Black Forest Labs releases FLUX 3 Image Klein as open-weights model

The release includes a base model for fine-tuning and a step-distilled model for low-latency generation, with optimized builds (FP8, INT8, NVFP4) developed with NVIDIA. The distilled model runs on NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs with as little as 8 GB VRAM, making it practical for local use. Black Forest Labs claims FLUX 3 Image Klein outperforms larger open-weights models and closed alternatives like Ideogram V4.5 and FLUX.2 pro in text-to-image, multi-reference generation, and image editing. It also extends the speed-quality tradeoff, with a reported median API latency of 4.54 seconds for text-to-image and 7.18 seconds for editing at 1MP. The company’s internal evaluations show it gains 91 Elo in text-to-image and 70 Elo in image editing compared to FLUX.2 klein 9B, using 38% fewer parameters.

The distilled model is available via the BFL API at $0.009 per 1K image, while base and distilled weights are open on Hugging Face. The model is licensed under the FLUX Kommunity License, allowing free commercial use for individuals and companies with annual revenue under $5M, with additional options for larger organizations. Safety measures include dataset filtering, targeted fine-tuning, and evaluations by external partner Cinder.