There is a multitude of artificial intelligence art generators available on the market, but only a select few can compete with the exceptional abilities of Midjourney. Midjourney has recently transitioned to a premium payment model, discontinuing its freemium service.
To address this change, we have curated a collection of ten outstanding Midjourney substitutes that are free of charge and feature a powerful text-to-image framework. Without further delay, let’s explore the list.
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Stable Diffusion
Stable Diffusion is a close contender to Midjourney in the realm of text-to-image models. The major difference between the two models is that Midjourney is a proprietary model that requires payment, while Stable Diffusion has an open-source model that is free and can even be installed on any PC that has 8GB of VRAM.
Stable Diffusion is constructed based on various innovative technologies, such as Latent Diffusion Models, LAION, Eleuthera AI, OpenCLIP, OpenAI’s ADM codebase, and CompVis, among others. The company has recently released Stable Diffusion 2.1 for public use, and has also recently unveiled the beta version of Stable Diffusion XL.
Lexica
Lexica is a website that specializes in AI-generated images, powered by its very own image model that is based on Stable Diffusion. Not only does it generate images, but for Stable Diffusion-generated images it also serves as a search engine. Per month you can create up to 100 AI images without any charges, and for $10 per month.
To generate images, Lexica offers the use of its Lexica Aperture v2 or v3 model, which can be set up to 768 x 1152 dimensions. During testing, Lexica proved to be reliable in producing images of high quality. If you want a free Midjourney alternative for generating AI-generated images, Lexica’s Stable Diffusion-powered model is an excellent place to begin.
Leonardo.Ai
Another new text-to-image model is generating buzz and is giving competition to Midjourney. At present, it is only accessible to some users who have been granted early-bird access, and it is not available to everyone. Nonetheless, you can also join the platform’s Discord server to explore its impressive ability to create highly detailed images.
The primary focus of Leonardo.Ai is on generating game assets such as buildings, environments, helmets, items, and more. The company has introduced several artistic tools to speed up the process of producing production-ready visual assets.
NightCafe
NightCafe provides access to multiple text-to-image models. With support for models like DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion, CLIP-Guided Diffusion, Style Transfer, and VQGAN+CLIP, users have a variety of options to choose from. For instance, Style Transfer can be used to create artworks modeled on old masterpieces, CLIP-Guided Diffusion is perfect for generating artistic images, and VQGAN+CLIP can be used to create beautiful landscapes.
However, it is worth noting that NightCafe is not free to use. Users get 3 free credits upon signing up, and they need to earn or purchase additional credits which they can do through social campaigns.
Playground AI
Playground AI is a website that offers users access to DALL-E AI and Stable Diffusion image models. What makes this website stand out is the fact that it allows users to create up to 1,000 free images a day, which is quite impressive. However, the DALL-E model is only available in the paid version, and there may be limitations on details and quality after creating 50 images.
In terms of image dimensions, users can choose from either 768 x 768 or 515 x 512. Despite these limitations, Playground AI is an excellent choice for beginners as it does not require waiting in a queue. If you’re looking for a free Midjourney alternative, Playground AI is definitely worth considering.
Adobe Firefly
Adobe is a well-known company, renowned for its software suite. In recent years, Adobe has been working tirelessly to keep pace with image-generation models in the AI era. One such effort is the introduction of its creative AI model, Firefly, which aims to compete with Midjourney.
Firefly includes various tools for image generation, such as text-to-image, image expansion, text effects, vector recolouring, inpainting, and sketch-to-image. However, most of these tools are still in the developmental stage.
DALL-E 2
DALL-E 2 is a top contender as a Midjourney alternative for generating images, and some argue it may even surpass Midjourney’s capabilities. The model was developed by OpenAI, the same company that created ChatGPT. Using DALL-E 2, you can produce photorealistic images from natural language descriptions. It was introduced in 2022 as a follow-up to the original DALL-E, which was launched in 2021.
DALL-E 2 is an incredible tool that offers an unparalleled experience of creating unique images. One of its greatest strengths is its ability to comprehend your prompt and merge different concepts, styles, and features to generate an image that is truly one-of-a-kind and astonishing.
Additionally, it provides the ability to extend images and create an entirely new canvas, eliminate elements through the Inpainting tool, include shadows, textures, reflections, and much more. In my opinion, DALL-E 2 is a highly potent text-to-image model, and I highly recommend using it instead of Midjourney.
Blue Willow
Blue Willow is a viable option to consider as a great Midjourney alternative and has around 300 million users. It operates on user donations and is totally free. Upon joining the Blue Willow Discord server, users can input their prompt to generate images in real-time. Blue Willow is used for creating a variety of digital artwork such as logos, comic characters, graphic concepts, landscapes, and more.
While Blue Willow does generate some decent images, it does fall short of Midjourney when it comes to producing realistic scenes. However, it performs an excellent job of creating graphics or digital art and can create images in minutes despite its large user base. In summary, Blue Willow is a promising Midjourney alternative that is definitely worth trying.
Bing Image Creator
In case you weren’t aware, Microsoft has integrated AI-powered image generation capabilities into the Bing AI Chat platform, as well as its standalone website. By entering a prompt within the Bing Chat interface, you can now generate images using the “Creative” mode to activate the Bing AI Image Creator.
The image generator utilizes OpenAI’s impressive DALL·E model, and you are not limited in the number of images you can create using Bing Chat. Essentially, Bing Search offers a free service that enables you to create AI-generated images.
Once you have generated the initial 25 images per day, the output times may slow down, and you may need to wait for the final image. Although it may not perform as well as Midjourney when it comes to producing human faces and the quality may not be as high, it is still an excellent option for swiftly generating AI-generated images, even for abstract ideas.
InstantArt
InstantArt offers a unique service by hosting over 25 powerful AI models that allow users to generate AI-generated images almost instantly. While it’s not specifically a text-to-image model, it does include top-performing models like Midjourney V4, Stable Diffusion, Anything V3, SynthWavePunk, and IconsMI.
The website is user-friendly and easy to navigate, allowing users to input natural language prompts, select their desired model, and quickly generate images. Additionally, users can add negative prompts to further customize their generated images. Overall, InstantArt is a convenient and powerful tool for creating AI-generated images.
