price per 1k images+$25/1k

DALL-E 3$40/1k

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

FLUX.1 [schnell]$15/1k

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Prompt adherence

DALL-E 384%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

FLUX.1 [schnell]84%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Text rendering+1%

DALL-E 381%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

FLUX.1 [schnell]82%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Benchmark	DALL-E 3	FLUX.1 [schnell]	Advantage Delta
Image Elo	1,145 seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	1,142 seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+3
Generation time	6.2s seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	1.2s seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+5s
Price per 1k images	$40/1k seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	$15/1k seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+$25/1k
Prompt adherence	84% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	84% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	—
Text rendering	81% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	82% seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026	+1%

Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 63% with FLUX.1 [schnell]

Monthly Image Production Volume25k images / month (25000 imgs)

Quick Presets:

DALL-E 3$1,000.00 / mo

Rate: $40/1k

FLUX.1 [schnell]$375.00 / mo

Rate: $15/1k

Estimated Cost Delta

FLUX.1 [schnell] is estimated to save $625.00/month ($7,500/year).

Based on 25k images generated

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatinsufficient data

Need list prices.

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGinsufficient data

Need context sizes.

Screenshots / visioninsufficient data

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (undefined).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	insufficient data	Need list prices.
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	insufficient data	Need context sizes.
Screenshots / vision	insufficient data	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (undefined).

Community Sentiment

Cast Your Matchup Vote

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK

OpenAI

DALL-E 3

Elo n/a

SWE-bench—

Speed (tok/s)—

Input / 1M Tokens$40/1k

Output / 1M Tokens$40/1k

Black Forest Labs

FLUX.1 [schnell]

Elo n/a

SWE-bench—

Speed (tok/s)—

Input / 1M Tokens$15/1k

Output / 1M Tokens$15/1k

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DALL-E 3 or FLUX.1 [schnell]?: We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, DALL-E 3 or FLUX.1 [schnell]?: SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: List prices are missing for at least one model.
Which is faster, DALL-E 3 or FLUX.1 [schnell]?: We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?: Context window is missing for at least one model.
Can I self-host either model?: FLUX.1 [schnell] is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DALL-E 3 and FLUX.1 [schnell] Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All DALL-E 3 matchups →|All FLUX.1 [schnell] matchups →

DALL-E 3 vs GPT Image 1.5 (next gpt-image)FLUX.1 [schnell] vs FLUX.1 [dev] (previous flux)FLUX.1 [schnell] vs FLUX.1.1 [pro] (next flux)GPT Image 2 (High) vs FLUX.1 [schnell]FLUX.2 [max] vs FLUX.1 [schnell]FLUX.2 [flex] vs FLUX.1 [schnell]

Benchmark

DALL-E 3

FLUX.1 [schnell]

Advantage Delta

Image Elo

1,145

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

1,142

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

Generation time

6.2s

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

1.2s

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+5s

Price per 1k images

$40/1k

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

$15/1k

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+$25/1k

Prompt adherence

84%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

84%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

—

Text rendering

81%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

82%

seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026

+1%

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatinsufficient data

Need list prices.

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGinsufficient data

Need context sizes.

Screenshots / visioninsufficient data

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (undefined).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	insufficient data	Need list prices.
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	insufficient data	Need context sizes.
Screenshots / vision	insufficient data	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (undefined).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DALL-E 3 or FLUX.1 [schnell]?

We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.

Which is better at coding, DALL-E 3 or FLUX.1 [schnell]?

SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

List prices are missing for at least one model.

Which is faster, DALL-E 3 or FLUX.1 [schnell]?

We do not have TTFT for both models.

Which has the larger context window?

Context window is missing for at least one model.

Can I self-host either model?

FLUX.1 [schnell] is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DALL-E 3 and FLUX.1 [schnell] Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.