Midjourney pricing 2026: every plan explained (Basic to Mega)
Midjourney offers four subscription tiers ranging from $10/month to $120/month — and understanding the differences between them is less straightforward than it should be. GPU hours, Fast vs. Relax mode, stealth mode, concurrent jobs, and commercial rights all vary by plan, and the actual cost per image depends heavily on how you use the tool. We've been on every Midjourney plan since V5 and tracked real-world generation counts, queue times, and effective per-image costs across all four tiers. Here's exactly what you're paying for.
Quick pricing table: all four Midjourney plans
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per mo) | Fast GPU hours | Relax mode | Concurrent jobs | Stealth mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $10 | $8 | 3.3 hrs/mo (~200 images) | No | 3 (10 queued) | No |
| Standard | $30 | $24 | 15 hrs/mo (~900 images) | Unlimited | 3 (10 queued) | No |
| Pro | $60 | $48 | 30 hrs/mo (~1,800 images) | Unlimited | 12 (10 queued) | Yes |
| Mega | $120 | $96 | 60 hrs/mo (~3,600 images) | Unlimited | 12 (10 queued) | Yes |
What each plan actually includes
Basic ($10/month) — the entry point
The Basic plan gives you 3.3 Fast GPU hours per month, which translates to roughly 200 standard image generations (4-image grids). There is no Relax mode — once your Fast hours are gone, you're done until next month or you buy more ($4/hour). You get 3 concurrent Fast jobs with 10 in the queue. All generations are public (visible in the Midjourney gallery and community feed). Commercial usage rights are included.
Basic works for casual users who generate a handful of images per week — social media posts, blog headers, personal projects. If you find yourself running out of hours mid-month, you've outgrown Basic.
Standard ($30/month) — the sweet spot
Standard includes 15 Fast GPU hours per month (~900 images) plus unlimited Relax mode. Relax mode is the key differentiator: your images are generated on shared GPU capacity with no per-image cost, but queue times range from 1–10 minutes depending on demand (vs. ~15–60 seconds on Fast). In practice, Relax mode queue times average 2–4 minutes during off-peak hours and 5–8 minutes during US business hours.
This is the plan most serious users should be on. Use Fast mode when you need quick iterations and Relax mode for bulk generation, exploration, and experimentation. You effectively get unlimited images for $30/month — the Fast hours are there for time-sensitive work.
Pro ($60/month) — for professionals
Pro doubles your Fast hours to 30/month (~1,800 images) and adds two features that matter for commercial work: stealth mode (your generations aren't visible in the public gallery or community feed) and 12 concurrent Fast jobs (vs. 3 on lower tiers). Companies earning over $1 million per year in gross revenue are required to be on Pro or Mega.
Stealth mode is non-negotiable if you're generating images for client work, product launches, or brand campaigns where early leaks would be a problem. The 12 concurrent jobs matter for batch workflows — generating variations, testing multiple prompts simultaneously, or running production image pipelines.
Mega ($120/month) — for studios and power users
Mega provides 60 Fast GPU hours per month (~3,600 images) with the same stealth mode and concurrent job limits as Pro. It's essentially Pro with 2x the Fast hours. This plan exists for design studios, marketing agencies, and AI art professionals who consistently burn through Fast hours on client work and can't afford Relax mode queue times.
For a visual quality comparison to help decide whether Midjourney is the right tool at any price, see our full Midjourney vs DALL-E vs Stable Diffusion head-to-head.
Hidden costs: what the pricing page doesn't tell you
Relax mode has soft limits. Midjourney says Relax is "unlimited," and technically it is — but heavy Relax users get deprioritized. If you generate hundreds of images daily in Relax mode, your queue times gradually increase from 2–4 minutes to 10–15 minutes as the system throttles your priority. This resets monthly. In practice, this only affects power users doing 500+ generations/day in Relax mode, but it means "unlimited" has an asterisk.
Upscaling costs extra Fast time. Standard image grids (4 images per generation) are relatively cheap on GPU time. Upscaling a single image to 2x or 4x resolution consumes significantly more Fast hours — roughly 2–4x the cost of the initial generation. If you upscale frequently, your effective Fast hours are lower than the headline number suggests. On Basic plan, this is particularly painful since there's no Relax fallback.
Video generation burns through hours fast. Midjourney's video feature (up to 21 seconds) uses roughly 10x the GPU time of a standard image generation. A single video clip can consume 0.5–1 Fast hour. If video is part of your workflow, factor this into your plan choice.
