Google Imagen 4: Complete Guide to AI Image Generation (Ultra, Standard, Fast)

Google Imagen 4 is the most capable AI image generation model Google has ever released. Now generally available across the full Imagen 4 family -- Ultra, Standard, and Fast -- it represents a significant leap in photorealism, text rendering accuracy, and prompt adherence. For advertisers, marketers, and creative teams, Imagen 4 opens a production pipeline that was previously impossible: generate commercial-quality product photography, ad banners, social media graphics, and hero images from text prompts alone, then feed those assets directly into video generation workflows.

This guide covers everything you need to know about Imagen 4: the three-tier model family, pricing, capabilities, access methods, prompting best practices, competitive positioning, and how to integrate Imagen 4 into an advertising workflow that turns static AI images into scroll-stopping video ads.

The Evolution of Google Imagen: From Research to Production

Google Imagen did not appear overnight. The model family has evolved through four major generations, each addressing the limitations of its predecessor.

Imagen 1 (May 2022)

The original Imagen was introduced as a research paper from Google Brain. It combined the language understanding capabilities of large transformer models with the visual fidelity of diffusion models. Imagen 1 demonstrated unprecedented photorealism for its time and scored highly on automated text-image alignment benchmarks. However, it was never made publicly available -- it remained a research demonstration that signaled Google's ambitions in generative imaging.

Imagen 2 (December 2023)

Imagen 2 marked Google's first commercially available image generation model, launching on Vertex AI. Its standout feature was text and logo generation -- the ability to embed readable text within images, something competing models struggled with. Imagen 2 also introduced Digital Watermarking via SynthID, Google DeepMind's invisible watermarking technology for identifying AI-generated content.

Imagen 3 (August 2024)

Imagen 3 brought substantial improvements in detail, lighting, and compositional accuracy. It reduced common artifacts like distorted hands and inconsistent shadows. Imagen 3 was made available through Google AI Studio and the Gemini API, significantly broadening access beyond enterprise Vertex AI users. It established Google as a serious competitor to Midjourney and DALL-E in commercial image generation.

Imagen 4 (May 2025 -- GA in 2025-2026)

Imagen 4 was announced at Google I/O 2025 and represents the most complete image generation offering from any major AI provider. For the first time, Google introduced a tiered model family -- Ultra, Standard, and Fast -- allowing users to balance quality, speed, and cost for different use cases. The entire Imagen 4 family is now generally available through the Gemini API, Google AI Studio, and Vertex AI.

Key generational improvements include up to 10x faster generation speeds, native 2K resolution output, industry-leading text rendering, and tighter integration with Google's broader AI ecosystem including Veo 3.1 for video generation and Gemini 3.1 Pro for multimodal reasoning.

Imagen 4 Ultra vs Standard vs Fast: The Three Tiers Explained

The Imagen 4 family gives you three distinct models optimized for different priorities. Understanding when to use each tier is critical for both creative quality and cost efficiency.

Imagen 4 Ultra -- Maximum Quality

Price: $0.06 per image

Best for: Hero images, product photography, print-ready assets, advertising creative where every detail matters

Imagen 4 Ultra is Google's flagship image generation model. It delivers the highest fidelity output in the family, with native 2K resolution (up to 2048x2048 pixels) and support for multiple aspect ratios including 1:1, 3:4, 4:3, 9:16, and 16:9. Ultra captures ultra-fine surface textures, natural lighting gradients, and lifelike rendering of skin, fabric, water, and material details.

Where Ultra particularly excels is in text rendering. It generates legible, correctly spelled typography with professional formatting -- making it genuinely useful for creating posters, advertisements, product packaging mockups, and social media graphics that require embedded text. This was a consistent weakness in previous-generation models across all providers.

Ultra is the right choice when you need an image that could serve as the primary visual in a campaign -- a hero banner, a product launch image, or a key visual for a landing page.

