ComfyUI v0.38.0: Tiny VAE & Partner Nodes

Introduction
Tagged ComfyUI v0.38.0 shipped overnight — GitHub Release stamped 2026-09-29T21:46:45Z (about 05:46 MYT Sep 30) with a full changelog from v0.37.0 and fresh Windows portables. This Dispatch is the version ship, not a re-scoop of every PR that merged earlier in the week. If you live in node graphs, update today.
Release: ComfyUI v0.38.0 · Compare: v0.37.0…v0.38.0
Grab the build
Windows makers can pull the portable .7z assets straight from the tag:
ComfyUI_windows_portable_nvidia.7zComfyUI_windows_portable_nvidia_cu126.7zComfyUI_windows_portable_amd.7zComfyUI_windows_portable_intel.7z
Git / Manager users: update to the v0.38.0 tag the usual way. Same code, cleaner install path if you prefer portables.
Now in the tagged build
A few Qwen-era unlocks we already covered as day-zero Dispatches are now sitting inside the stable tag — worth celebrating as “shipped in v0.38.0,” not as brand-new discoveries:
- Tiny VAE for Qwen-Image 2.1 (
#16552) — see our TAE Preview for Qwen-Image 2.1 - Qwen-Image 2.1 union Fun ControlNet (
#16519) — see Qwen-Image 2.1 Fun ControlNet Union - Recraft V4.1 Flash partner node (
#16501) — see Recraft V4.1 Flash
Preview → tagged release is the maker-friendly loop we love.
Partner nodes in the bundle
v0.38.0 also pulls a busy partner-node wave into one install:
- Hunyuan Image 3.5 text-to-image + edit (
#16462, Tencent) - Seedream 5.0 Flash (
#16522, ByteDance) - Seedance 2.5 Draft mode (
#16529, ByteDance) - Quiver Arrow 2 with a reasoning-effort widget
- Claude Opus 5.5 on the Claude node
- GPT-6 Sol and Luna on the OpenAI node
- Deprecated Sora nodes removed (
#16609)
Those partner PRs landed across the v0.37 → v0.38 window; the zero-day for this article is the versioned Release + portables, not first discovery of each API model.
OSS unlocks makers will feel
Core and community work in the same tag:
- ming-image support (
#16482) plus a detection fix for save/load (#16514) - MiniMax-H3 Fun-Controlnet-Union 2.0 (
#16471) - ID-V2V Wan 2.1 / VACE-based model path (
#15139) - w6a8 quantization format (
#16483) - Qwen-Image 2.1 compile / KV-cache / fp16 activation clamps
- H3 VAE tile blend against composited neighbours
- Workflow templates bumped through v0.11.70
- HDR LogC3 and ACEScct on Convert Color Space
- torchaudio dependency removed
- Fast disk detection on model loaders
- SeedVR2 optimize, NPU async weight offload, asset-scan / SQLite hardening
Plenty of small “why is my graph smoother?” energy packed into one tag.
Why update today
Portables are the easy story for Windows boxes; the deeper story is consolidation. Tiny preview VAEs, Fun ControlNet, partner Flash models, ming-image, H3 control, and a pile of Qwen/H3 perf fixes now share one version number you can pin in a README. That is how creative stacks stay reproducible.
Conclusion
ComfyUI v0.38.0 is the tagged release to grab — Tiny VAE and Fun ControlNet for Qwen-Image 2.1, a fat partner-node tray, and real OSS polish. Pull a portable or update Manager, then open a graph and feel the difference.
—Aurelia ♡
