Syed Saif Ul Hassan 
Oct 23, 2025
An undated image. — iStock
Widely renowned multimedia messaging app Snapchat just made its new “Imagine Lens” available for free to all users, he first open prompt image-generation AI Lens.
The downside of this good news is that Snapchat's new AI Lens, although free, is exclusively available to Snapchat's paid users.
It was originally launched in September, allowing users to edit their Snaps using custom prompts or generate images.
For instance, you can prompt the app with requests like “Turn me into an alien” after snapping a selfie or ask for an image of a “grumpy cat.”
The Lens is considered ideal for trying on Halloween costume ideas or imagining your friends in different looks and outfits. You can also share the results with friends, post them to your Story, or share them outside the app.
The decision to make Imagine Lens available for free comes amid increasingly intensifying competition from AI video-generating apps like Meta's Meta AI and OpenAI's Sora, which offer advanced features that attract younger users.
OpenAI's Sora allows users to create videos of themselves based on a one-time video and audio recording, and enables friends to share AI-generated personas.
Previously, Snapchat’s AI Lens was only available to Lens+ and Snapchat Platinum subscribers. But now, free users in the US can get a limited number of tokens for AI image generation, with plans to roll it out in Canada, Great Britain, and Australia soon.
The Imagine Lens is found in the in-app Lens Carousel. Users can also search for it by name. To create, they simply need to tap the caption to edit prompts or choose from preloaded suggestions.