Imagen 4 Standard -- The All-Rounder

Price: $0.04 per image

Best for: Social media content, blog illustrations, A/B test variations, mid-funnel advertising assets

Imagen 4 Standard is the flagship model for a wide variety of high-quality image generation tasks. It offers significant improvements over Imagen 3 in photorealism, text rendering, and prompt adherence while maintaining a cost-effective price point. Standard supports all the same aspect ratios as Ultra and produces output quality that meets or exceeds the requirements for digital advertising across platforms.

For most advertising use cases -- social media posts, blog header images, email campaign visuals, and digital display ads -- Standard delivers the quality you need without the premium cost of Ultra. It strikes the optimal balance between visual fidelity and production economics.

Imagen 4 Fast -- Speed and Volume

Price: $0.02 per image

Best for: Rapid prototyping, high-volume batch generation, concept exploration, thumbnail generation, real-time applications

Imagen 4 Fast generates images approximately 10x faster than Imagen 3, making it ideal for workflows that prioritize speed and volume over peak visual fidelity. At $0.02 per image, it is the most cost-effective option in the family and competitive with any major image generation API on the market.

Fast is purpose-built for scenarios where you need many images quickly: generating dozens of creative variations for A/B testing, creating concept mockups during brainstorming sessions, producing thumbnails for content libraries, or powering real-time image generation in user-facing applications. The quality remains strong -- this is not a draft-quality model -- but it prioritizes speed and throughput.

Quick Comparison Table

Feature	Imagen 4 Ultra	Imagen 4 Standard	Imagen 4 Fast
Price per image	$0.06	$0.04	$0.02
Resolution	Up to 2K (2048x2048)	Up to 2K	Up to 2K
Speed	Moderate	Moderate	~10x faster than Imagen 3
Text rendering	Best-in-class	Excellent	Good
Photorealism	Highest fidelity	High fidelity	High fidelity
Best use case	Hero visuals, print	General advertising	Batch generation, testing
Aspect ratios	1:1, 3:4, 4:3, 9:16, 16:9	1:1, 3:4, 4:3, 9:16, 16:9	1:1, 3:4, 4:3, 9:16, 16:9

Key Capabilities That Matter for Advertisers

Imagen 4 is not just an incremental upgrade. Several capabilities make it genuinely useful for commercial creative production.

Photorealism

Imagen 4 Ultra produces images with a level of photorealism that blurs the line between AI-generated and camera-captured content. Fine details -- fabric weave, water droplets, animal fur, metallic reflections, skin texture -- are rendered with a precision that previous models could not consistently achieve. For product photography and lifestyle imagery, this means AI-generated images can serve as primary creative assets rather than placeholders.

Text Rendering

Accurate text in AI-generated images has been one of the hardest problems in the field. Imagen 4 addresses this directly. The model can generate legible, correctly spelled multi-line text with consistent formatting. This unlocks use cases that were previously off-limits for AI image generation: social media quote graphics, promotional banners with pricing, event posters, product labels, and infographic elements.

Prompt Adherence

Imagen 4 demonstrates best-in-class prompt adherence -- the ability to faithfully translate complex, multi-element prompts into accurate visual compositions. If you describe a specific scene with particular objects, colors, lighting conditions, and spatial relationships, Imagen 4 is more likely to get it right on the first generation than competing models. This reduces the iterative prompt-revise-regenerate cycle that has traditionally slowed AI image production.

Style Control

From hyperrealistic product photography to stylized illustrations, watercolor textures, flat design graphics, and cinematic compositions, Imagen 4 handles a broad range of visual styles with consistency. Style descriptors in prompts reliably produce the intended aesthetic, making it possible to maintain brand visual identity across dozens or hundreds of generated images.

Imagen 4 for Advertising: Practical Applications

The real value of Imagen 4 for marketing teams is in its ability to produce commercial-quality creative assets at a fraction of traditional production costs.

Product Photography

Generate studio-quality product shots from text descriptions alone. Describe your product, the lighting setup, the background, and the angle -- Imagen 4 Ultra produces images that can serve as primary product visuals for ecommerce listings, social ads, and catalog pages. For teams that need 50+ product images across different backgrounds and contexts, AI generation eliminates the need for expensive studio time.

