Midjourney, one of the most popular image-generating AI services, announced yesterday the launch of the “Alpha” version of its website, available to a select few users.
The San Francisco–based independent research lab announced they will be testing out the site, Midjourney.com. It is currently only available to users who have generated over 10,000 images on its predecessor, messaging app Discord.
The tech company confirmed that the website will roll out to the rest of us soon, the announcement read: “Don’t worry, we will be making it available to more people over the coming month!” This will be music to the ears of the 17.5 million plus users in its server on the Discord App.
In this guide you’ll learn about Midjourney, including the new and improved features available and how you can use it to start creating images.
What is Midjourney?
Midjourney is a generative artificial intelligence program which understands user prompts to create incredibly lifelike and realistic images.
The technology uses natural language descriptions, known as prompts, similar to OpenAI's DALL-E and Stability AI's Stable Diffusion.
How Much Does Midjourney Cost?
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Tragically, the service is no longer free since April 2023. The free trial had to be removed as the popularity of the tool led to overloaded servers. However, limited time free trial periods may pop up from time to time, so keep an eye out if you’re looking to try before you buy.
There are different pricing plans available, ranging from $10 per month for the most basic and fairly limited plan, up to $120 per month for the Mega plan with all bells and whistles. Discounts are applied when a yearly subscription is taken out instead of monthly rolling payments.
New and Improved Functionality
The website has a modern interface and launches with an “Explore” tab, which demonstrates real-life user generations. At the top, you'll find a plus sign and next to it is a familiar blank text bar that’s labelled “Imagine” just waiting for users to enter prompts.
On the right-hand side, users can click on the “dials” symbol, which will launch the visual interface where they control their prompt settings.
This is a major upgrade compared to the Discord version of Midjourney, where users had to type text commands into their prompts in order to modify them. Now users can quickly change the orientation, size, and stylization of the image easily.
On the left-hand rail, users can click on the “photo” icon to sort their past creations into a reverse-chronological order, as well as see their ongoing projects.
There is a “thumbs up” button for users to vote between two iterations of the same image in a crowdsourced image ranking project. Whereas the “Likes” tab contains all of the images users have previously “hearted” on Discord.
More features are reported to be coming out soon, including an app for iOS, folders, and collections.
How to Use Midjourney
Now that you know all about how Midjourney works and its new features and functionality, it’s time to start using it. But how can it be useful to you?
AI-image generation has a variety of use cases in the professional world, and in an increasingly visual world, it’s a welcome addition in the toolkit of almost any business.
Small businesses without design capabilities will be able to create promotional content and engaging social media posts at scale.
Content marketers will also save time and money on image sourcing. Rather than entering into the realm of creative commons, purchasing costly stock images, or using photographers and graphic designers, they will be able to create imagery bespoke to their needs.
Creative teams or graphic designers can use the tool to get inspiration and speed up their existing design workflow.
