Last reviewed October 28, 2026
Publication & commercial rights
A figure you make here is yours to publish, present, teach with and sell, with no watermark and no credit line required. This page says exactly what that rests on, where the limits are, and how to get a license certificate for a figure.
What you may do with a figure
- You may use a figure generated in your account in journal articles, theses, grant applications, posters, slides, books, websites and teaching material.
- You may use it commercially: in a company report, a product page, a course you sell or a client deliverable.
- You may edit it, recolor it, combine it with your own material and export it in any format we offer, including PNG and the editable SVG and PowerPoint files.
- You do not have to credit Scientific Figure Generator. If your journal or institution asks how the figure was made, use the disclosure wording below.
- The same rights apply to every version on your canvas, including edits, upscales and vector exports.
What we claim, and do not
- We claim no ownership of the figures generated in your account. To the extent we hold any rights in them, we assign those rights to you when the figure is created.
- We do not use your prompts, uploads or figures to train models; we do not train models at all. Our providers process them to generate your figure, as the Privacy Policy describes.
- We may show a figure publicly only if you create a share link or choose to publish it as a template; otherwise it stays private to your account.
What stays your responsibility
- Only submit prompts, sketches and reference images you own or are allowed to use. Redrawing a published figure can infringe its copyright even when the pixels are new.
- Check every label, structure and arrow against your evidence. We help with illustration, not with scientific validation.
- Do not present a generated image as experimental data, a photograph, a micrograph or a measured result.
- Follow your journal’s or institution’s rules on AI-generated images: some require a disclosure, and a few do not accept AI-generated artwork at all.
Whose terms are behind a figure
As checked October 28, 2026. Provider terms change; the links go to the current documents.
| Party | What their terms say | Document |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Figure Generator | The service you use. Our Terms of Use allow generated figures in papers, graphical abstracts, posters, theses and presentations, and this page extends that to commercial use. | Terms of Use |
| OpenAI (maker of the GPT Image models) | All three models we offer, GPT Image 2.5 Flare, GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst and GPT Image 2, are OpenAI models. OpenAI’s terms state that, as between the user and OpenAI and to the extent permitted by law, the user owns the output, that OpenAI assigns its interest in the output “if any”, and that similar output may be produced for other users. | OpenAI Terms of Use |
| Kie.ai (API through which we reach the models) | Our requests run through Kie.ai. Its Terms of Use (effective August 1, 2025; last updated October 26, 2026) cover content you upload, which you keep ownership of, and do not address generated output or commercial use. | Kie.ai Terms of Use |
Copyright in AI-generated figures
Whether an AI-generated image can be copyrighted depends on the country. The United States Copyright Office’s registration guidance of March 2023 says material generated by AI without human authorship cannot be registered, while a person’s own selection, arrangement or modification of that material can be. Other countries draw the line differently.
In practice: nobody can stop you using your figure, and nobody is likely to be able to stop someone else from making a similar one. Your own contributions, such as the labels you wrote, the layout you planned and the edits you made, carry your authorship. If exclusivity matters, for a logo or a product design, use a human illustrator.
Source: United States Copyright Office, Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence, 88 Fed. Reg. 16190, March 2023.
Disclosure wording
Most publishers accept AI-assisted illustrations when they are disclosed. Put a sentence in the methods, acknowledgments or figure legend, whichever the journal asks for. Every figure’s For papers menu copies these for you with the model and date filled in.
Journal-by-journal guidanceThis illustration was created with Scientific Figure Generator (https://scientificfiguregenerator.com) using the GPT Image 2.5 Flare image model on 28 October 2026. The authors reviewed and edited it and take responsibility for its scientific accuracy.
Illustration created with Scientific Figure Generator (GPT Image 2.5 Flare).
For your files
A license certificate for every figure
Open any figure, choose For papers, then License certificate (PDF). The one-page PDF is made in your browser and is free on every plan, including the free figures.
What it records
- The figure’s name, its ID, the image model and the date it was generated.
- The account it was generated in, by name and email.
- The rights granted above, in short form, and the AI disclosure sentence for that figure.
- The date the certificate was issued and where these terms are published.
The certificate records this policy for a specific figure; the Terms of Use remain the agreement. The figure ID on it appears in your account history, and support can confirm it for a publisher on request.
Rights questions
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