Is Comfy free to use?

Quick answer: Yes—ComfyUI is free and open source under GPL-3.0. You can download and run it without paying a license fee. The “costs” come from hardware (your GPU), optional cloud GPUs, and your time spent installing, updating, and troubleshooting. C

Promptus with ComfyUI comes in two ways:

1. Promptus Desktop — a packaged, optimized ComfyUI you install locally (free for subscribers, or a $49 lifetime desktop license). It adds one-click setup, pre-vetted nodes, templates, and integrated updates.
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2. Promptus ComfyUI Cloud — a browser-based ComfyUI on managed GPUs (no local setup). It’s literally ComfyUI running in your web browser, ready to go, useful for collaboration or heavy jobs.

What “free” means in practice

• License: ComfyUI’s code is free to use, modify, and share (GPL-3.0). There’s no subscription tied to the software itself.
• Hardware: To run comfortably—especially SDXL—aim for 8–12GB VRAM. Lower-VRAM cards can still do SD 1.5 with careful settings. (This is why some users rent cloud GPUs.)
• Models: Most checkpoints/LoRA/ControlNets are free community downloads; a few creators may charge or ask for donations.
• Your time: Installing Python, CUDA/ROCm, and the right versions of dependencies takes time. Updates can break things. This “hidden cost” is exactly what Promptus reduces.

Three ways to run ComfyUI

1. Self-hosted (manual install)

• $0 software; you bring the GPU and patience.
• Pros: Maximum control; learn the internals; totally offline.
• Cons: Install/updates can be fragile; tracking nodes and CUDA/Python versions can burn hours.
• Best for: Tinkerers, researchers who enjoy DIY.

2. Promptus Desktop (ComfyUI packaged)

• Free for subscribers, or $49 lifetime desktop license (includes ComfyUI forever).
• Pros: One-click setup, curated nodes, auto-updates, templates, and integrated features like Gemini Flash 2.5 Image (Nano Banana) alongside Stable Diffusion/SDXL.
• Works offline: Once your models/nodes are installed, you can disconnect and create privately on your machine.
• Best for: Artists, designers, and teams who want speed, stability, and time savings.

3. Promptus ComfyUI Cloud (web browser)

• Run ComfyUI fully in your browser on managed GPUs—no local setup. Great for big jobs and collaboration.
• Pros: Zero installs, powerful GPUs, easy sharing; ideal when your laptop/GPU is limited.
• Cons: Requires internet; session costs scale with usage (like any cloud GPU).
• Best for: No-GPU users, teams, or anyone needing bursty high compute.

How Promptus with ComfyUI works

Packaged & optimized ComfyUI: Promptus Desktop bundles a tested ComfyUI build plus pre-vetted community nodes and templates for common pipelines (text-to-image, SDXL, ControlNet, inpainting, upscaling, AnimateDiff, etc.). That dramatically reduces “version mismatch” errors and speeds up your first good result.

Integrated model access: Promptus is a model hub as well as an app. Alongside Stable Diffusion and SDXL, you’ll find Gemini Flash 2.5 Image (Nano Banana)—Google’s fast, photo-grade image model—and other trending models (e.g., Flux, Wan 2.2) depending on availability in the platform. Their public demo pages and product posts show these integrations running on Promptus.

• Nano Banana (Gemini Flash 2.5 Image): excels at identity consistency, multi-image blending, natural-language edits, restorations, and more; Promptus surfaces it right in the Playground.
• Wan 2.2: showcased by Promptus in public demos, highlighting multi-model breadth.

Desktop vs Cloud orchestration

• Desktop: Promptus launches ComfyUI locally, manages nodes, and handles updates. You get a clean UI, assets library, and project organization; once installed, you can work fully offline.
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• Cloud: With Promptus ComfyUI Cloud, Promptus provisions a remote GPU and starts ComfyUI on it; you connect via your web browser, use the same node graphs/templates, and share sessions or outputs easily.

Performance tuning

ComfyUI’s node graph can be more memory-efficient than “black-box” UIs, because it reuses latents and lets you control pre/post stages precisely. Promptus leans into that with tuned defaults, “good-first-run” templates, and update pipelines so you spend less time hunting version conflicts and more time shipping visuals. (That’s the practical, money-saving part.)

ComfyUI workflow examples

• Concept → Styleboard: Start from text, pick SDXL + a style LoRA, then feed favorites into Gemini Flash 2.5 Image for clean revisions or consistency passes.
• Product mockups: Use SDXL or Flux for ideation, then Nano Banana’s natural-language edits (“remove reflections,” “change label to matte black”) for refined outputs.
• Character/lookbooks: Build a consistent character with SDXL + ControlNet; keep identity steady across shots via Nano Banana.
• Motion & video: Kick off AnimateDiff or a video model in a ComfyUI graph; move to Cloud for heavier sequences.
• Team sharing: On Cloud, teammates open your browser session with the same graph, tweak nodes, and export renders without touching Python.

Why Promptus can save you time and money

• Time saved: No more chasing CUDA versions, missing wheels, or broken extensions. Promptus does the packaging and auto-updates for you.
• Money saved: For ongoing use, $49 lifetime Desktop can beat recurring cloud-GPU bills if you already have a decent GPU; then burst to Cloud only when you need heavy compute.
• Headroom: When your local GPU hits a wall, switch to Cloud—same ComfyUI, bigger GPU, in your browser.

Privacy & offline use

Running locally means your prompts and images stay on your machine. Comfy UI in the browser doesn’t make it “web-hosted”—it’s a local loopback unless you choose Cloud. You can download models/templates, disconnect Wi-Fi, and still generate.

If you opt for Cloud, compute runs on managed GPUs; choose it for convenience, collaboration, or heavy jobs.

Getting started (fast)

1. Pick a path: Desktop (local) vs Cloud (browser).
2. Install or sign in: Desktop installer vs Cloud session. (Desktop is $49 lifetime or free for subscribers.)
3. Choose a template: SDXL portrait, product mockup, ControlNet pose, etc.
4. Swap models: Try Gemini Flash 2.5 Image for identity-steady edits, SDXL for base renders, Wan 2.2 or other featured models for specific looks.
5. Render & iterate: Save workflows to reuse; jump to Cloud for big batches.

Bottom line

• ComfyUI is free—no license cost.
• Promptus Desktop makes it effortless on your machine (and keeps working offline). Promptus ComfyUI Cloud runs it in your web browser on managed GPUs.
• Together, they give you the best of both worlds: zero-hassle setup, rapid iteration, multi-model access (Gemini Flash 2.5 Image, SD/SDXL, Flux, Wan 2.2, and more), and an easy path from sketch → shot → sequence.