Social Media Graphics

Create platform-specific visuals at the scale social media demands. Generate Instagram post graphics, LinkedIn cover images, Twitter/X header images, and Pinterest pins with embedded text, brand colors, and consistent visual identity. Imagen 4 Standard is the ideal tier for this -- high enough quality for social feeds, cost-effective enough for daily content production.

Ad Banners and Display Creative

Produce digital display ad creative across standard IAB sizes from a single prompt. Generate hero images, then crop and adapt for 300x250, 728x90, 160x600, and other standard banner dimensions. Imagen 4's strong prompt adherence means you can specify exact visual elements and compositions, maintaining creative consistency across banner sizes.

Hero Images and Landing Pages

Generate the premium visual assets that anchor landing pages, email campaigns, and above-the-fold website sections. Imagen 4 Ultra's 2K resolution output provides the fidelity needed for large-format hero images where every pixel matters. The cost of $0.06 per image is negligible compared to commissioning equivalent photography.

AI Product Photography for Ecommerce

One of the highest-ROI applications is generating product lifestyle imagery -- showing your product in real-world contexts. A coffee brand can generate their product on a kitchen counter at sunrise. A skincare brand can show their bottle in a spa setting with natural lighting. A tech brand can place their device on a minimalist desk setup. Each context-specific image would traditionally require a separate photoshoot.

To take these Imagen-generated product images further, use AdCreate's image-to-video feature to transform static product shots into dynamic video ads with camera movement, lighting changes, and environmental animation.

How to Access Imagen 4

Imagen 4 is available through three primary channels, each suited to different user types.

Gemini API

The Gemini API is the most developer-friendly access point for Imagen 4. All three tiers -- Ultra, Standard, and Fast -- are available as API endpoints. You can generate images programmatically, integrate Imagen 4 into your existing content pipelines, and build custom applications on top of the model.

The API supports all standard parameters: aspect ratio, number of images per request, safety settings, and output format. Authentication is handled through Google API keys.

Google AI Studio

Google AI Studio provides a web-based interface for generating images with Imagen 4 without writing code. It is ideal for creative teams, marketers, and non-technical users who want to experiment with prompts and generate images interactively. AI Studio supports all Imagen 4 tiers and provides a prompt history for iterating on results.

Vertex AI

Vertex AI is Google Cloud's enterprise-grade AI platform. It provides Imagen 4 access with additional enterprise features: VPC service controls, customer-managed encryption keys, audit logging, and integration with other Google Cloud services. Vertex AI is the right choice for organizations with strict compliance requirements, high-volume production workloads, or existing Google Cloud infrastructure.

For teams that already use Google Cloud, Vertex AI also provides access to Veo 3.1 for video generation, enabling a seamless image-to-video pipeline entirely within Google's ecosystem.

Prompting Best Practices for Imagen 4

The quality of your Imagen 4 output depends directly on the quality of your prompts. These best practices will help you get consistently better results.

Prompt Structure

Effective Imagen 4 prompts follow a consistent structure: Subject + Context + Style + Technical Details. Be specific about what you want, where it is, how it looks, and what visual style to use.

12 Example Prompts for Advertising Use Cases

1. Product photography -- skincare:
"A minimalist product photograph of a frosted glass serum bottle with a gold dropper cap, placed on a smooth white marble surface. Soft diffused natural light from the left. A single eucalyptus sprig rests beside the bottle. Clean white background with subtle shadows. Studio product photography style."

2. Lifestyle product shot -- coffee brand:
"A ceramic pour-over coffee dripper on a wooden kitchen counter at golden hour. Steam rises from the freshly brewed coffee in a handmade ceramic mug below. Warm morning light streams through a window with linen curtains. Lifestyle photography, shallow depth of field."

