Is Midjourney Free? Pricing, Plans, & Free Alternatives

Midjourney is a game changer in the image generation industry. Its capacity to generate incredibly lifelike and creative visuals based solely on a text input has piqued the interest of millions of individuals regarding its availability. If you are in search of an AI image generator, there is no necessity to extensively explore beyond Midjourney.

However, before using it, it is crucial to establish Midjourney’s pricing and plans. For your reference, all necessary details are provided here.

Is Midjourney Free?

No. Starting from June 2023, Midjourney is not accessible for free anymore. Free trials may sometimes be offered during the release of new models, but you need always to follow announcements on Midjourney for updates.

Upon its initial release in July 2022, the service allowed unrestricted access for users to create 25 images without any charge. Simply by registering for a complimentary Discord account and becoming a member of the Midjourney server, one could avail of this opportunity.

However, Midjourney now is not free but offers various subscription options with distinct prices and features for different people with different budgets.

Midjourney Plans & Pricing

Midjourney offers four subscription levels. You can choose to pay monthly or opt for an annual payment with a 20% discount. Every subscription tier grants you access to the Midjourney member gallery, the official Discord channel, general commercial usage terms, and additional benefits.

The Basic Plan is available for $10 monthly or $96 annually. The Standard Plan is priced at $30 monthly or $288 annually. The Pro Plan is priced at $60 monthly or $576 annually. And the Mega Plan is priced at $120 per month or $1152 per year. As you go up the tiers, you will receive increased limits which enable you to produce a greater number of images every month.

FYI:

1. Midjourney uses GPU to interpret and process each prompt to generate images. The GPU time duration is the time duration you can generate images with Midjourney every month. For example, 3.3 hr/month Fast GPU Time means you can generate 3.3 hours of images every month. There are 3 modes to use the GPU time.

• Fast Mode (Fast GPU Time) is the default processing tier. With this mode, you can skip to the front of the virtual queue and your images will be generated on priority.
• Relax Mode (Relax GPU Time): Subscribers to the Standard, Pro, and Mega plans can create an unlimited number of images each month in Relax Mode. Relax Mode won’t cost any GPU time, but you need to wait for about 0 – 10 minutes per job.
• Turbo Mode is for extremely quick image generation up to four times faster, but consumes twice as many subscription GPU minutes as a typical Fast Mode job.

2. The average duration for Midjourney to complete generating a new image is one minute, so we can infer that the Basic Plan (3.3 hr/month) will yield about 200 image creations. However, there are far less than 200 images if you upscale images in Midjourney to opt for 4K or high resolution.

3. Subscribers have the opportunity to acquire a complimentary hour of Fast GPU usage each day by evaluating and ranking images. Moreover, a bonus Fast hour is granted to the top 2,000 individuals each day.

4. If you have depleted your supply of Fast GPU and wish to acquire more before your monthly subscription renews, you have the option to buy extra Fast GPU hours at a rate of $4 per hour. Please note that refunds will not be provided for Fast Hours.

Midjourney Free Alternatives

Midjourney indeed generates stunning and lifelike images. However, the pricing comes with a significant cost. If you are thinking about free Midjourney alternatives, there are some options to consider.

Stable Diffusion: Stable Diffusion is an exceptional AI art generation tool that is free, powerful, and easy to use. Its capability to convert text descriptions into detailed images, combined with its open-source nature, makes it a valuable tool for artists, designers, and anyone interested in exploring the creative potential of AI. Although, compared to Midjourney, there is a learning curve in creating effective prompts, the benefits outweigh the initial challenges.

Bing Image Creator: Bing Image Creator serves as a good entry point for those curious about AI art generation. Its user-friendly interface, free access, and ability to generate images in various styles make it a compelling option. However, users seeking more precise control, higher image quality, or the ability to explore unfiltered content might need to consider other alternatives. In addition, Bing Image Creator is still under development, so expect improvements and potentially more features in the future.