Leonardo AI Model Comparison: Which Is Best?
In my last post, I pulled back the curtain on exactly how I use Leonardo AI as a creative partner in my daily business workflow. Today, I wanted to do something a bit more experimental: a head-to-head prompt battle of the top image generation models in Leonardo AI to see who handles a highly specific brief the best.
Since I run a music podcast called Totally On Track, I decided to use it as the ultimate guinea pig. While there are plenty of legacy versions and niche community options tucked inside Leonardo, I pitted six of the latest major models against each other to see who could deliver the ultimate promo graphic.
For me, it’s almost always a tight race between Nano Banana 2.0 and the latest GPT Image models.
The Brief & The Prompt
The goal was to create a graphic to promote my podcast in a fun, nostalgia-infused magazine style.
Here’s a table, written by AI, to show what it’s best for and how accurately a model handles text.
| Leonardo AI Model | Best For | Text Accuracy |
|---|---|---|
| Nano Banana 2.0 | Social media scroll-stoppers & stylized pop art | Moderate |
| GPT Image 2 | Print magazine layouts & strict brief adherence | Very High |
| Ideogram 4.0 | Clean podcast app tiles & UI graphics | High |
| Seedream 4.5 | Vector/flat-colour character art | Moderate |
| Recraft V4 Pro | Editorial fashion photography | Low (Layouts) |
| Flux 2 Pro | Moody rock/retro aesthetics | Low |
Here’s my Prompt
Create a square promotional image for a podcast called “Totally On Track”. Make it look like a retro music magazine cover with a modern podcast feel. Show a cool, stylish woman with headphones and a microphone, surrounded by vinyl records, CDs, cassettes and retro music details. Use the brand colour #BC1823 as a key accent colour and use clean modern typography inspired by Poppins. The podcast “celebrates music as milestones and songs that struck a chord”. Include bold title text that says “Totally On Track” and leave space for a short teaser line. Make it polished, fun, nostalgic and full of personality.“
Here is how they handled the hits and the misses (which is pretty fitting for a music podcast!) 😉
1. Nano Banana 2.0: The High-Energy Crowd Favorite
I’m just going to come out and say it: Nano Banana 2.0 is my absolute favourite. It takes a highly graphic, stylised approach that stands out instantly in a crowded social feed. Well, usually…
- The Hits: This model went all-in on an incredible, illustrated comic and pop-art vibe. The variation with the bold red accent frame and clean line art is exceptionally eye-catching and packed with raw personality. It handles the square layout framing cleanly.
- The Misses: As the note on my slide mentions – it got some things right and some things wrong. While it captured the fun, nostalgic spirit perfectly, its text composition layout can be a bit hit-or-miss compared to the heavy text models.
- To be fair – my prompt wasn’t spot on to begin with, so let’s chalk it up to “pilot error”.
2. GPT Image 2: The Print-Perfect Heavyweight
When it comes to raw prompt accuracy and literal interpretation of layout rules, GPT’s latest models are always neck-and-neck with Nano for me. GPT Image 2 absolutely nailed the print aesthetic I wanted.
- The Hits: If we are talking about strictly following the layout brief, this model crushed it. The text rendering for “Totally On Track” is incredibly sharp, crisp, and perfectly aligned. Plus, details like the barcodes and issue numbers gave it an undeniable retro magazine texture.
- The Misses: It leaned hard into a very specific, singular likeness for the host, and the overall composition is incredibly busy. It’s a flawless mock magazine cover, but it would be too crowded for a small mobile screen graphic. So, meh….
3. Ideogram 4.0: The Modern Podcast Tile
Ideogram 4.0 stepped away from literal magazine borders and leaned heavily into what makes a great contemporary digital app tile.
- The Hits: This model created a beautifully balanced, uncluttered composition. It gave the vinyl, CDs, and cassettes breathing room. The layout featuring the vinyl records framing the subject felt incredibly polished, professional, and ready for Spotify.
- The Misses: While the main title text was bold, the smaller teaser subtitles started to get a little fuzzy and lose clarity around the edges. It wasn’t what I was after, at all…
4. Seedream 4.5: The Colour Rebel
I had high hopes for Seedream 4.5, but it decided to play by its own rules on the first pass.
- The Hits: The model opted for a flat-colour, vector-isolated style that made the subject pop beautifully off the page.
- The Misses: It completely ignored my brand kit. I asked for a bold red accent (#BC1823), and it proudly handed me bright teal and emerald green backgrounds. An aesthetic result, but totally off-brand. If you know me at all, I am “always on brand”!
5. Recraft V4 Pro: Editorial Fashion (But Forgot the Layout)
If I were looking for a high-fashion, realistic photography asset for an editorial spread, Recraft V4 Pro would win by a mile.
- The Hits: The photorealism and character styling here are unmatched. The modern retro-chic apparel – complete with the coloured sunglasses and checkered pants – looks like a high-budget photoshoot.
- The Misses: It completely forgot the graphic design portion of the brief. Instead of delivering a cohesive magazine layout with integrated typography, it just gave me a stunning photo with some basic text slapped on top. It didn’t allow a style reference so it sort of went rogue…
6. Flux 2 Pro: The Late ’80s Rock Alternative
Flux went deep into the indie music archives for this run, leaning into a late-80s/early-90s rock magazine aesthetic.
- The Hits: It successfully picked up on the leather jacket detail from the prompt and surrounded the host with a dense wall of nostalgic music media. The overall mood is pure rock-and-roll.
- The Misses: Text coherence took a massive nosedive here. While the main title was mostly legible, the subtitles completely dissolved into classic AI gibberish (“CELEBRATE MUSIC AS MILEESTONEES”), requiring a lot of manual cleanup in Canva to be usable. Thumbs down overall.
The Final Verdict
So, who won the battle? For me, it’s a tie depending on the destination:
- For a clean, slick, modern podcast app tile, GPT Image 2 takes the crown.
- But for pure social media scroll-stopping power and artistic flair, my heart stays with Nano Banana 2.0.
How it looks in the wild: I took the winning concept, brought it into Canva and made some tweaks and turned it into the final promo graphic for Totally On Track over on the Totally Content Instagram! (Follow me if you love music too!)
Half the fun of working with Leonardo AI is discovering these stylistic quirks. One model gives you perfect text; another gives you a flawless mood. The fact you can take your image into Canva and edit there, often coupled with Magic Layers, makes this a match made in heaven.
PS: Magic Layers is a Canva Pro feature. Not on Pro? Grab a free trial here. (Affiliate Link)
Your Verdict?
Which model’s style is your favourite? Do you prefer the literal magazine look of GPT or the high-energy graphic vibe of Nano Banana? Let me know in the comments!