Web app vs. Discord: same price, different experience. Midjourney's web app (midjourney.com) launched in 2025 and includes a built-in editor with inpainting, outpainting, and generative fill — none of which cost extra beyond the GPU time consumed. Discord still works but lacks the editor features. Both interfaces draw from the same GPU hour pool.
Annual billing saves 20% across all plans. There's no refund if you cancel mid-year, so commit only if you're confident you'll use Midjourney for 12 months. The month-to-month option is worth the premium while you're evaluating.
If you're exploring AI image tools beyond Midjourney, many of the best free AI image generators offer surprisingly good results at zero cost — useful for testing concepts before committing to a paid Midjourney plan.
Midjourney vs. DALL-E 3 vs. Leonardo: pricing compared
| Platform | Free tier | Entry price | Best value | Per-image cost (approx) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | None | $10/mo (Basic) | $30/mo (Standard, unlimited Relax) | $0.03–$0.15 (varies by mode) |
| GPT Image / DALL-E 3 | 2–3 images/day (ChatGPT free) | $20/mo (ChatGPT Plus) | $20/mo (high daily limit) | $0.04–$0.12 (API), ~$0.08 effective (Plus) |
| Leonardo AI | 150 tokens/day (~30 images) | $12/mo (Apprentice) | $30/mo (Artisan, 8,500 tokens/day) | $0.01–$0.04 |
| Stable Diffusion | Fully free (local) | $0 (needs GPU) | $0 (or ~$10/mo cloud GPU) | $0 local / $0.01–$0.03 cloud |
Midjourney is the most expensive option at scale but produces the highest-quality artistic output. If image aesthetics directly impact your revenue (marketing, brand design, client deliverables), the quality premium justifies the cost. If you need volume at low cost, Leonardo or Stable Diffusion are significantly cheaper.
DALL-E 3 (via ChatGPT Plus) is the simplest pricing model: $20/month gets you high-quality image generation bundled with the world's most popular AI chatbot. No GPU hours to track, no Relax vs. Fast complexity. The limitation is control — you can't fine-tune, and there's no batch generation workflow.
Creators working with AI tools for content creation often use multiple image generators: Midjourney for hero images and key visuals, DALL-E for quick iterations during writing, and Leonardo or Stable Diffusion for bulk background assets. Learning to prompt these tools effectively is a skill in itself — design and technical courses on EduBracket can help you develop a systematic approach to AI image workflows.
Get our AI image tool pricing tracker
We update pricing changes across Midjourney, DALL-E, Leonardo, and Stable Diffusion monthly. Get notified when plans change.
Frequently asked questions
Can I switch Midjourney plans mid-month?
Yes. You can upgrade at any time and the price difference is prorated. Downgrading takes effect at the start of your next billing cycle — you keep your current plan's features until then. Unused Fast hours do not roll over when switching plans or at month's end.
Does Midjourney offer refunds?
Midjourney offers refunds only if you've generated fewer than 25 images on your current subscription period. After 25 images, no refunds are available. For annual plans, the same 25-image threshold applies — there's no partial refund for canceling an annual plan early. This makes the monthly option safer for new users.
Is Midjourney free for students or nonprofits?
No. Midjourney does not offer student discounts, nonprofit pricing, or educational institution rates. The same four plans apply to everyone. Some users get around this by sharing a Standard or Pro account within a team, but Midjourney's terms of service tie subscriptions to individual accounts.
What happens when I run out of Fast hours?
On Basic: you can't generate images until your hours reset next month, unless you buy additional Fast hours at $4/hour. On Standard, Pro, and Mega: you automatically switch to Relax mode, which has no per-image cost but longer queue times (1–10 minutes). You can also buy additional Fast hours on any plan at $4/hour.
Do I own the images I create with Midjourney?
On paid plans, you have commercial usage rights to the images you generate. Midjourney grants you a broad license to use, reproduce, and modify the images for any purpose, including commercial use. However, without stealth mode (Pro or Mega only), your images are publicly visible in Midjourney's gallery. Companies earning over $1M/year in gross revenue must be on Pro or Mega. On the free tier (no longer available), images were licensed under Creative Commons Noncommercial 4.0.
For more on how AI tools fit into broader content workflows, see our best AI website builders guide — several of these tools integrate directly with Midjourney and DALL-E for generating site visuals.