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June 24, 2026 Krea 2 is the newest open-weight text-to-image model, and it lands with an unusual pitch: turbo-class speed and strong prompt-following in the same checkpoint. This guide covers what it is and how to run Krea 2 Turbo locally in ComfyUI in one command.

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What is Krea 2?

Krea 2 is a 12-billion-parameter Diffusion Transformer from Krea.ai, Inc., released June 22, 2026, with the weights open-sourced the next day in two variants:
  • Krea 2 Raw — the base checkpoint before extra post-training.
  • Krea 2 Turbo — the post-trained, distilled checkpoint that generates in ~8 steps at cfg 1. This is the one this pack ships.
It runs on native ComfyUI support (a krea2 text-encoder type built into ComfyUI ≥ v0.26.0), pairing a Qwen3-VL 4B text encoder with the Qwen image VAE. The Qwen3-VL encoder is what gives it sharp prompt adherence and the ability to read structured JSON prompts (more on that below).

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The license actually lets you ship

Krea 2 is released under the Krea 2 Community License: free commercial use for individuals and businesses up to 50 seats, with an enterprise agreement beyond that. For most solo creators and small studios, that’s a genuinely permissive “use it in production” license.

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Krea 2 vs Z-Image, Ideogram 4, and Flux

Krea positions Turbo as combining turbo-model speed with the quality and prompt-control of much larger models. In practice the trade-offs look like this: If Z-Image Turbo is the low-VRAM speed pick and Ideogram 4 is the text/layout pick, Krea 2 Turbo aims to sit between them — turbo speed without giving up prompt fidelity, plus the JSON area-prompting workflow Ideogram users like.

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System & VRAM requirements

The pack ships the fp8 build (krea2_turbo_fp8.safetensors) for RTX 4000/3000/2000 cards. On RTX 5000 (Blackwell), swap in krea2_turbo_mxfp8.safetensors for native fp8. A 24 GB card (e.g. RTX 4090) runs the fp8 build comfortably at 1080p. Three files are needed (the installer fetches them):
  • diffusion_models/krea2_turbo_fp8.safetensors — the 12B Turbo model (fp8)
  • text_encoders/qwen3vl_4b_fp8_scaled.safetensors — Qwen3-VL 4B encoder
  • vae/qwen_image_vae.safetensors — Qwen image VAE
Important: the CLIPLoader uses type=krea2, which requires native Krea 2 support in ComfyUI (comfy/text_encoders/krea2.py, ComfyUI ≥ v0.26.0). Update ComfyUI first if that file is missing.

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Install Krea 2 in ComfyUI

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The fast way — comfyui-mcp + the Panel

From a Claude Code session with the comfyui-mcp plugin installed:
There are three packs (sliced from the KREA2 ULTRA V2 workflow) — pick by what you want:
  • krea2-txt2img-manual — a plain prose prompt.
  • krea2-txt2img-json — Ideogram-style structured JSON / area prompting.
  • krea2-combo — a two-pass detail boost (turbo LoRA + optional IdeoKrea).
The MCP applies the pack manifest — clones the custom nodes (rgthree-comfy, ComfyUI-KJNodes, ComfyUI-Krea2T-Enhancer, ComfyUI-RBG-SmartSeedVariance; combo also ComfyUI_essentials), downloads the model files, and loads the workflow. Each is a single-pipeline graph with no group toggles and its one prompt source active. V2 wires in the Krea2T-Enhancer model detail-boost patch (active); RBG_Smart_Seed_Variance ships bypassed (optional).

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Or one-click

Run the generated install-windows.bat (or install-runpod.sh) from your ComfyUI root, restart, and load workflow.json.

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Structured JSON prompting

Like Ideogram 4, Krea 2’s Qwen3-VL encoder understands structured prompts — per-region descriptions with bounding boxes and palettes — so you can place and describe subjects deterministically instead of fighting one long prose string. For this, install the krea2-txt2img-json pack: its Ideogram4PromptBuilderKJ node drives the encoder directly (nothing to un-bypass). Set ALL the builder fields and keep palettes empty — a rich palette can render as a literal color-swatch strip.

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Settings that matter

  • Steps: 8, cfg: 1 — Turbo is distilled; more steps won’t help and higher cfg will over-cook it.
  • Sampler er_sde / scheduler simple — the pack’s defaults; sharp results.
  • Resolution 1920×1080 is the shipped default; Krea 2 handles a wide aspect range.
  • ImageSharpenKJ runs before save for crisp output. Smart Seed Variance ships bypassed (optional) — un-bypass it for controlled variations of the same prompt (set its seed to randomize and tune the variance strength).

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V2: the detail boost + combo

The V2 workflow adds the Krea2T-Enhancer node — a model-level detail-boost patch that ships active in every pack (bypass it to A/B against the un-boosted result). The headline is krea2-combo: a two-pass refine — a first pass, then a low-denoise second pass (denoise 0.3, 4 steps euler) — with the krea2 turbo LoRA @0.2 on both passes. It saves both passes so you can see the boost. The optional IdeoKrea LoRA (Aitrepreneur/IdeoKrea) is downloaded but not wired by default — drop it into the Power Lora Loader’s empty slot (start ~0.5–1.0; it’s a test LoRA) for the turbo + IdeoKrea Ideogram-style combo.

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A note on v1’s safety-filter node

v1 shipped a ConditioningKrea2Rebalance node (the upstream author described it as removing Krea 2’s built-in safety filter), bypassed by default. The V2 workflow drops that node entirely, so it’s no longer in these packs — Krea 2’s default behavior is intact.

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Troubleshooting

  • AssertionError: Torch not compiled with CUDA enabled — reinstall Torch for your CUDA version: pip uninstall torch then pip install --upgrade torch torchvision torchaudio --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu128 (swap cu128 for your CUDA, e.g. cu126).
  • CLIPLoader: 'krea2' not in list — your ComfyUI predates native Krea 2 support; update ComfyUI to ≥ v0.26.0.
  • Washed-out or noisy output — check steps=8 / cfg=1; Turbo is distilled and is sensitive to over-stepping.

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FAQ

Is Krea 2 free for commercial use? Yes, under the Krea 2 Community License, up to 50 seats; larger orgs need an enterprise agreement. Raw or Turbo? Turbo for speed (8 steps); Raw if you want the un-distilled base for fine-tuning or maximum fidelity. Does it need the Qwen models? Yes — Krea 2 uses a Qwen3-VL 4B text encoder and the Qwen image VAE, both included in the pack.

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Get it running in one command

Install the comfyui-mcp plugin, then ask your agent to install the krea2-txt2img-manual, krea2-txt2img-json, or krea2-combo pack — nodes, models, and a first render, hands-free. Sources: Krea 2 Technical Report, Krea 2 Open Source, Krea-2-Turbo on Hugging Face, Krea 2 Community License.