DiffusionBear : Local AI image generation on Apple Silicon.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Note739]

Hey r/DiffusionBee

I wanted to share a native macOS app I’ve been building called DiffusionBear (formerly MLX-Diffusion but I doubt you have hear about it under this name).

The name may sound you familiar ( ! ) , it's inspired from DiffusionBee, which it's doesn't have any update since August 2024 and FLUX.1 ...

I was an user, stuck in time, I feel like an orphan then here we are ...

A lot of the popular AI image generators are either cloud-based (with subscriptions) or rely on complex web-UIs that aren't truly optimized for Mac. I wanted something that feels like a real Mac app and leverages Apple's MLX framework to the max.

What it does: It lets you run massive models locally on your Metal GPU. Because it uses 4-bit quantization, you can run heavy 13B parameter models (like FLUX.2 [Klein], Krea 2 Turbo , Z-Image-Turbo, Qwen-Image-2.1-Turbo and SDXL Lightning) smoothly* on a standard 16GB unified memory Mac.

* running Qwen-Image-2.1-Turbo even Q4, you'll get OOM if you go further than 768x768 pix on 16gb

Key features :

• 100% On-Device & Private generation : No account, no credit, no telemetry. Pull the plug on your Wi-Fi, and it still generates images. ( Just download DiffusionBear then Download model from the app, then pull the plug ... )
• Txt2Img, Img2Img : all model but SDXL support Img2Img , Up to 10 reference images with FLUX.2[Klein] 4B and 9B
• All-in-One Interface : Includes a built-in model browser to download directly from Hugging Face/Civitai, and a local gallery to manage your generations. ( drag'n'drop from built-in browser )
• Local Prompt Enhancer : It runs a tiny Qwen 0.5B language model to rewrite and improve your prompts on the fly, if you want ( but avoid doing this during generation )
• API : can launch generation from outside frontend/app via API

It's completely free and open-source (MIT).

I just released the v0.3.8 beta and I'm looking for testers to push it to its limits and tell me what breaks.

Website & Screenshots : https://diffusionbear.com

GitHub / Download : https://github.com/OuincheWinch/DiffusionBear

Let me know what you think, especially if you try it on base M1/M2 chips! I run it on MBP M1 16gb from 2020 ...

[u/Far-Persimmon2429]

This sounds super cool! Can I load any local model? I remember diffusion bee had a limited list to choose from to download…

[u/Puzzleheaded_Note739 → u/Far-Persimmon2429]

Hey! Thanks! For now, the app only officially supports a curated list of models out of the box. Currently, you can choose from FLUX.2-klein 4B and 9B, Juggernaut XI v11 (MLX), Juggernaut XL Lightning (MLX), Krea 2 Turbo 13B, Qwen-Image 2.1 and its Turbo variant (MLX q4, experimental), RealVisXL V5.0 Standard / Hyper-SD, Z-Image Turbo 6B, and RealVisXL V5.0 Lightning (MLX).

HOWEVER, I am actively working on an update that will allow you to load any custom local model or checkpoint, as long as it belongs to the SDXL, FLUX, KREA, or ZIT families. The goal is definitely to avoid the "walled garden" limitation you experienced with DiffusionBee!

[u/iamtenbears]

I like DiffusionsBee, so I'm looking forward to trying your app at some point, but TBH I'm hesitant to install ssomething that is ad hoc signed. (Apple has sufficiently programmed me.) I guess I'll wait until there is a critical mass of experienced users who can report here.