Midjourney

Midjourney is an AI image generator made by Midjourney, Inc., a small, self-funded research lab founded by David Holz. Its open beta began in July 2022, and it has since become one of the best-known tools for turning a written description into a finished picture. It now also animates images into short videos.

You describe what you want in a prompt, and Midjourney returns four images in a few moments. From there you refine: upscale the one you like, make variations, zoom out, pan or edit parts of the picture. It is known for a strong, painterly sense of light and composition, and is used for concept art, mood boards, illustrations, marketing visuals and creative exploration.

Key features

• Web app and Discord. Create on midjourney.com through the Imagine bar, or work in Midjourney's Discord server and in direct messages with the bot.
• Editing tools. Upscalers, variations, zoom out, pan and the Editor let you rework an image rather than start again.
• Image references. Image prompts, style references and the edit model use your own images to guide content, composition, style and colour.
• Personalization and moodboards. Profiles learn your taste from images you rate, and moodboards collect references that steer a consistent look.
• Video. Turn a Midjourney image or your own image into a five-second clip, with options for motion, looping and an end frame.
• Model versions. Version 8.2 is the current model, focused on aesthetics, image quality and Personalization, and older versions remain selectable.
• Organise. Download, sort, filter and file your creations into folders.

Who it is for

Designers, illustrators and agencies use Midjourney for concepts and mood boards. Marketers and small businesses use it for campaign imagery and social posts, and founders use it to produce visuals without a design budget. It is not a developer platform: no public API is documented for building Midjourney into other software.

Pricing at a glance

Every plan is a subscription; there is no free plan. Basic is $10 per month with 3.3 hours of fast GPU time. Standard is $30 per month with 15 hours of fast time and unlimited image generation in Relax Mode. Pro is $60 per month with 30 hours, unlimited Relax video and Stealth Mode. Mega is $120 per month with the most fast time and concurrency. Paying annually saves 20 percent ($8, $24, $48 and $96 per month), and extra fast GPU time costs $4 per hour. Prices as checked on 10 October 2026; confirm on the vendor's plan comparison page.

Things to consider

• Images and videos are visible in Midjourney's public gallery unless you use Stealth Mode, which is only on the Pro and Mega plans.
• A company earning more than $1,000,000 a year in gross revenue must be on the Pro or Mega plan to use its images commercially.
• Text inside images and precise layouts are still hard to control; check results closely before using them.
• Copyright protection for AI-generated images is limited in some countries, so check the rules where you work before relying on exclusive rights.

Getting started

1. Log in at midjourney.com and choose a plan on the plan comparison page.
2. Open the Create page and type a prompt into the Imagine bar.
3. Rate images to build a Personalization profile, and try a style reference.
4. Read the documentation on prompting and parameters, and turn on Stealth Mode if your work must stay private.