3. Fashion hero image:
"A full-body editorial photograph of a model wearing an oversized camel wool coat and white sneakers, walking through a European cobblestone street in autumn. Golden hour backlighting. Fallen leaves on the ground. Shot from a low angle. Fashion editorial, 85mm lens aesthetic."

4. Social media graphic with text:
"A clean, modern social media graphic with the text 'SUMMER SALE 40% OFF' in bold sans-serif white typography centered on a gradient background transitioning from coral to golden yellow. Minimalist design, Instagram post format, 1:1 aspect ratio."

5. Food photography for restaurant ads:
"A top-down photograph of an artfully plated seared salmon dish with microgreens, lemon wedges, and a drizzle of olive oil on a handmade ceramic plate. Dark slate table surface. Dramatic directional lighting from the upper right. Fine dining food photography."

6. Tech product on desk setup:
"A pair of premium wireless earbuds in a matte black case, open on a clean white desk next to a MacBook and a small potted succulent. Soft ambient lighting. Minimalist workspace aesthetic. Product photography with lifestyle context, sharp focus on the earbuds."

7. Real estate advertising:
"An exterior photograph of a modern minimalist beach house with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, a wooden deck, and a private pool overlooking the ocean at sunset. Warm golden light. Architectural photography style, wide-angle lens perspective."

8. Fitness brand campaign:
"An athletic woman in black compression leggings and a sports bra, mid-stride on an outdoor running trail at dawn. Mountain landscape in the background. Dynamic motion, backlit by the rising sun. Sports photography, high-energy composition."

9. SaaS product banner:
"A clean isometric illustration of a laptop screen displaying a colorful analytics dashboard with bar charts and line graphs. Floating UI elements and data cards around the laptop. Soft purple and blue color palette. Modern SaaS marketing illustration style."

10. Event poster with text:
"A professional event poster with the text 'CREATIVE SUMMIT 2026' in bold geometric sans-serif typography at the top. Abstract geometric shapes in deep navy, electric blue, and white below the text. Date 'March 15-17' in smaller text at the bottom. Modern conference poster design."

11. Pet brand product shot:
"A happy golden retriever sitting next to a bag of premium dog food on a bright kitchen floor. Natural daylight from a nearby window. The dog looks directly at the camera with an excited expression. Lifestyle pet photography, warm and inviting tone."

12. Luxury watch macro:
"An extreme close-up macro photograph of a luxury dive watch face showing the intricate dial details, sapphire crystal reflections, and brushed steel bezel. Dark background with dramatic side lighting highlighting the metallic textures. High-end product photography, razor-sharp focus."

Pro Tips for Better Results

• Specify the photography style: Terms like "product photography," "editorial fashion," "food photography," or "architectural photography" guide the model toward proven visual conventions
• Describe lighting explicitly: "Soft diffused light," "dramatic side lighting," "golden hour backlighting," and "studio strobes" produce dramatically different results
• Include lens and camera cues: "85mm portrait lens," "wide-angle perspective," "macro close-up," and "shallow depth of field" influence composition and bokeh
• Use negative constraints sparingly: If you consistently get unwanted elements, add brief exclusions like "no text" or "no people" rather than long lists of negatives
• Iterate on the best result: When you get 80% of what you want, refine the prompt to address the remaining 20% rather than starting over

Imagen 4 vs DALL-E vs Midjourney vs Ideogram: Competitive Comparison

The AI image generation landscape in 2026 features several strong competitors. Here is how Imagen 4 compares to the leading alternatives.

