Agent skill

fal-model-guide

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Forks 31

Install this agent skill to your Project

npx add-skill https://github.com/majiayu000/claude-skill-registry/tree/main/skills/data/fal-model-guide

SKILL.md

Quick Reference

Category Fast/Cheap Balanced Best Quality
Image FLUX Schnell FLUX.1 Dev FLUX.2 Pro
Video Runway Turbo LTX-2 Pro Kling 2.6 Pro
Audio STT Whisper Turbo Whisper Whisper Large v3
Audio TTS Kokoro XTTS ElevenLabs
FLUX Model Endpoint Steps Use Case
FLUX.2 Pro fal-ai/flux-2-pro 28 Production
FLUX.1 Dev fal-ai/flux/dev 28 High quality
FLUX Schnell fal-ai/flux/schnell 4 Fast iteration
Video Model Duration Audio Speed
Kling 2.6 Pro 5-10s Yes Slow
LTX-2 Pro 5s Yes Medium
Runway Turbo 5-10s No Fast

When to Use This Skill

Use for model selection decisions:

  • Comparing FLUX vs SDXL for image generation
  • Choosing video models by quality tier
  • Optimizing costs with appropriate model selection
  • Understanding model-specific parameters
  • Building production vs development pipelines

Related skills:

  • For text-to-image: see fal-text-to-image
  • For text-to-video: see fal-text-to-video
  • For audio models: see fal-audio

fal.ai Model Selection Guide

Comprehensive guide to selecting the right fal.ai model for your use case.

Image Generation Models

FLUX Family

Model Endpoint Best For Speed Quality Cost
FLUX.2 [pro] fal-ai/flux-2-pro Production, best quality Medium Highest $$$
FLUX.1 [dev] fal-ai/flux/dev High quality, open-source Medium High $$
FLUX Schnell fal-ai/flux/schnell Fast iteration Fast Good $
FLUX LoRA fal-ai/flux-lora Custom trained styles Medium High $$
FLUX Realism fal-ai/flux-realism Photorealistic images Medium High $$

FLUX.2 Pro - Latest and best quality

typescript
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/flux-2-pro", {
  input: {
    prompt: "Professional product photo of a watch",
    image_size: "square_hd",
    num_inference_steps: 28,
    guidance_scale: 3.5
  }
});

FLUX.1 Dev - Best open-source option

typescript
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/flux/dev", {
  input: {
    prompt: "A serene mountain landscape",
    image_size: "landscape_16_9",
    num_inference_steps: 28
  }
});

FLUX Schnell - Fast 4-step generation

typescript
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/flux/schnell", {
  input: {
    prompt: "Quick concept sketch",
    num_inference_steps: 4  // Optimized for 4 steps
  }
});

Stable Diffusion Models

Model Endpoint Best For
Fast SDXL fal-ai/fast-sdxl Speed, lower cost
SDXL fal-ai/stable-diffusion-xl Classic SDXL
SD 1.5 fal-ai/stable-diffusion-v15 Legacy compatibility
SDXL Turbo fal-ai/sdxl-turbo Ultra-fast
typescript
// Fast SDXL - Good balance of speed and quality
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/fast-sdxl", {
  input: {
    prompt: "A colorful abstract painting",
    image_size: "square_hd",
    num_inference_steps: 25
  }
});

Specialized Image Models

Model Endpoint Use Case
Recraft V3 fal-ai/recraft-v3 Design assets, vectors
Ideogram fal-ai/ideogram Text in images
Playground v2.5 fal-ai/playground-v25 Creative/artistic
Kandinsky 3 fal-ai/kandinsky-3 Russian model

Image-to-Image Models

Model Endpoint Use Case
FLUX i2i fal-ai/flux/dev/image-to-image Transform images
FLUX Inpaint fal-ai/flux/dev/inpainting Edit regions
FLUX ControlNet fal-ai/flux/dev/controlnet Guided generation
IP-Adapter fal-ai/ip-adapter-flux Style transfer
typescript
// Image-to-Image transformation
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/flux/dev/image-to-image", {
  input: {
    image_url: "https://example.com/photo.jpg",
    prompt: "Transform into watercolor painting style",
    strength: 0.75  // 0-1, how much to change
  }
});

// Inpainting (edit specific regions)
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/flux/dev/inpainting", {
  input: {
    image_url: "https://example.com/photo.jpg",
    mask_url: "https://example.com/mask.png",
    prompt: "A golden retriever"
  }
});

// ControlNet (structural guidance)
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/flux/dev/controlnet", {
  input: {
    prompt: "Modern house design",
    control_image_url: "https://example.com/edges.png",
    controlnet_conditioning_scale: 0.8
  }
});

Video Generation Models

Text-to-Video

Model Endpoint Quality Duration Audio Best For
Kling 2.6 Pro fal-ai/kling-video/v2.6/pro Highest 5-10s Native Cinematic
Sora 2 fal-ai/sora Highest 5-20s Optional Advanced
LTX-2 Pro fal-ai/ltx-video-2-pro High 5s Yes Fast HQ
Runway Gen-3 fal-ai/runway/gen3/turbo High 5-10s No Fast
Luma fal-ai/luma-dream-machine Good 5s No Creative
CogVideoX fal-ai/cogvideox Good 6s No Open source

Kling 2.6 Pro - Best overall quality

typescript
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/kling-video/v2.6/pro", {
  input: {
    prompt: "A majestic eagle soaring over mountains at golden hour",
    duration: 5,
    aspect_ratio: "16:9",
    negative_prompt: "blurry, distorted",
    cfg_scale: 0.5
  }
});

