FLUX.2 KleinFLUX.2 Klein scores 23.9 on our photo-anchored scale, where a real photograph is 100; it is the lowest rung of the ladder. In blind pairwise tests on 48 commercial scenes it fell clearly behind Qwen Image 2.0, GPT Image 2 and the reference photographs, and it was the model furthest from the photographs. Use it for drafts and exploration rather than final photoreal images.
A real photograph is pinned at 100, and every model sits by how often it won blind comparisons — the further left, the less often. Scroll sideways to see the rest of the ruler.
64 · #5
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
Even in 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 1 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
Preferred over the real photograph in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
49 · #5
Preferred over the real photograph in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
47 · #5
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
Preferred over the real photograph in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
43 · #5
Even in 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
Preferred over the real photograph in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
34 · #5
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 1 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
Preferred over the real photograph in 1 of 3 blind comparisons
−21 · #5
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 1 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 2 of 3 blind comparisons
−41 · #5
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 1 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
−56 · #5
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
The real photograph was preferred in 3 of 3 blind comparisons
Prompt used:A Black woman with long locs, bare shoulders and a strapless cream top stands among dense tropical foliage and looks calmly into the lens. She holds an amber glass dropper bottle with a gold cap up in front of her chest with both hands, fingertips lightly touching it. Broad green leaves and tall reed stems fill the background; a blurred leaf crosses the bottom of the frame.
FLUX.2 KleinEven in 3 blind comparisons
The floor of the ladder, and useful as one: it shows how far the stronger rungs move a brief. I would sketch directions in it, but nothing that has to read as a photograph should leave it unfinished.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Rater agreement is low by the usual yardstick (Fleiss' kappa 0.16–0.20). Half the pairs compare adjacent tiers, where “equal” is an honest answer. Conclusions hold at the level of the whole corpus, not for a single scene, pair or rater.
| Provider | Price | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Black Forest LabsFirst megapixel | from $0.015 / img | Sep 25, 2026 |
| fal.ai$0.006 per megapixel, 1 MP | $0.006 / img | Sep 25, 2026 |
| DeepInfraScales with size, 1024×1024 | $0.015 / img | Sep 25, 2026 |
| WaveSpeedAIFlat rate for any size | $0.01 / img | Sep 25, 2026 |
Prices are for one 1024×1024 image at standard settings, checked 25 September 2026; the price at the top of the page is the average of the providers listed. Workroom pricing is on the pricing page.
FLUX.2 Klein comes with open weights from Black Forest Labs in two sizes. The larger one, tested here, is released under the FLUX Non-Commercial License; the smaller one is released under Apache 2.0.
Workroom is an AI router: we give access to third-party models, including FLUX.2 Klein, and we are not affiliated with Black Forest Labs. We have no stake in any single vendor winning; the router is only useful if it sends each brief to the right model. The judgement-level data behind this card is published by Everypixel research under CC BY 4.0 and linked below, so every number here can be checked independently.
Between 21 and 25 August 2026 we compared four rungs of our quality ladder blind on 48 commercial scenes: FLUX.2 Klein, Qwen Image 2, GPT Image 2 and the real photographs each scene was written from. Every rung was paired with every other on every scene — 288 pairs and 863 judgements — and each pair was judged three times, without any indication of which image came from which model, on three questions: which image follows the prompt better, which is more believable as a real photograph, and which is more attractive.
Pairwise comparisons are fitted with a Bradley–Terry model; intervals come from bootstrapping over scenes. The rungs of the scale are frozen from the baseline study, so every new model lands on the same scale. The score uses believability only:
score = 100 + (strength - strength_gold) / a
A real photograph is pinned at 100 by definition; slope 0.020835 strength per point; calibration points: floor, mid, gold. Category positions are fitted the same way on the 6 scenes of each category, with a real photograph pinned at 100 on every one of them.
The pairs FLUX.2 Klein was judged against directly — where its place on the scale comes from.
Qwen Image 2.0 was preferred over FLUX.2 Klein in 69% of blind comparisons.
144 blind comparisons, each pair shown 3 times
GPT Image 2 was preferred over FLUX.2 Klein in 83% of blind comparisons.
144 blind comparisons, each pair shown 3 times
The real photograph was preferred over FLUX.2 Klein in 74% of blind comparisons.
144 blind comparisons, each pair shown 3 times
Every image, every vote and every number behind the scores, so the conclusions can be checked independently.
Data: CC BY 4.0. Images: All rights reserved; ten Unsplash photographs under the Unsplash License.
<blockquote cite="https://workroom.everypixel.com/models/flux-2-klein"> <p>FLUX.2 Klein scores 23.9 on our photo-anchored scale, where a real photograph is 100; it is the lowest rung of the ladder.</p> <footer>— <a href="https://workroom.everypixel.com/models/flux-2-klein">FLUX.2 Klein benchmark: blind pairwise test</a>, Everypixel Workroom, August 2026</footer> </blockquote>
Everypixel Workroom. (2026). FLUX.2 Klein benchmark: blind pairwise test. https://workroom.everypixel.com/models/flux-2-klein