Capability	Imagen 4 Ultra	GPT Image 1 (OpenAI)	Midjourney V7	Ideogram 3.0
Price per image	$0.06	$0.009-$0.20 (varies by quality)	~$0.01-$0.03 (subscription-based)	$0.01-$0.04 (subscription-based)
Max resolution	2048x2048 (2K)	2048x2048	~2048x2048	2048x2048
Text rendering	Excellent	Very good	Moderate	Excellent
Photorealism	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Prompt adherence	Best-in-class	Very good	Good	Very good
Speed	Moderate (Fast tier: ~2.7s)	Moderate	10-15 seconds	Moderate
API access	Gemini API, Vertex AI	OpenAI API	Limited (no public API)	API available
Artistic style range	Very good	Very good	Best-in-class	Good
Enterprise features	Full (Vertex AI)	Enterprise API available	Limited	Limited
Watermarking	SynthID (invisible)	C2PA metadata	Metadata tagging	Metadata tagging

When to Choose Each Model

Choose Imagen 4 Ultra when you need the best text rendering, tight Google Cloud integration, enterprise-grade security, or plan to feed images into a Veo 3.1 video pipeline. Imagen 4 is the strongest choice for teams already in the Google ecosystem.

Choose GPT Image 1 when you want conversational prompt refinement through ChatGPT, need strong general-purpose quality across diverse prompts, or are building on the OpenAI API ecosystem. GPT Image 1 offers flexible pricing tiers from budget to premium.

Choose Midjourney V7 when artistic quality and aesthetic sophistication are the top priority -- hero campaign visuals, brand photography, creative concepts. Midjourney produces the most visually striking output but lacks a public API for programmatic integration.

Choose Ideogram 3.0 when your primary need is accurate text within images -- logos, posters, social graphics, infographics. Ideogram achieves approximately 90% text rendering accuracy and offers strong style reference features for brand consistency.

The Practical Answer

Most professional creative teams in 2026 use multiple models. Imagen 4 for production-scale advertising assets and Google Cloud workflows. Midjourney for hero creative and brand campaigns. GPT Image 1 for conversational iteration and quick ideation. The models complement each other rather than directly substitute.

Imagen 4 + Veo 3.1: The Image-to-Video Pipeline for Ads

One of Imagen 4's most powerful applications is as the first stage in a two-step creative pipeline: generate a high-quality image with Imagen 4, then animate it into a video ad with Veo 3.1 or another video generation model.

How the Pipeline Works

1. Generate the hero image: Use Imagen 4 Ultra to create a photorealistic product shot, lifestyle scene, or advertising visual
2. Define the motion: Write a prompt describing how the scene should come to life -- camera movement, subject animation, environmental effects
3. Generate the video: Feed the Imagen 4 image into Veo 3.1's "Ingredients to Video" feature, which creates video from reference images with improved character expressions, natural movements, and background consistency
4. Format for platforms: Veo 3.1 now supports native 9:16 vertical output, plus upscaling to 1080p and 4K for high-fidelity production workflows

Why This Matters for Advertising

This pipeline solves a fundamental problem: video production is expensive and slow, while image generation is fast and cheap. By generating the source image with Imagen 4 and animating it into video, you collapse what was traditionally a multi-day production process into a workflow that takes minutes.

For advertising teams, this means:

• Generate 10 product image variations with Imagen 4 Fast ($0.20 total)
• Animate the top 3 into video ads with Veo 3.1
• Test all three video ads in market on the same day
• Scale the winning creative with additional variations

AdCreate takes this pipeline further by giving you access to multiple video generation models in a single platform. Beyond Veo 3.1, you can feed your Imagen 4 images into AdCreate's image-to-video feature to generate video ads using models like Sora 2, Wan 2.5, Kling 2.6, and Runway Gen-4 -- testing which video model produces the best result for your specific creative. With AdCreate's text-to-video tools, you can also generate video ads directly from text descriptions without an intermediate image step.

For brands that want a human presenter alongside their Imagen 4 product visuals, AdCreate's Persona AI talking avatars offer over 100 realistic avatars speaking in 40+ languages -- ideal for creating product explainer videos, testimonial-style ads, or UGC-format content at scale.

Pricing Breakdown and Cost Optimization

Imagen 4's tiered pricing structure rewards strategic tier selection. Here is how to optimize costs across different advertising workflows.

