CountDiffusion: Text-to-Image Synthesis with Training-Free Counting-Guidance Diffusion
On the map: Diffusion models → Image generation, text-to-image and editing
Abstract (arXiv)
Stable Diffusion has advanced text-to-image synthesis, but training models to generate images with accurate object quantity is still difficult due to the high computational cost and the challenge of teaching models the abstract concept of quantity. In this paper, we propose CountDiffusion, a training-free framework aiming at generating images with correct object quantity from textual descriptions. CountDiffusion consists of two stages. In the first stage, an intermediate denoising result is generated by the diffusion model to predict the final synthesized image with one-step denoising, and a counting model is used to count the number of objects in this image. In the second stage, a correction module is used to correct the object quantity by changing the attention map of the object with universal guidance. The proposed CountDiffusion can be plugged into any diffusion-based text-to-image (T2I) generation models without further training. Experiment results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed CountDiffusion, which improves the accurate object quantity generation ability of T2I models by a large margin.
Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 31 of its 37 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 May 2025.
Builds on
31 of 37 references.
Closest ancestors · 12
Same direction, newest first
- 2024Make It Count: Text-to-Image Generation with an Accurate Number of Objects14 Jun
- 2024InstanceDiffusion: Instance-level Control for Image Generation5 Feb
- 2024Adversarial Supervision Makes Layout-to-Image Diffusion Models Thrive16 Jan
- 2023Ranni: Taming Text-to-Image Diffusion for Accurate Instruction Following28 Nov
- 2023Dense Text-to-Image Generation with Attention Modulation24 Aug
- 2023LayoutLLM-T2I: Eliciting Layout Guidance from LLM for Text-to-Image Generation9 Aug
- 2023BoxDiff: Text-to-Image Synthesis with Training-Free Box-Constrained Diffusion20 Jul
- 2023Detector Guidance for Multi-Object Text-to-Image Generation4 Jun
- 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models10 Feb
- 2022Inversion-Based Style Transfer with Diffusion Models23 Nov
- 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding23 May
- 2021More Control for Free! Image Synthesis with Semantic Diffusion Guidance10 Dec
Other references · 19
- 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 60,361
- 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
- 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
- 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesiscited by 8,255
- 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
- 2022Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidancecited by 5,847
- 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,356
- 2022Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Controlcited by 2,431
- 2023ImageReward: Learning and Evaluating Human Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,045
- 2024Grounded SAM: Assembling Open-World Models for Diverse Visual Taskscited by 929
- 2016Generative Adversarial Text to Image Synthesiscited by 735
- 2021ILVR: Conditioning Method for Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 635
7 more
- 2023Universal Guidance for Diffusion Modelscited by 437
- 2023Magic123: One Image to High-Quality 3D Object Generation Using Both 2D and 3D Diffusion Priorscited by 397
- 2024Champ: Controllable and Consistent Human Image Animation with 3D Parametric Guidancecited by 272
- 2022RenderDiffusion: Image Diffusion for 3D Reconstruction, Inpainting and Generationcited by 162
- 2016Learning What and Where to Drawcited by 105
- 2024MagicTime: Time-lapse Video Generation Models as Metamorphic Simulatorscited by 51
- 2022SceneComposer: Any-Level Semantic Image Synthesiscited by 43
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.
3 papers.
- 2026Transferability Between Understanding and Generation in Unified Multimodal Modelscited by 3
- 2026LGTM: Training-Free Light-Guided Text-to-Image Diffusion Model via Initial Noise Manipulationcited by 1
- 2026ATHENA: Adaptive Test-Time Steering for Improving Count Fidelity in Diffusion Modelscited by 0
- 2026Transferability Between Understanding and Generation in Unified Multimodal Models5 Jul 2026
- 2026LGTM: Training-Free Light-Guided Text-to-Image Diffusion Model via Initial Noise Manipulation25 Mar 2026
- 2026ATHENA: Adaptive Test-Time Steering for Improving Count Fidelity in Diffusion Models20 Mar 2026
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2023Counting Guidance for High Fidelity Text-to-Image Synthesis
- 2024Detection-Driven Object Count Optimization for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models
- 2025CountSteer: Steering Attention for Object Counting in Diffusion Models
- 2025CountCluster: Training-Free Object Quantity Guidance with Cross-Attention Map Clustering for Text-to-Image Generation
- 2025Text-to-Image Diffusion Models Cannot Count, and Prompt Refinement Cannot Help
- 2023MultiDiffusion: Fusing Diffusion Paths for Controlled Image Generation
- 2023Harnessing the Spatial-Temporal Attention of Diffusion Models for High-Fidelity Text-to-Image Synthesis
- 2023Training-free Diffusion Model Adaptation for Variable-Sized Text-to-Image Synthesis