---
title: "Generate Images and Videos with ComfyUI"
publisher: "nvidia"
type: "playbook"
updated: "2026-08-04T16:16:13.369Z"
description: "Node-based diffusion workflows for images and videos with FLUX, Wan, HunyuanVideo, and Stable Diffusion"
canonical: "https://build.nvidia.com/playbooks/comfyui.md"
---

# Basic idea

ComfyUI is an open-source, node-based web application for AI image and video generation with diffusion models. Instead of a single text box, you connect processing nodes — model loaders, text encoders, samplers, decoders — into a graph that gives full control over every generation step.

- **Node-based workflows** let you build, modify, and share generation pipelines visually. Workflows save as JSON for versioning, collaboration, and reproducibility.
- **Multi-model support** covers Stable Diffusion, FLUX for images, Wan 2.1 and HunyuanVideo for video, and NVIDIA Cosmos for world generation.
- **GPU-accelerated inference** runs on your hardware platform so generation stays local.

# What you'll accomplish

Install and run ComfyUI on your hardware platform, then generate images (and optionally video) from a browser UI on port 8188.

Start with the **Image Gen Quick Start** tab for a lighter host Python install with Stable Diffusion 1.5. Use the **Video Gen Workflow** tab for container-based FLUX / Wan / HunyuanVideo / Cosmos / ControlNet workflows.

# What to know before starting

**Required:**

- Basic command-line and terminal usage
- Familiarity with Python virtual environments *or* Docker containers (depending on install path)

**Optional:**

- Familiarity with generative AI concepts (prompts, diffusion models, checkpoints)
- Hugging Face account for gated model downloads (container / large-model path)

# Supported hardware platforms

Use the matrix below to confirm your hardware platform, OS, memory, and whether multi-node applies.

| Hardware platform | OS | Memory  | Multi-node capable hardware |
| :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- |
| **DGX Spark** | DGX OS (Linux) | 128 GB Unified Memory | — |
| **DGX Station** | DGX OS (Linux) | Large HBM + Grace DRAM | — |

# Prerequisites

**Hardware requirements**

- Supported hardware platform — see Supported hardware platforms matrix above
- Image Gen Quick Start (host Python): at least ~20 GB free disk; ~8 GB GPU memory for Stable Diffusion–class models
- Video Gen Workflow (container + tiered models): at least ~70 GB free disk for Tier 1 (~230 GB for all tiers); peak GPU memory about **~80 GB / ~100 GB / ~120 GB** for Tiers 1–3 (see that tab)

**Software requirements**

- Image Gen Quick Start: Python 3.8+, pip, Git, CUDA toolkit compatible with your GPU, network access to Hugging Face
- Video Gen Workflow: Docker, NVIDIA Container Toolkit, Hugging Face access token, network access to NGC / Hugging Face / GitHub
- Web browser access to port `8188` on the hardware platform

# Ancillary files

Playbook assets (Video Gen Workflow) live under `assets/` in this repository:

- `assets/Dockerfile` — Builds the ComfyUI container image from an NGC PyTorch base
- `assets/scripts/download-models.sh` — Downloads model weights from Hugging Face (`hf` CLI)
- `assets/workflows/*.json` — UI workflows for **Load** in the web UI
- `assets/workflow_api/*.api.json` — Same graphs in API format for `/prompt` and automation
- `assets/scripts/api_to_ui_workflow.py` — Regenerates UI JSON from API JSON if you edit a graph programmatically

For Image Gen Quick Start, clone [ComfyUI on GitHub](https://github.com/comfyanonymous/ComfyUI) directly (`requirements.txt`, `main.py`, and checkpoint directories).

# Time & risk

- **Estimated time:** 45 MIN (longer on first run when downloading large models)
- **Risk level:** Medium
- Model downloads are large and may fail due to network or auth issues
- Port 8188 must be reachable for the web UI
- **Rollback:** Remove the virtual environment and clone (Image Gen Quick Start), or stop/remove the container and optionally delete `models/` (Video Gen Workflow) — non-destructive to the host OS
- **Last Updated:** 07/27/2026
- Image Gen Quick Start and Video Gen Workflow tabs; start with image gen, then scale to tiered video models

## More

- [Image Gen Quick Start](/playbooks/comfyui/image-gen-quick-start.md)
- [Video Gen Workflow](/playbooks/comfyui/video-gen-workflow.md)
- [Troubleshooting](/playbooks/comfyui/troubleshooting.md)