Cost Per Campaign Scenario

Small social media campaign (50 images):

• Using Ultra for all: 50 x $0.06 = $3.00
• Using Standard for all: 50 x $0.04 = $2.00
• Optimized mix (5 Ultra hero + 45 Standard): $0.30 + $1.80 = $2.10

Large product catalog (500 images):

• Using Ultra for all: 500 x $0.06 = $30.00
• Using Standard for all: 500 x $0.04 = $20.00
• Using Fast for all: 500 x $0.02 = $10.00
• Optimized mix (20 Ultra + 100 Standard + 380 Fast): $1.20 + $4.00 + $7.60 = $12.80

A/B testing sprint (200 variations):

• Using Fast for all: 200 x $0.02 = $4.00
• Comparable traditional stock photography: $200-$2,000

Cost Optimization Strategies

1. Use Fast for exploration, Ultra for finals: Generate concept variations and test compositions with Imagen 4 Fast at $0.02 per image. Once you identify the winning concept, regenerate it with Ultra for the production asset.

2. Batch by tier: Group your generation requests by quality requirement. Hero images and primary campaign assets use Ultra. Social content and blog illustrations use Standard. Thumbnails, concepts, and test variations use Fast.

3. Template your prompts: Develop proven prompt templates for your recurring image types (product shots, lifestyle images, banners). Consistent prompts produce consistent results, reducing the number of regenerations needed.

4. Leverage aspect ratio planning: Generate images at the final required aspect ratio rather than generating square images and cropping. This avoids wasted generations and ensures optimal composition.

Compared to traditional creative production -- where a single professional product photoshoot costs $1,000-$10,000 -- Imagen 4 makes visual content generation essentially free at scale. Even Imagen 4 Ultra's premium tier costs less than a dollar for a dozen publication-quality images.

For teams ready to turn those images into full video ad campaigns, AdCreate's pricing starts at $23/month with 50 free credits, giving you access to the full suite of AI video generation, 50+ ad templates, and the AI Toolbox for end-to-end ad creation.

Limitations and Content Policies

Imagen 4 is powerful, but it has boundaries -- both technical and policy-driven -- that advertisers need to understand.

Technical Limitations

• Complex multi-person compositions: Scenes with many interacting people can produce inconsistencies in anatomy, spatial relationships, and proportions
• Very small text at large scale: While text rendering is excellent for headlines and short text, very small or dense text blocks can still contain errors
• Thin structures and fine details: Extremely thin elements (wire fences, bicycle spokes, delicate jewelry chains) can be inconsistently rendered
• Exact brand reproduction: Imagen 4 generates new visual content -- it does not reproduce exact brand logos or trademarked imagery from prompts alone. You will need to composite brand elements in post-production
• Consistency across generations: While prompt adherence is strong, generating the exact same character or scene across multiple images remains challenging without additional tools

Content Policies

Imagen 4 enforces Google's responsible AI policies:

• No public figure likenesses: The model will not generate images of identifiable real people
• Content safety filters: Violence, self-harm, explicit sexual content, and other categories defined in Google's Acceptable Use Policy are filtered
• Adjustable safety settings: The API provides a safetySetting parameter that allows you to adjust how aggressively content is filtered, within Google's policy bounds
• SynthID watermarking: All Imagen 4 output includes SynthID, an invisible machine-detectable watermark embedded in the image pixels. SynthID is robust to common transformations including cropping, resizing, JPEG compression, and standard filters. It does not visibly alter the image
• Policy enforcement can be aggressive: Some benign prompts may trigger safety filters. If this happens, rephrase the prompt to avoid ambiguous terms that could be interpreted as policy violations

What This Means for Advertisers

The content policies are generally compatible with commercial advertising use. You can generate product photography, lifestyle imagery, abstract compositions, and branded graphics without issues. The main friction points are prompts that involve identifiable people (use AI avatars instead -- AdCreate's Persona AI provides over 100 realistic human presenters) and prompts that contain terms that the safety filter interprets ambiguously.

SynthID watermarking is invisible and does not affect image quality or usability. It serves as a provenance signal that the image was AI-generated, which is increasingly expected by platforms and regulators.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google Imagen 4 free to use?

