The first time you used Lensa Magic Avatars it felt like magic. The fifth time you opened the app, uploaded ten photos, hit generate, and watched the progress bar crawl past 30 minutes — that's when most people start looking for alternatives.
The single fastest Lensa alternative in 2026 is Cherry, which generates each portrait in seconds because it has no training step at all. Other faster-than-Lensa options include PicsArt AI (instant, watermarked free tier), EPIK (5–20 min, trend-driven), PhotoAI (web-based, variable), and Remini (combined with photo enhancement). The right pick depends on whether you want speed, style variety, or specific aesthetics.
Why Lensa is slow in the first place
Lensa Magic Avatars uses a per-user fine-tuning approach. When you upload your 10 to 20 photos, the app trains a small custom model on your face before generating any portraits. That training step has to finish before you see anything — and depending on server load, it takes 20 to 60 minutes.
This wasn't a flaw in 2022 — it was the only way to do AI portraits well. Three years later, the field has moved on. Newer apps use instant-inference models that take reference photos as input at the moment of generation rather than learning your face upfront. The result is portraits in seconds, not an hour.
Here are five alternatives that have made the leap.
1. Cherry — Truly instant, hundreds of curated styles
Speed: Seconds per portrait.
Photos required: 5.
Best for: Aesthetic Instagram content, editorial portraits, lifestyle.
Full disclosure — I built Cherry. It's the fastest Lensa alternative in 2026 because it eliminates the training step entirely. Upload five reference photos once (front face, two 45° profiles, half body, full body), then browse a Pinterest-style feed of hundreds of curated style templates and tap any of them. Each portrait generates in seconds.
The trade-off vs Lensa is aesthetic: Cherry is photorealistic by design and doesn't do the signature painterly Magic Avatars look. But for Instagram, dating profiles, content creator feeds, and anywhere you want a photo that looks like a real photo, that's an upgrade.
Where it falls short vs Lensa: iOS only at launch (Android in development). And if you specifically want stylised fantasy art, Cherry's photorealistic outputs aren't the right tool.
Privacy: Reference photos are explicitly never used to train any AI model. GDPR, CCPA, and Illinois BIPA compliant.
Free to download. Browse hundreds of styles before you decide.
Try Cherry on iOS2. PicsArt AI — Instant filters with watermarked free tier
Speed: Seconds per filter.
Photos required: 1 selfie typically.
Best for: Casual one-off transformations, free experiments.
PicsArt has built AI portrait features into its existing photo editor and they generate almost instantly. The catch is that the AI portrait feature is more of a style filter applied to an existing selfie than a true multi-photo generation, so you don't get the "your face in different scenes and outfits" effect that Lensa and Cherry produce.
The free tier exists and is genuinely usable, with watermarks. Removing the watermark and unlocking premium AI features requires a subscription.
Where it falls short vs Lensa: The AI portrait quality is noticeably weaker — likeness preservation is inconsistent, and the variety of styles is much smaller. Treat it as a quick filter rather than a portrait generator.
3. EPIK — Faster than Lensa, trend-driven
Speed: 5 to 20 minutes per pack.
Photos required: 8 to 12.
Best for: Whatever AI photo trend is currently going viral.
EPIK is the Korean photo editor that kicked off the viral "AI Yearbook" trend in 2023. It's not instant — there's still a training step — but it's noticeably faster than Lensa, usually finishing in 5 to 20 minutes instead of an hour.
The real strength is trend awareness. When a new AI photo aesthetic goes viral on TikTok or Instagram, EPIK is usually one of the first to ship a polished version of it. AI Yearbook, AI ID Photo, AI Hairstyle — these all came from EPIK or got their definitive version there.
Where it falls short vs Lensa: Each AI feature is a fixed pack with limited variety, and likeness drift is inconsistent. It's more of a "follow the trend" tool than a "build your aesthetic feed" tool.
4. PhotoAI — Web-based, no app to install
Speed: Variable; usually faster than Lensa.
Photos required: 10 to 20 for trained mode; 1 to 5 for prompt mode.
Best for: Power users comfortable with prompts.
PhotoAI is a web-based AI portrait generator that gives you the most control of anything on this list. Open prompt input, custom parameters, your choice of base model. The trade-off is steeper learning curve — you'll need to write prompts yourself instead of tapping curated templates.
Not faster than Cherry, but reliably faster than Lensa, and the only option here that runs in any browser without an app install.
Where it falls short vs Lensa: Requires prompt-engineering skill to get consistently good results. The mobile experience is a wrapper around the web app rather than a native one.
5. Remini — Two-in-one photo enhancement + AI portraits
Speed: Variable; can be slow under load.
Photos required: Existing photos in your library.
Best for: Restoring old photos with AI portraits as a side feature.
Remini built its reputation on AI photo enhancement and old-photo restoration. The AI portrait feature came later and uses your existing photo library as input, so there's no separate upload step. That's an underrated advantage if your selfies are already on your phone.
Where it falls short vs Lensa: AI portrait variety is limited, generation can be slow under load, and the in-app upsell pressure is heavy. If photo restoration isn't a priority for you, you'll probably get more value out of one of the other options.
Quick decision tree
Use this if you don't want to read every section:
- You want results in seconds and beautiful aesthetic styles? Cherry.
- You want to follow the latest viral trend (Yearbook AI, etc.)? EPIK.
- You want a free option to play with? PicsArt AI (watermarked) or Cherry's free browse mode.
- You want maximum prompt control on web? PhotoAI.
- You want photo restoration with AI portraits on the side? Remini.
- You're on Android right now? EPIK or PicsArt AI for now (Cherry's Android version is in development).
The reason the wait is going away for good
Lensa's 30-minute wait isn't just inconvenient — it's a sign of where the technology was three years ago. Per-user fine-tuning was the only way to make AI portraits look like a specific person in 2022, but it's not the only way in 2026. Models that take reference photos as direct input have caught up in quality and are dramatically faster.
The apps in this list that still have a wait (Lensa, EPIK, Aragon, sometimes Remini) are the apps still using the older fine-tuning approach. The ones that are instant (Cherry, PicsArt's AI features, parts of PhotoAI) are using the newer approach. Over the next year or two, expect the rest of the field to follow.
If you've been holding off on AI portraits because of how slow Lensa felt, the wait is no longer the universal experience. Pick one of the faster options above and you'll be generating before Lensa would have finished training.
Cherry is free to download. Each portrait generates in seconds.
Download Cherry on iOS