Midjourney vs Ideogram
Midjourney is aI image and video generator sold as a monthly or yearly subscription. Ideogram is aI image generator with credit-based plans and a developer API. Here is how they compare on price, free plan, platforms and the jobs each does best, from each vendor's own pages.
| Midjourney | Ideogram | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI image and video generator sold as a monthly or yearly subscription | AI image generator with credit-based plans and a developer API |
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $8/mo billed annually (Basic) | $15/mo billed annually (Plus) |
| Free trial | Limited trial only in the niji·journey mobile app (iOS and Android); none on Discord or midjourney.com | None stated |
| Platforms | Web | Web, API |
| Integrations (vendor's figure) | Not stated | Not stated |
| Open source | No | No |
| Made by | Midjourney | Ideogram |
Choose Midjourney if…
- Price matters: its cheapest paid plan is $8/mo against $15/mo.
- The job is creating concept art and mood boards for a campaign or product idea.
- The job is producing illustrations for presentations, blog posts or social media.
Choose Ideogram if…
- You want a free plan: Midjourney does not have one.
- You need an API to build on.
- The job is designing posters, social graphics and other images from a text prompt.
- The job is keeping a character consistent across a set of images.
Still weighing it up?
If neither is quite right, see how other AI image and design tools compare: Canva vs Adobe Firefly.
What Midjourney does
- Image and video generation on the website and in Discord
- Monthly Fast GPU time from 3.3 hours (Basic) to 60 hours (Mega)
- Unlimited Relax-mode image generation on Standard, Pro and Mega
- Stealth Mode to keep images and videos private on Pro and Mega
- HD video on Standard and above; SD only on Basic
- Extra Fast GPU time for $4 per hour
Watch out for
- No free plan, and no free trial on Discord or midjourney.com
- Stealth Mode (private images and videos) is only on Pro and Mega
- Companies with more than $1,000,000 in gross annual revenue must buy Pro or Mega
What Ideogram does
- Text-to-image generation with priority and slow queues
- Private generation on Plus and above
- Unlimited character consistency on paid plans
- Batch generation and quality export on Pro
- Top-up priority credits for $4
- Developer API billed separately
Watch out for
- Free accounts cannot generate privately; images are published by default
- Unused subscription priority credits expire at the end of each billing cycle
- AI editing features (Edit with AI, Image Reference) need priority credits and are not available in the slow queue
Questions
Is Midjourney or Ideogram cheaper?
On published entry prices, Midjourney is cheaper: $8/mo billed annually (Basic) for Midjourney against $15/mo billed annually (Plus) for Ideogram. What each plan includes differs, so compare the limits too.
Do Midjourney and Ideogram have free plans?
Ideogram does; Midjourney does not, though it offers a Limited trial only in the niji·journey mobile app (iOS and Android); none on Discord or midjourney.com.