In the world of AI image generation, Midjourney is a legend. Launched in July 2022, the platform quickly established itself as the market leader.
The service relied on its own homegrown diffusion model based on Stable Diffusion and exploded in popularity, becoming the best AI image generator we’ve ever tested. This was despite, or perhaps because of, its peculiar user interface. Instead of a fancy-looking dashboard, we had to trudge over to Discord and type in our image prompts behind an /imagine theme and a long, indefinite queue system. Absolutely artisanal.
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Midjourney: Prices and plans
Midjourney offers a basic plan starting at $10 per month that provides 3 hours of “public” fast image generation via a member gallery. It’s a basic plan with few bells and whistles, but it gets the job done. The three other plans start at $30 per month and range up to $120 and offer faster generation, private images, and more generation parallelism.
All plans include some useful editing options. For example, the platform has a two-click zoom out feature and the ability to enlarge images. These features allow users to enlarge their images or improve the resolution when needed, making it easier for them to create high-quality images without having advanced graphic design skills.
If you need more control over your images, you can tweak the prompt with custom zooms and use the image remix and canvas variation buttons. Again, using these features can be a bit awkward due to the Discord interface, but Midjourney users seem to be a forgiving bunch.
Midjourney: Art Style
One of the best AI art generators we’ve tested, Midjourney stands out for its distinctive artistic style. The platform excels at delivering images with unique flair and special attention to lighting and texture. The results aren’t just good—they’re often stunning. For example, typing in a prompt like “a beautiful tiger sitting on a deserted beach at sunset” produces images that are both visually stunning and detailed.
What sets Midjourney apart from other AI image generators is its ability to add artistic character to any image. You can spot a Midjourney creation from a distance, which is good or bad depending on your religion. But it makes Midjourney particularly attractive to artists and designers who need AI help but don’t really want to admit it.
Midjourney: User Interface and Experience
To use the service, you’ll need to sign up to the Midjourney Discord chat channel. Once you’re logged in, you trigger image generation with the phrase “/imagine” followed by your text prompt. It’s not the most user-friendly process and feels a bit clunky, but it kind of works.
This somewhat odd interface brings both challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, it limits the accessibility of the platform to those who are familiar with Discord or want to learn how to use it. On the other hand, it fosters a community of users who are compelled to share their prompts and images, creating a collaborative environment where users can learn from each other. This community aspect is actually pretty cool and sometimes inspiring.
This interface is currently the only way to interact with Midjourney, but a new dashboard is promised to be available soon, as highlighted on the Showcase homepage. Hopefully, this new upgrade will also provide an easier way to access and manage user accounts.
- Interface and experience: 3.5/5
Middle of the journey: community and cooperation
One of the unsung features of Midjourney is its strong community aspect, which is conveyed through the Discord channels. Users share their prompts and generated images in chat, enabling a collaborative environment where users can learn from each other’s successes and failures. This is a great way for newbies to learn through feedback and for experts to act as mentors and help people improve their skills.
Of course, it’s also a double-edged sword. It means that at the lower plans, your generated images are public by default, which could be a disadvantage for those who value privacy or who create images for confidential commercial purposes. Spend more money and get more privacy.
The Discord community is also the go-to place for tech support, where users can ask questions, share tips, and troubleshoot common issues. While this peer group model is useful, it lacks the reliability of a dedicated customer support team. You can get direct support, but it’s limited. Fortunately, there are some solid tutorials and help FAQs you can use.
Despite its quirks, Midjourney produces exceptional images. However, as with any image generator, it requires trial and error and a lot of patience to get the best results. I’ve found that producing a final image usually requires multiple attempts, using the Variations button (v1, v2, etc.) and/or the Scale Up option, which allows for a zoom-out (zoom-out) feature. Surprisingly, that’s the extent of the editing, aside from some limited image variations or rough paint-over options.
Learning which prompts produce the best results is like digital gardening. You sow your prompt, observe the results, and tweak or harvest accordingly. This iterative process can be time-consuming, but it is also rewarding. Over time, you develop a better understanding of how to create prompts that produce the best images in the shortest amount of time.
Two years is a long time in AI, and where Midjourney led a very small group of image generators in 2022, it now has significant competitors coming on board almost every month. The latest, Flux AI, is a spectacular image service that seems to have snatched the quality crown—at least for now. That means that to compete, Midjourney will need to improve its interface, offer more flexible editing options, or offer other meaningful changes. It’s a cutthroat market, as many other image generation services have discovered to their chagrin. Can the best AI tool for images stay on top? We’re excited to see where the service goes next.
- Community and collaboration: 5/5
In the middle of the journey: Final verdict
Midjourney is a great veteran in the AI image generation space, delivering images that are more than just good—they’re artistic. While the interface is decidedly old-school and a bit clunky, it shouldn’t put you off if you’re willing to navigate through Discord to access the platform’s features. Patience and practice will get you the best results with this powerful tool. However, it remains to be seen how long this market dominance will last.
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