Is Midjourney Free? A Deep Dive into Midjourney Pricing and Plans

Hey there! As an avid user of AI art generators, I know you‘re probably wondering – is Midjourney free to use or do you have to pay?

The short answer is no, Midjourney is not free. You have to subscribe to a paid plan to use Midjourney and generate AI art.

But I‘m sure you want all the details! Don‘t worry, I‘ve got you covered. Stick with me for this comprehensive deep dive into everything you need to know about Midjourney pricing, plans, and how to maximize value as a subscriber.

Overview: Midjourney Requires a Paid Subscription

Let‘s start with a quick rundown of the key facts:

Midjourney removed their previous 25 free prompt trial in late 2022. There is currently no free usage tier.
You must subscribe to a paid Midjourney plan to use the AI art generator. Prices range from $10/month to $120/month.
Each plan includes a monthly allowance of Fast GPU time, which is used up as you generate images.
Upgrades are instant, downgrades/cancellation take effect at next billing cycle.
Unused GPU time does not roll over month-to-month. Your allowance resets at the start of each billing period.

So in short – no, Midjourney is not free. You have to purchase a subscription plan to access the AI art generator and start creating images.

Now let‘s get into the details on the different subscription options!

Midjourney Pricing Plans Explained

When you go to subscribe to Midjourney, you‘ll see you have 4 different plans to choose from:

The Basic Plan

This is the most affordable Midjourney option at just $10/month. Here‘s what you get:

3.3 hours of Fast GPU time – This is the amount of time you can use Midjourney‘s fast GPUs to generate images each month.
3 Fast jobs and 10 queued jobs – These determine how many image generation tasks can be running at once.

Overall, the Basic Plan is great for new and casual Midjourney users who want to keep costs down. With the 3.3 hours of Fast GPU time, you could generate around 66 1024×1024 images per month.

The Standard Plan

This middle-of-the-road plan costs $30/month and gives you:

15 hours of Fast GPU time – 5x more than the Basic Plan, for generating a higher volume of images.
3 Fast jobs and 10 queued jobs – Same job limits as the Basic Plan.

The Standard Plan is a nice step up for intermediate Midjourney users who want more monthly image generation capacity.

The Pro Plan

The $60/month Pro Plan gives you a big boost in usage with:

30 hours of Fast GPU time – Enough to generate around 600 1024×1024 images per month.
12 Fast jobs and 3 Relaxed jobs – Twice as many concurrent jobs, plus relaxed jobs that use minimal GPU resources.

Pro is built for power Midjourney users. With double the job slots of lower tiers, you can generate multiple images simultaneously to save time.

The Mega Plan

This top-tier plan costs $120/month and gives you the highest Midjourney limits:

60 hours of Fast GPU time – Generate up to 1200 1024×1024 images per month.
12 Fast jobs, 3 Relaxed jobs – Same job limits as Pro Plan.
Stealth mode – Keeps your image prompts private.

The Mega Plan is geared toward professional creators and studios needing massive Midjourney capacity. The Stealth mode privacy is also a nice perk.

As you can see, higher Midjourney tiers offer exponentially more Fast GPU time and concurrent job slots for power users. Now let‘s break down how usage works.

How Midjourney Usage and Allowances Work

Whenever you generate an image with Midjourney, it consumes some of your Fast GPU time monthly allowance. Here‘s how much each image size uses:

1024×1024 image – 3 minutes of Fast GPU time
512×512 image – 45 seconds of Fast GPU time

Upscales also use additional GPU time. So if you upscale a 1024×1024 image to 2048×2048, it will use around 6 minutes total.

This means on the Basic Plan with 3.3 hours (200 minutes) of allotted Fast GPU time, you could generate:

66 1024×1024 images
Or 133 512×512 images

And with the Mega Plan‘s 60 hours (3,600 minutes) of Fast GPU time, you could generate a massive:

1,200 1024×1024 images
2,400 512×512 images

Once you use up your monthly Fast GPU allowance, Midjourney will continue generating images but at a much slower rate using regular GPUs instead of the fast ones.

So it‘s best to limit your image generation to each month‘s allotted Fast GPU time – otherwise you‘ll be stuck waiting hours or days for images to complete!

Now let‘s discuss your options if you want to change or cancel your Midjourney subscription.

Changing or Cancelling Your Midjourney Plan

The good news is you can change or cancel your Midjourney subscription at any time if your needs change.

Here‘s an overview of how it works:

Downgrades/cancellations – Take effect at the next billing cycle.
Upgrades – Apply instantly to allow immediate access to higher usage limits.
Partial refunds – Not offered for downgrading/cancelling mid-cycle, but you retain access until the billing period ends.

To make subscription changes, just log into your Midjourney account and select your new plan.

If you ever cancel and then want to reactivate the same plan later, your usage limits will reset – any unused time does not roll over.

Maximizing Value From Your Midjourney Subscription

To make the most of your Midjourney subscription, follow these tips:

Use smaller 512×512 images – Conserves your monthly Fast GPU allowance. Only scale up favorites to 1024×1024.
Limit unnecessary upscales – Each upscale deducts extra time from your allowance, so be selective.
Take advantage of relaxed jobs – On Pro/Mega plans, use relaxed jobs for non-urgent images to save Fast GPU time.
Craft prompts efficiently – Get the details you want in as few prompts as possible instead of making multiple variations.
Use Discord – Get prompt inspiration and workflow tips from the Midjourney community.
Track your usage – Check your remaining GPU time regularly so you don‘t accidentally overuse your allowance.

Properly managing your Midjourney usage allowances takes a bit of planning, but it‘s worth it to maximize the AI art you can generate.

The Bottom Line on Midjourney Pricing

So in summary, while Midjourney is not free, the capabilities you unlock with a subscription are well worth the monthly price in my opinion as an avid AI art enthusiast.

Lower tiers like Basic and Standard are great for dipping your toes in, while Pro and Mega plans offer awesome power-user features for professionals and studios.

I hope this detailed breakdown gives you a better understanding of how Midjourney subscriptions and usage work! Let me know if you have any other questions.