Imagen 4 is not free for production use. Pricing is $0.02 per image (Fast), $0.04 per image (Standard), and $0.06 per image (Ultra). Google AI Studio may offer limited free tier access for experimentation, but production-scale usage through the Gemini API or Vertex AI is billed per image. Compared to stock photography or professional photoshoots, the cost is negligible -- you can generate hundreds of images for the cost of a single stock photo license.

Can Imagen 4 generate text within images accurately?

Yes. Text rendering is one of Imagen 4's strongest capabilities, particularly in the Ultra tier. It handles headlines, short text blocks, pricing, dates, and typographic layouts with high accuracy. For best results, specify the font style (sans-serif, bold, geometric), size relative to the image, and placement. While not 100% accurate on every generation, it is significantly ahead of where the field was even a year ago.

How does Imagen 4 compare to Midjourney V7 for advertising?

Both are excellent for advertising. Midjourney V7 excels in artistic sophistication and aesthetic quality -- it produces images with a distinctive visual richness that is hard to match. Imagen 4 Ultra excels in text rendering, prompt adherence, and enterprise integration. For programmatic ad creative at scale, Imagen 4 has the advantage due to its API access and Google Cloud integration. For hero campaign visuals where artistic impact is paramount, Midjourney often produces more visually striking results.

Can I use Imagen 4 images commercially?

Yes. Images generated through the Gemini API and Vertex AI can be used commercially, subject to Google's terms of service. The images include SynthID watermarking but are otherwise fully usable for advertising, marketing, product listings, and other commercial applications. Review Google's current terms for any usage-specific restrictions.

What is the best way to use Imagen 4 for product photography?

Start with Imagen 4 Ultra for primary product images. Write detailed prompts specifying the product, background, lighting setup, camera angle, and photography style. Generate 5-10 variations per product and select the best. For ecommerce catalogs with hundreds of products, use Standard or Fast tier for secondary images and context shots. Always include terms like "product photography," "studio lighting," and specific surface materials to guide the model toward commercial-quality output.

How do I turn Imagen 4 images into video ads?

Two primary paths: First, use Google's own Veo 3.1 model with the "Ingredients to Video" feature to animate Imagen 4 images directly within Google's ecosystem. Second, use AdCreate's image-to-video tools to transform your Imagen 4 images into video ads using multiple AI video models -- Veo 3.1, Sora 2, Wan 2.5, Kling 2.6, and Runway Gen-4 -- comparing results to find the best output for your creative. AdCreate also provides 50+ ad templates and an AI ad generator to streamline the entire workflow from image to finished ad.

Does Imagen 4 support batch generation?

Yes. Through the Gemini API and Vertex AI, you can submit batch generation requests to produce multiple images from multiple prompts efficiently. The Fast tier is specifically optimized for high-volume batch workflows, generating images in approximately 2.7 seconds each. For large-scale catalog or campaign production, batch generation with the Fast tier followed by selective regeneration of hero images with Ultra is the most cost-effective approach.

What resolution does Imagen 4 output?

All Imagen 4 tiers support up to 2K resolution (2048x2048 pixels). Multiple aspect ratios are available: 1:1 (square), 3:4 and 4:3 (portrait/landscape), and 9:16 and 16:9 (vertical/widescreen). Higher resolution options up to 2816x1536 are available in certain configurations. For most digital advertising, the standard 1024x1024 or 1080-width outputs are sufficient, while print and large-format applications benefit from the full 2K output.

---

Google Imagen 4 makes commercial-quality image generation accessible to every advertising team, at every budget level. Whether you need a single hero image or a thousand product variations, the Ultra-Standard-Fast tier structure ensures you are never overpaying for quality you do not need or compromising on quality when it matters. For teams ready to take the next step -- turning those AI-generated images into high-converting video ads -- AdCreate provides the complete pipeline: multi-model video generation, 100+ AI avatars, 50+ templates, and an AI video ad generator that turns static visuals into scroll-stopping ads in minutes.