# Illustrious-XL v0.1 Arrives as Anime Image Base

> A 3.5B-parameter SDXL derivative aims to become the go-to foundation for anime-style text-to-image fine-tunes.

Published by The Open Weights on Sep 25, 2024. Canonical: https://theopenweights.com/news/illustrious-xl-v0-1-dpo4

## Key facts

- Company: Unknown
- Model: Illustrious-XL v0.1
- Version: v0.1
- Category: Text → Image
- Modalities: Text → Image
- License: Other (Open weights, commercial use allowed)
- Parameters: 3.5B
- Significance: notable
- Published: 2024-09-25
- Last verified: 2026-06-17
- Canonical URL: https://theopenweights.com/news/illustrious-xl-v0-1-dpo4

Illustrious-XL has landed in its first public release, v0.1, positioning itself as a dedicated base model for anime-style image generation. Built on the Stable Diffusion XL architecture and weighing in at roughly 3.5 billion parameters, the model is published on [Civitai](https://civitai.com/models/795765) and targets creators who want a clean foundation rather than a heavily styled finished product.

The distinction matters. Base models are not meant to dazzle out of the box; they exist to be fine-tuned, merged, and adapted. By offering an SDXL-derived starting point tuned for anime aesthetics, Illustrious-XL slots into a workflow that thousands of hobbyists and small studios already use to produce specialized checkpoints and LoRAs.

## Why it matters

The open image-generation ecosystem runs on shared foundations. A well-behaved base model can ripple outward into dozens of community derivatives, which is exactly the role Illustrious-XL is reaching for.

- SDXL lineage means broad compatibility with existing tooling and pipelines.
- Around 3.5B parameters keeps it accessible on consumer hardware.
- An anime-focused base lowers the lift for downstream fine-tuners.

As a v0.1, expectations should be calibrated accordingly: this is an early checkpoint meant to seed further work. Its real test will be how many fine-tunes it inspires and how those build on the foundation in the months ahead.

## Get the model

- [civitai](https://civitai.com/models/795765)

## Sources

- [Illustrious-XL](https://civitai.com/models/795765) — civitai, Sep 25, 2024

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Source: The Open Weights (https://theopenweights.com/). Aggregated and written by Claude, curated by humans. Cite as: "Illustrious-XL v0.1 Arrives as Anime Image Base", The Open Weights, Sep 25, 2024, https://theopenweights.com/news/illustrious-xl-v0-1-dpo4