LTX-2 Pro - Fast with audio

typescript
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/ltx-video-2-pro", {
  input: {
    prompt: "Ocean waves crashing on rocks",
    resolution: "720p",
    enable_audio: true
  }
});

Image-to-Video

Model Endpoint Best For
MiniMax Hailuo fal-ai/minimax/video-01 Image animation
Kling i2v fal-ai/kling-video/v2.6/pro/image-to-video HQ animation
Luma i2v fal-ai/luma-dream-machine Creative
Runway i2v fal-ai/runway/gen3/turbo/image-to-video Fast
typescript
// Animate a still image
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/minimax/video-01", {
  input: {
    image_url: "https://example.com/portrait.jpg",
    prompt: "Person slowly turns head and smiles",
    prompt_optimizer: true
  }
});

Video-to-Video (Editing)

typescript
// Edit/transform existing video
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/kling-video/o1", {
  input: {
    video_url: "https://example.com/video.mp4",
    prompt: "Change to anime style"
  }
});

Audio Models

Speech-to-Text

Model Endpoint Best For
Whisper fal-ai/whisper Accurate transcription
Whisper Turbo fal-ai/whisper-turbo Fast transcription
typescript
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/whisper", {
  input: {
    audio_url: "https://example.com/speech.mp3",
    task: "transcribe",  // or "translate"
    language: "en",
    chunk_level: "segment"
  }
});

console.log(result.text);
console.log(result.chunks);  // With timestamps

Text-to-Speech

Model Endpoint Best For
Elevenlabs fal-ai/elevenlabs Premium voices
F5-TTS fal-ai/f5-tts Voice cloning
Kokoro fal-ai/kokoro Multi-language
typescript
// Text-to-speech with Elevenlabs
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/elevenlabs", {
  input: {
    text: "Hello, welcome to our service.",
    voice_id: "voice_id_here"
  }
});

3D Generation Models

Model Endpoint Use Case
TripoSR fal-ai/triposr Image to 3D mesh
InstantMesh fal-ai/instantmesh Fast 3D generation
Stable Zero123 fal-ai/stable-zero123 Novel view synthesis
typescript
// Generate 3D mesh from image
const result = await fal.subscribe("fal-ai/triposr", {
  input: {
    image_url: "https://example.com/object.jpg"
  }
});

console.log(result.model_mesh.url);  // GLB/OBJ file

Model Selection Decision Tree

What do you want to create?
├── Image
│   ├── From text only?
│   │   ├── Need best quality? → FLUX.2 Pro
│   │   ├── Need fast iteration? → FLUX Schnell
│   │   ├── Need open-source? → FLUX.1 Dev
│   │   └── Budget conscious? → Fast SDXL
│   ├── Transform existing image?
│   │   ├── Style transfer → FLUX i2i
│   │   ├── Edit specific region → FLUX Inpainting
│   │   └── Follow structure → FLUX ControlNet
│   └── Need text in image? → Ideogram
│
├── Video
│   ├── From text only?
│   │   ├── Need best quality? → Kling 2.6 Pro
│   │   ├── Need fast preview? → Runway Gen-3 Turbo
│   │   └── Need audio? → LTX-2 Pro or Kling
│   ├── Animate image? → MiniMax Hailuo
│   └── Edit video? → Kling O1
│
├── Audio
│   ├── Speech to text?
│   │   ├── Accurate → Whisper
│   │   └── Fast → Whisper Turbo
│   └── Text to speech? → Elevenlabs / F5-TTS
│
└── 3D
    └── Image to 3D? → TripoSR

Performance Comparison

Image Generation Speed

Model ~Time (1024x1024)
FLUX Schnell 1-2s
Fast SDXL 2-3s
FLUX.1 Dev 5-8s
FLUX.2 Pro 8-12s

Video Generation Speed

Model ~Time (5s video)
Runway Gen-3 Turbo 30-60s
LTX-2 Pro 60-90s
Kling 2.6 Pro 120-180s

Cost Optimization Strategies

  1. Development Phase

    • Use FLUX Schnell for prompt iteration
    • Use Fast SDXL for quick tests
    • Use Runway Gen-3 Turbo for video previews
  2. Production Phase

    • FLUX.2 Pro for final images
    • Kling 2.6 Pro for final videos
  3. Batch Processing

    • Process during off-peak hours
    • Use appropriate image sizes (don't upscale unnecessarily)
    • Cache results by seed for reproducibility
  4. Resource Efficiency

    • Generate at target resolution (don't generate larger and downscale)
    • Use webhooks for high-volume (avoid polling overhead)
    • Implement client-side caching

Model-Specific Tips

FLUX Tips

  • Guidance scale 3-4 works best
  • 28 steps is optimal default
  • Schnell works best with 4 steps only
  • Detailed prompts produce better results

Video Tips

  • Include camera movement in prompts
  • Describe action/motion explicitly
  • Use negative prompts to avoid artifacts
  • Start with shorter duration for testing

Whisper Tips

  • Provide language hint for better accuracy
  • Use "translate" task for non-English to English
  • chunk_level="segment" gives timestamps

Explore More Models

Visit https://fal.ai/models for the complete catalog of 600+ models including:

  • Face restoration/enhancement
  • Background removal
  • Upscaling
  • Style transfer
  • OCR
  • Object detection
  • And many more specialized models

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