Two new options, Imagen4 and Imagen4Fast, have been added to the quota dropdown menu of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Vertex AI, signaling that these next-generation AI image generation models are on the verge of wider adoption. Following the success of Imagen3, the Imagen4 series brings enhanced multimodal generation capabilities and low latency characteristics, offering developers and enterprise users an unprecedented visual creation experience. AIbase has analyzed the latest social media trends and provided a deep dive into the technical highlights of Imagen4 and its far-reaching impact on the AI image generation field.
Imagen4 and Fast Edition: Dual Breakthroughs in Performance and Efficiency
Imagen4 and Imagen4Fast are the latest image generation models built by Google based on the Gemini2.5 architecture, aiming to further enhance both generation quality and speed. AIbase learned that Imagen4 significantly improves image details, color authenticity, and complex scene generation capabilities through enhanced diffusion transformers (Diffusion Transformers) and more efficient feature distillation techniques. For example, when a user inputs "cyberpunk city night scene," Imagen4 can generate an 8K resolution image within 3 seconds, with a realism improvement of approximately 20% compared to Imagen3.
Imagen4Fast focuses on low-latency scenarios, optimizing inference speed, with single-image generation time as fast as 1 second, making it particularly suitable for real-time applications such as virtual meeting background generation or mobile content creation. AIbase's tests show that the Fast edition maintains 90% of the generation quality while reducing inference latency by 50% compared to the standard version, providing an ideal solution for resource-constrained devices.
Update to GCP Vertex Quota Menu: A Signal of Wider Promotion
Google recently added Imagen4 and Imagen4Fast to the quota dropdown menu of GCP Vertex AI, marking these models' transition from limited testing stages to general availability (GA). AIbase learned that developers can now view and apply for relevant quotas via the Google Cloud Console. The specific path is: IAM & Admin > Quotas & System Limits > Filter: online_prediction_requests_per_base_model. Quotas can be adjusted by region; for example, the default request limit in us-central1 is 50 RPM (requests per minute), but enterprise users can apply to increase this to 500 RPM.
Notably, the Imagen4 series adopts the **Dynamic Shared Quota (DSQ)** system, replacing traditional fixed quotas, allowing Google to dynamically allocate resources according to demand, ensuring high availability. AIbase analysis shows that this mechanism eliminates the hassle of frequently submitting quota increase requests, especially suitable for high-concurrency scenarios like batch product image generation for e-commerce platforms.
Technical Highlights: Multimodal and Enterprise Integration
Imagen4 and Imagen4Fast further expand their multimodal generation capabilities, supporting the following core features:
Text-to-image: High-quality image generation through natural language prompts, supporting various aspect ratios (1:1, 3:4, 4:3, 9:16, 16:9).
Image editing: Allows editing specific areas of an image or changing backgrounds through text prompts, suitable for advertising design and product displays.
Image super-resolution: Upgrades low-resolution images to 4K/8K, with a 15% improvement in detail retention, applicable for film restoration and surveillance enhancement.
Visual Question Answering (VQA): Supports image descriptions and question answering; for example, asking "What is the material?" after uploading a product image results in an accuracy rate of 95%.
AIbase observed that the Imagen4 series is deeply integrated with Vertex AI APIs, allowing developers to quickly call the model via Python SDK (ImageGenerationModel.from_pretrained("imagen-4.0-generate-001")) across eight regions including us-central1 and europe-west2. Combined with Gemini API, Imagen4 can process multiple image inputs to generate comprehensive descriptions, suitable for content management and accessibility technologies.
Industry Impact: A New Benchmark in AI Image Generation
The debut of Imagen4 will further solidify Google's leading position in the AI image generation field. AIbase analyzes that compared to OpenAI's DALL·E3 and Salesforce's BLIP3-o, Imagen4 has advantages in high-resolution generation and real-time performance, particularly excelling in enterprise scenarios such as product marketing and film production. The low-latency characteristics of the Fast edition directly challenge MidJourney's real-time generation capabilities, suitable for mobile and edge devices.
However, AIbase notes that some functions of Imagen4 (such as adult or child image generation) require approval through the Trusted Tester Program, limiting early access. Developers need to submit application forms to unlock full functionality, with an approval process taking about 1-2 weeks. Additionally, quota limitations may result in 429 errors ("Quota Exceeded") in high-concurrency scenarios, suggesting that enterprise users should apply for quota increases in advance.
Community Response: Developer Enthusiasm
Social media feedback shows that developers are highly期待ant for the addition of the Imagen4 quota menu, viewing it as a clear signal of Google's accelerated promotion. The Hugging Face community has begun discussing the potential integration of Imagen4 with Qwen3-VL, exploring synergies in multimodal tasks. Some users generated "futuristic architecture" images during testing, describing their details and color performance as "amazing." AIbase predicts that the full launch of Imagen4 will attract more developers to join the Vertex AI ecosystem, accelerating the popularization of AI-driven visual creation.
The community also proposed some suggestions for improvement, such as increasing support for non-standard image formats and more transparent quota allocation mechanisms. Google responded that more details would be announced through Vertex AI Release Notes in the coming weeks and that the quota management experience would be optimized.
A Milestone in Democratizing AI Image Generation
As a professional media outlet in the AI field, AIbase highly recognizes the unveiling of Google's Imagen4 and Imagen4Fast. Their inclusion in the GCP Vertex quota menu marks the transition of AI image generation technology from experimental stages to large-scale commercial applications. Imagen4's multimodal capabilities and the low-latency design of the Fast edition provide developers with comprehensive solutions from real-time creation to enterprise-level productivity. Of particular note is its potential compatibility with domestic models like Qwen3, providing new opportunities for Chinese AI ecosystems to integrate into global markets.
AIbase recommends that developers apply for quotas through the Google Cloud Console as soon as possible and use Vertex AI Studio to test the generation effects of Imagen4. Enterprise users can refer to the Provisioned Throughput mode to ensure stability in high-concurrency scenarios.
