Black Forest Labs, a German AI startup founded by former Stability AI engineers, released FLUX.2 klein, a new open-source AI image generator designed for speed and accessibility, on January 15, 2026. The models, part of the FLUX.2 family, can generate images in less than a second on an Nvidia GB200, according to VentureBeat.
The klein series includes two parameter counts: 4 billion (4B) and 9 billion (9B). The model weights are available on Hugging Face, and the code is on Github. The 4B parameter version is openly licensed, enabling commercial use.
While larger models in the FLUX.2 family, such as the max and pro versions released in November 2025, focused on photorealism and "grounding search" capabilities, the klein series prioritizes speed and lower compute requirements. Platforms like Fal.ai are integrating FLUX.2 klein, highlighting the trend towards faster, more accessible AI image creation, even if it means trading off some image quality, according to VentureBeat.
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