Requirements
| Component | Minimum | Comfortable |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA 6 GB VRAM (SD 1.5) | NVIDIA 8–12 GB (SDXL), 16 GB (SD 3.5 Large) |
| AMD / Apple | ROCm on Linux, Apple Silicon 16 GB RAM | slower but works; DirectML on Windows is slow |
| RAM | 16 GB | 32 GB |
| Disk | 15 GB (app + one model) | 50 GB+ for several models |
| OS | Windows 10/11, Ubuntu 22.04+, macOS 13+ | |
No compatible GPU? The tools on this site (inpainting, upscaling, SDXL) run on our hardware, no installation.
Step by step (Windows, Automatic1111)
- Install Python 3.10.6 and tick Add Python to PATH. Newer Python versions break some dependencies.
- Install Git with default options.
- Open a terminal in the folder of your choice and run
git clone https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui. - Download a model: SDXL 1.0 base (6.9 GB) and optionally the refiner, or Stable Diffusion 1.5 (4.3 GB). Take the
.safetensorsfile. - Put the model in
stable-diffusion-webui/models/Stable-diffusion/. - Double-click
webui-user.bat. The first start downloads about 5 GB of dependencies and takes 5 to 15 minutes. - Open
http://127.0.0.1:7860in your browser, pick the model at the top left, type a prompt, click Generate.
On Linux and macOS, run ./webui.sh instead of the .bat file; the script creates its own Python environment.
Useful launch options
Edit webui-user.bat and set COMMANDLINE_ARGS:
--xformers: faster and lighter on NVIDIA.--medvramor--lowvram: for 4 to 6 GB cards, at the cost of speed.--listen: reach the interface from another device on your network.--api: enables the REST API used by scripts (this site talks to its own Automatic1111 that way).
Common errors
- CUDA out of memory: lower the image size, add
--medvram, close other GPU programs. - Torch not compiled with CUDA: an unsupported Python version or a CPU-only PyTorch; reinstall with Python 3.10 and delete the
venvfolder. - No model found: the file is not in
models/Stable-diffusionor has the wrong extension. - Black images on AMD or Apple: add
--no-halfor--upcast-sampling.
Alternatives to Automatic1111
Forge is a faster fork with the same interface. ComfyUI uses a node graph, ideal for SD 3.5 and Flux and for complex pipelines. Fooocus hides all settings and gives Midjourney-like results with one prompt. All three read the same model and LoRA files.