PixelLab is the biggest name in AI pixel art, and it earned that. We built SpriteLab for the part that still hurts: the cleanup after generation. Every sprite ships with a 1px outline, a limited palette and a transparent background, and you can retune all of it for free.
TRY SPRITELAB FREE 25 free credits + 5 daily. No card needed.Every generation runs through a real post-processing pipeline: background removal, palette quantisation, anti-alias cleanup and a rebuilt 1px outline. The model generates, the pipeline finishes.
Colours, contrast, outline thickness and colour, palette locks, dithering, silhouette tweaks. All adjustable after generation, all free. No burning credits on the re-roll lottery to fix a look.
Text to sprite, image conversion, smart redraw, animation, 4-direction rotation, sprite packs and a built-in pixel editor. Generate, clean, animate and export without leaving the page.
| Feature | SpriteLab | PixelLab |
|---|---|---|
| Clean 1px outlines + limited palette on every sprite | Built into every generation | Depends on the generation; cleanup is often manual |
| Free post-generation tuning (no credits spent) | Full tuning panel, re-runs locally in seconds | Limited |
| Convert any image to clean pixel art | Free, unlimited (Quick Convert) | Varies by plan |
| Animation | Sprite to animated sheet + GIF, with free cleanup panel | Yes, skeleton-based tools |
| 4-direction character rotations | One click, with guaranteed symmetric sides | Yes |
| Sprite packs (many sprites in one generation) | Up to 25 matching sprites per generation, with a split tool | No direct equivalent we know of |
| Built-in pixel editor | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | Free: 25 credits + 5 daily. Paid from $7.99/mo | See their pricing page |
Based on public information and our own testing, June 2026. PixelLab is a good tool and this page tries to be fair to it. Spotted something out of date? Tell us on Discord and we'll fix it.
Most AI pixel art tools stop at the model output. SpriteLab treats that as raw material. Here is the same image before and after Smart Transform, the upload-plus-prompt redraw mode:
Redrawn from the reference, then cleaned: background removed, downscaled with no smearing, palette quantised, fresh 1px outline. The same cleanup pipeline runs on every generation.
If you have a folder of generations from PixelLab or any other tool, Quick Convert will key out backgrounds, snap palettes and rebuild outlines on them for free. Switching does not mean starting over.
Yes. You get 25 credits on signup plus 5 more every day on the free tier, no card needed. A basic generation costs 1 credit.
Every generation runs through a local post-processing pipeline: background removal, palette quantisation, anti-alias cleanup and a rebuilt 1px outline. The same pipeline powers the free tuning panel, so fixing a look never costs credits.
Yes. Quick Convert is free and runs any uploaded image through the same cleanup pipeline: background removal, downscaling, palette control and a fresh outline.
Yes. Upload or generate a sprite, describe the motion, and you get an animated sprite sheet plus a GIF, with a free cleanup panel for the result.
Both are built and currently in private beta with early testers. Join the Discord if you want early access.
Type a description, get a clean game-ready sprite. Judge the output yourself.
TRY SPRITELAB FREE 25 free credits + 5 daily. No card needed.What "real" pixel art actually means, why raw AI output usually isn't it, and how to close the gap.
Animation strips, multi-sprite packs and 4-direction rotations, and the gotchas in each.
How SpriteLab compares to pixie.haus on output, animation and pricing.