Recraft in Batch Banana: best uses and how to prompt it

A city block seen from above in cut-paper orange and pink roofs, the shadow of one tree the only blue shape among them

Best for

Recraft V4.1 is a design model. Recraft built it around what they call design taste: it makes its own choices about composition, color and the order you read things in, and it sets type as part of the layout rather than on top of it. Give it a few words and it designs for you. Give it a full brief and it follows the brief.

Recraft V4.1 SVG and Recraft V4.1 Pro SVG write SVG files. They're real vectors, so you can open one in Figma or Illustrator, recolor it and move its shapes.

Reach for Recraft for posters, packaging, logos, icon sets and editorial illustration, and for anime and game art drawn with a designer's eye for the frame.

The unfolded orange wrapper of a Halvard bar, with HALVARD up the left edge, Multe large in the centre, the small print along the bottom and white contour lines across the paper

A cel anime girl in a white cap rides a red scooter loaded with pizza boxes down a seaside street toward a towering pink-white column of falling rain

In the game art, Recraft added the title "Lantern Keep" in the corner on its own. The prompt asked only for a knight, a lantern and a dragon.

It reads no images, so every cue goes in the words. To work from your own photos or a character sheet, use Flux or Nano Banana. For a vector you want to steer with reference images, use Arrow, which reads up to 14. Which model for what matches models to jobs.

Which version

Model	Best for	Credits per image	Reference images
Recraft V4.1 Pro	2x resolution Recraft for print and large-scale work	59	None
Recraft V4.1 Pro SVG	High-resolution SVG vectors for large-scale production	59	None
Recraft V4.1	Art-directed images with precise text rendering	10	None
Recraft V4.1 SVG	Native editable SVG vectors from text prompts	10	None

Explore on Recraft V4.1, at 10 credits an image. Switch to Recraft V4.1 Pro for print and packaging: it renders at about 2048 pixels on a side, twice the size, for 59 credits. Pro makes a new image, not a larger copy, so expect a different take on the same prompt.

Use Recraft V4.1 SVG when you need a file to edit, and Recraft V4.1 Pro SVG when the vector needs finer detail for large-format print.

The same prompt on each version. Each drew a different leopard, branch and leaves:

A flat illustration of a spotted leopard asleep on a green branch against black, a paw hanging down, framed by green and ochre leaves

A flat illustration of a spotted leopard asleep along an ochre branch against black, a paw hanging down, grey-green leaves above

Write the prompt

Use a short prompt to explore and a long one to control the result. Recraft's own rule: "Short prompts → model designs with you. Long prompts → model executes your architecture." Their short examples are four words long, such as "Fashion portrait, close up." On V4.1, Recraft says: "Give V4.1 just a few words, and it'll give you something worth keeping." Once you know what you want, write it out.

Go from the whole scene to the details. For a long prompt, Recraft's order is the core concept, the background, the main subject's framing and pose, its details, anything secondary, the light, the camera, then the mood. Words earlier in the prompt carry more weight, so to make the style lead, put it first.

Define the type, not only the words. Quote every word that must appear. For each line, say how big it is, its weight and case, and where it sits. Recraft's advice is to define the typographic system, not only the phrase. This poster brief does all of it:

Minimalist poster for a jazz night. A single saxophone drawn in thick cream lines on a deep navy field, angled across the lower half. At the top, the words "BLUE NOTE FRIDAYS" in bold condensed uppercase sans-serif, set tight across the full width. Below the saxophone, a small line "Doors 8 PM" in the same typeface. Flat solid colors throughout.

The pair below compares a four-word prompt with a full brief. "Poster for a botanical garden" came back as a finished poster, tagline and opening hours included, all written by Recraft. The full brief came back as written.

An orange poster headed BOTANICAL GARDEN in rounded cream letters over a large green plant, with copy the prompt never asked for: A world of plants awaits you, Open daily, Free admission

A navy poster with BLUE NOTE FRIDAYS in tall condensed cream capitals across the top, a saxophone drawn in thick cream lines below, and Doors 8 PM small at the foot

A full brief carries a palette too. This one named a cut-paper diver, kelp in two colors on bottle green, and both lines of type:

A bottle-green poster headed CUT LEAVES in a tall cream serif, a cream cut-paper diver among coral and ochre kelp fronds, and Jardim Botânico · 4 July to 28 September at the foot

Use plain, concrete words. Recraft: "Avoid stacking dramatic or evaluative adjectives. Precision and concrete description produce more reliable results than exaggeration." Write "a deep navy field", not "a stunning, dramatic background".

Vector files

On the SVG versions, describe how the file is built. Recraft's list for logos and icons: the kind of graphic, the shape logic (geometric, symmetrical, a clear silhouette), a strict palette, one consistent stroke, the layout, and hard limits such as "no gradients, no shadows".

The prompt asked for three wavy lines and got two pairs. Count anything that has to be exact before you use the file.

Leave out texture and material words. Recraft: "Avoid texture or material-focused language. Vector output responds to structural definition and geometric clarity." The same six icons, asked for once as weathered tin and once by how they're built:

Six chocolate shop icons in red, brown and orange with rust spots and chipped edges, like weathered painted tin

Six flat chocolate shop icons in cobalt and orange on cream: a bar, a cocoa pod, a gift box, a steaming bowl, a snowflake and a shopping bag

The construction words gave one flat family in two colors. The cup of cocoa came back as a bowl, so check each icon against your list.

The result is an .svg file. Download it and open it in your design tool.

Settings

Recraft has no settings of its own. Aspect ratio offers nine shapes, from 16:9 to 9:16. There's no 21:9.

Every image from one version costs the same, a simple mark or a busy poster.

Model	Credits per image	Other settings
Recraft V4.1 Pro	59	Same price
Recraft V4.1 Pro SVG	59	Same price
Recraft V4.1	10	Same price
Recraft V4.1 SVG	10	Same price

Limits

No reference images and no edits. When a Recraft version is selected, the + disappears from the composer.
Recraft's style presets aren't offered here. Describe the style in the prompt instead.

Sources

Recraft's own prompting guide for V4, the V4 announcement and the V4.1 announcement.