What is Midjourney?
Midjourney is an independent research lab specializing in the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) program and service that generates images from natural language descriptions, known as “prompts.” Comparable to OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, Midjourney employs AI and machine learning to create images based on textual inputs.
Users can interact with the Midjourney bot through a chat application, such as Discord, to generate images. The service offers three subscription tiers along with a free trial, allowing trial users to complete approximately 25 jobs before requiring a subscription for continued use.
With a focus on design, human infrastructure, and AI, the team behind Midjourney is small and self-funded, consisting of 11 full-time staff members and an impressive roster of advisors. Founded by David Holz, who also co-founded Leap Motion, Midjourney has quickly become one of the most popular text-to-image AI services available online.
Since its open beta launch in July 2022 and the alpha release of version 4 in November 2022, Midjourney has continually evolved. The latest iteration, version 5, offers improved image quality, more diverse outputs, an expanded stylistic range, support for seamless textures, wider aspect ratios, enhanced image promoting, and dynamic range.
Setting itself apart from other AI image generators, Midjourney is known for its more dream-like, artistic style in response to user requests. However, the service is not without its critics, who have raised concerns over copyright issues. This is primarily because the images generated by Midjourney are not always entirely original.
How much does Midjourney cost?
Midjourney offers three subscription plans, which cost between $10 to $60 per month depending on the plan you choose. The Basic plan costs $10 per month, the Standard plan costs $30/month, and the Pro plan costs $60 per month. Midjourney also offers a free trial. The subscription plans include access to the Midjourney member gallery, the Discord server, and usage rights. Additionally, Midjourney Prompts Generator has a single plan that starts at $19.04. Users can choose the subscription plan that best suits their needs and budget.
| Free Trial | Basic Plan | Standard Plan | Pro Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Subscription Cost | – | $10 | $30 | $60 |
| Annual Subscription Cost | – | $96 ($8 / month) | $288 ($24 / month) | $576 ($48 / month) |
| Fast GPU Time | 0.4 hr/lifetime | 3.3 hr/month | 15 hr/month | 30 hr/month |
| Relax GPU Time Per Month | – | – | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Purchase Extra GPU Time | – | $4/hr | $4/hr | $4/hr |
| Work Solo In Your Direct Messages | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stealth Mode | – | – | – | ✓ |
| Maximum Queue | 3 concurrent Jobs 10 Jobs waiting in queue | 3 concurrent Jobs 10 Jobs waiting in queue | 3 concurrent Jobs 10 Jobs waiting in queue | 12 concurrent Fast Jobs 3 concurrent Relaxed Jobs 10 Jobs waiting in queue |
| Rate Images to Earn Free GPU Time | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Usage Rights | CC BY-NC 4.0 | General Commercial Terms* | General Commercial Terms* | General Commercial Terms* |
Is Midjourney worth your money?
Currently, Midjourney’s free trial is disabled so the only way to use Midjourney is to pay a subscription fee. Although it’s the best-quality AI image generator, Midjourney cannot replace photographers and artists yet. The biggest issue is that you cannot always get the image you want because the model might not understand your prompt.
On top of that, Midjourney cannot and will not replace editorial images, such as the motives of the current events.
Midjourney is worth paying for if you want to play around with this new technology or if you want to create abstract, product, or simple stock images.
What we like
Midjourney is constantly improving, so we’ll update this section with each new Midjourney update.
- Very realistic and high-quality images.
- 4 variations with each image generation.
What we don’t like
Although Midjourney is the best AI image generator overall, it has some flaws.
- Free trial does not work.
- Works only through Discord
How do I use Midjourney AI?
To use Midjourney AI, follow these steps:
-
Join the Midjourney Discord server.
-
Go to a newbie channel within the server.
-
Type “/imagine” followed by a detailed text description of the image you want to generate.
Be as specific as possible to get the best results. You can use commas to separate words for specificity. Wait for the AI to generate the images. Midjourney will create several different versions based on your description.
-
Review the generated images and choose the one you like the most.
You can experiment with different styles and genres for your images by using words like fantasy, sci-fi, horror, anime, cartoon, realistic, abstract, etc. For better results, you can also include parameters in your prompt, which are supported by Midjourney. Learn more about these parameters in the official Midjourney documentation.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Midjourney for free?
Yes, you can use Midjourney for free, but it requires some work and joining the Midjourney Discord server. Initially, users are given 25 free tokens to generate images. However, due to an influx of new users abusing free credits, Midjourney has stopped offering free trials. As of now, you may need to pay at least $10 per month to use the technology. Keep in mind that the availability of free usage may change, so it’s essential to check the latest information on their website or Discord server.
What is the Midjourney controversy?
The Midjourney controversy revolves around a copyright issue involving a comic book that used earlier versions of the service. Midjourney is an AI image-synthesis service that generates photorealistic images based on user prompts. The service has evolved through multiple versions, with each iteration adding more detail to the generated results. The controversy highlights the challenges and concerns surrounding the use of AI-generated images in creative works, as it raises questions about copyright ownership and the ethical implications of using AI-generated content without proper attribution or permission.
Is Midjourney worth it?
Starting at just $8 per month, Midjourney is a worthy investment whether you just want to mess around with it or create images for your business or personal projects.
Comments