Summary

The article presents four free alternatives to Midjourney, an AI image generator, with varying features and pricing structures.

Abstract

The author of the article discusses the limitations of Midjourney, a popular AI image generator, which include a cap of 25 free minutes and an often crowded Discord server. In response, the article introduces DALL-E 2, NightCafe, PlaygroundAI, and self-hosting a Stable Diffusion model as free alternatives. DALL-E 2, developed by OpenAI, offers 50 free credits initially, reducing to 15 per month thereafter, and is noted for its simplistic style. NightCafe provides more user control with different modes and offers five free credits daily. PlaygroundAI stands out as the best alternative, allowing up to 1000 free images per day with commercial usage rights. Lastly, self-hosting a Stable Diffusion model is suggested for those seeking specific results and having a powerful computer. The article concludes with an encouragement to explore AI in projects and a call for support through Medium subscription.

Opinions

The author believes Midjourney's main drawback is its crowded Discord server, which hinders the user experience.
DALL-E 2 is considered to generate images with less detail compared to Midjourney.
NightCafe is praised for offering more control and daily free credits, as well as opportunities to earn additional credits through social sharing.
PlaygroundAI is deemed the best alternative to Midjourney, with a high daily limit of image generation and full commercial rights for the generated images.
Self-hosting a Stable Diffusion model is seen as a wise choice for customization and specific result preferences, provided one has the necessary computational resources.
The author expresses a desire for readers to engage with AI beyond mere usage, suggesting the creation of profitable projects.
There is a clear endorsement for supporting the publication and writers on Medium through subscriptions.

I found 4 free alternatives to Midjourney

Stop paying for Midjourney, there are free accessible AI alternatives

One of the most popular AI image generators available out there is Midjourney. Which is surprisingly not made by OpenAI.

MidJourney is very powerful, but unfortunately, it only offers 25 minutes of free computing time, which corresponds to roughly 30 images.

You only get 25 free credits for life

With 3.5 million discord server members, the main drawback of MidJourney (at least for me) is that, oftentimes, the chats are overcrowded by people, which makes using the /imagine prompt difficult.

In this story we will explore different alternatives to MidJourney, some are entirely free, and some are accessible with a monthly quota.

DALL-E 2

This is the most popular alternative on the list, being developed by OpenAI just like ChatGPT, this AI model is compelling for your daily use.

The images that Dolly 2 generates are kind of simplistic, to be honest, there’s not a crazy amount of detail compared with MidJourney.

Here is a comparison between two images generated by both algorithms:

DALL-E 2 vs Midjourney: different styles

But don’t worry, with the right prompts you can get DALL-E 2 to draw something more realistic.

Pricing

You get 50 free credits for your first month, however, after that month, it’ll just set your credits to 15 free credits, no matter how many you have left.

50 free credits, then 15 monthly

For example, with 13 credits once it reaches past October 28th I will now have 15 free credits. But let’s say I have 35 free credits after October 28th my credit count will be set to 15, so you’ll lose credits. So when you do sign up for this website, make sure to take advantage of those 50 credits for your first month.

DALL·E 2

Thanks to those who helped with and provided feedback on this release: Sandhini Agarwal, Sam Altman, Chester Cho, Peter…

openai.com

NightCafe

The second free website that I found is NightCafe, and it’s actually much better than DALL-E 2.

It opens up the user to a little more control by providing different modes, each corresponding to a different style:

Pricing

The price of each generated image may vary depending on the quality you asked for and different other settings.

5 free credits daily

The great thing about NightCafe is that you get five credits each day at 5 pm. Also, you can do things like sharing your creations on social media to earn free credits.

AI-Generated Art Prints

Create art with the help of Artificial Intelligence Start Creating AI-Generated Art Use NightCafe's AI Art Generator to…

nightcafe.studio

Playground: the best alternative to MidJourney

This is undoubtedly the best alternative to MidJourney, providing immense details in each creation.

Another interesting feature of PlaygroundAI is that they have a public wall with stunning creations from various users, which can be a source of inspiration.

Pricing

Playground AI has a lot more possibilities for you as a creative mind, it allows you to make up to 1000 images a day.

1000 free images/day

But keep in mind that this number can go down drastically when you ask for more details. At the end of the day, you can still make up to 100 high-quality images daily.

You also have all the rights to use the generated images for commercial use, which is a plus.

Free AI image generator: Art, Social Media, Marketing | Playground AI

Playground AI is a free-to-use online AI image creator. Use it to create art, social media posts, presentations…

playgroundai.com

Is self-hosting a Stable Diffusion AI model easy?

Self-hosting your own Stable Diffusion can be a wise choice if you have a powerful enough computer or if you want specific results since the model can be trained as you wish.

I don’t want to dive into many details, but I will leave you to this comprehensive video explainer:

Conclusion

I hope that you like this story, have fun with AI, and most importantly, try building projects around it to make a profit.

Love you all 👋

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