What it's for
Our art-based hustles use it most (12 notes) because its style quality saves editing time.
- Artwork for print-on-demand and Etsy
- Concept art and mood boards
- Coloring-book line art
- Backdrops for thumbnails
Plans and prices
| Plan | Price (USD unless shown) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $10/mo or $96/yr ($8/mo) | 3.3 hr/month (200 minutes) Fast GPU time |
| Standard | $30/mo or $288/yr ($24/mo) | 15 hr Fast; unlimited Relax images |
| Pro | $60/mo or $576/yr ($48/mo) | 30 hr Fast; Stealth Mode; unlimited Relax video |
| Mega | $120/mo or $1,152/yr ($96/mo) | 60 hr Fast |
Read on the official pricing page on . Prices change; check before you buy.
Free plan in real output
No free plan.
- Basic: 200 Fast minutes a month. Midjourney doesn't publish a fixed time per image, so if one 4-image job takes about 1 minute of GPU time (our assumption; time it yourself), that's about 200 jobs or 800 images a month.
- Standard and above add unlimited Relax-mode images (slower queue), which removes the cap for bulk Etsy or stock work.
- Extra Fast time costs $4/hr on every plan.
Cost at your stage
| Plan | Monthly cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 (testing, low volume) | Basic | $10 |
| Month 12 (working volume) | Standard | $30 |
Break-even: Standard at $30/mo is covered by about 10 printable sales at a $3 margin, or about 2 print-on-demand sales at a $15 margin.
Month-12 plan is our estimate of what a solo seller at steady weekly output needs, based on the plan limits above. Costs exclude tax.
Commercial use and output rights
Ownership with conditions
“You own all Assets You create with the Services to the fullest extent possible under applicable law… If you are a company or any employee of a company with more than $1,000,000 USD a year in revenue, you must be subscribed to a 'Pro' or 'Mega' plan to own Your Assets.”
Your data and AI training: The terms give Midjourney a broad license to your prompts and outputs. 'By default, Your Content is publicly viewable and remixable.' Privacy (Stealth Mode) is only on Pro and Mega.
This is a summary of public terms, not legal advice. Terms change; re-read the clause before client work.
First-hour setup
- Subscribe on midjourney.com (Basic is enough to test).
- Generate on the web app; save a style reference image you like.
- Use --ar for your product's aspect ratio (for example --ar 2:3 for posters).
- Upscale the best result, then clean it in GIMP or Photoshop.
- Check the marketplace rules (Etsy, KDP, Adobe Stock) for AI disclosure before you list.
Competitors compared
| Tool | Pricing model | Free plan | Starting price | Difficulty | Output rights | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | Paid plans only | No | $10/mo or $96/yr ($8/mo) | 2/5 | Ownership with conditions | Striking artwork, concepts and style exploration |
| Adobe Firefly | Free plan + paid plans | Yes | US$9.99/mo | 1/5 | You own or may use output commercially | Commercially safer generated images |
| Ideogram | Free plan + paid plans | Yes | $0 · then $20/mo monthly ($15/mo billed yearly, $180) | 1/5 | You own or may use output commercially | Posters, logos and designs with words in them |
| Leonardo.Ai | Free plan + paid plans | Yes | $0 · then $12/mo (billing period not stated) | 2/5 | Ownership with conditions | Game assets and consistent styles |
| Stable Diffusion | Free, open source | Yes | Free | 4/5 | – | Running image generation locally |
| FLUX (Black Forest Labs) | Pay as you go | No | See official site | 3/5 | – | High-quality images by API |
| Krea | Free plan + paid plans | Yes | See official site | 2/5 | – | Trying many image models in one place |
Head to head: Midjourney vs Leonardo.Ai
Learning difficulty
2/5: The web app is simple, but consistent results take prompt and parameter practice.
When not to use it
Avoid it for client work under NDA unless you pay for Pro (Stealth). For legible text in images, Ideogram is better. For the most commercially cautious option, use Firefly.
Cheaper or free alternatives:
- Adobe Firefly: Commercially safer generated images (yes free plan)
- Ideogram: Posters, logos and designs with words in them (yes free plan)
- Leonardo.Ai: Game assets and consistent styles (yes free plan)
- Stable Diffusion: Running image generation locally (yes free plan)
Which of our hustles use it
- AI children's picture books: Consistent illustration styles
- AI logo & brand kit design: Mood boards and icon concepts
- AI product photography for e-commerce: Lifestyle background concepts
- Amazon Merch on Demand: Artwork concepts
- Coloring books on KDP: Line-art page concepts
- Etsy shop with AI-assisted digital art: Artwork generation
- Print-on-demand with AI art: Artwork
- Redbubble designs: Artwork
- Stock images with generative AI: Alternative image generator
- Virtual staging for real estate: Furniture and style concepts
- Sell AI prompts on a marketplace: Testing image prompts
- AI thumbnail design service: Backdrops and props for concepts
Price history
Each monthly check adds rows here. Older rows are never edited, so you can see when prices changed.
Sources
- Midjourney plan comparison (read 17 October 2026)
- Midjourney Terms of Service (read 17 October 2026)
Last verified . Anything we couldn't confirm on an official page is marked "not published", "not shown" or "not verified".