Using Multiple AI Models in One Workflow (SDXL → Flux → Upscaler)

The insight

Each model has a sweet spot. Chain them and you get the best of each:

• SDXL — great at composition, cheap, fast.
• Flux Pro — best prompt fidelity and detail.
• SUPIR / Ultimate SD Upscale — best for final resolution.

Best workflow: use each model where it wins.

The four-stage pipeline

Stage 1 — Composition (SDXL, 1 credit)

Generate 4 variants at 1024×1024. Pick the composition you love. You're not looking for detail here — just "this camera angle, this light, this framing."

Stage 2 — Detail pass (Flux Pro img2img, 5 credits)

Feed your chosen SDXL image into Flux Pro img2img at denoise ~0.4. Same prompt but expanded. Result: same composition, dramatically better skin/eye/hand/text detail.

Stage 3 — Face fix (SDXL inpaint, 2 credits)

Zoom into the face. Mask it. Regenerate at denoise 0.35. Faces are where models diverge most; a targeted inpaint recovers the character while keeping Flux's polish elsewhere.

Stage 4 — Upscale (Ultimate SD Upscale, 2 credits)

Final 2× to 2048. Ready for print or hero-image use.

Total cost

10 credits per truly-hero image. At $19.99/mo Creator = 2,000 credits, that's 200 hero images per month. At $49.99 Pro = 1,200 hero images per month.

When it's overkill

Most social/thumbnail work doesn't need this pipeline. Save it for:

• Ads you're spending money on
• Website hero images
• Print work
• Client deliverables where the last 20 % of quality matters

What Imagoat plans to expose

Each stage will be a one-click operation in Imagoat's AI Creative Tools — no need to run three separate tools or write Python.