Best AI Art and Image Generators Ranked [Free and Paid]

The AI industry is growing so fast it becomes impossible to keep up. Exciting times!

But there’s one problem:

New AI art generation models and new apps pop up literally every week! How do I keep up with the latest trends without spending all my time on Twitter, Reddit, or Tiktok?

I always feel like I’m missing out, but I really don’t have the time to test every new thing.

You may or may not feel the same, but this one thing is still true:

Just like me, you want to know what is the best ai art generator that everyone uses.

In this guide, I’ll show you the best and most important AI art generators among them all. 

I’ll try to explain the difference between them, show some examples, and tell why most of them aren’t worth your time.

Here are the three best rated ai image generators from the rating, in case you’re in a hurry:

🏆 Midjourney

🤖 9.9 GoFind score

Image Quality	10/10
Pricing	$0 – $60
Ease of use	9.5/10
Functions and capabilities	txt2img, img2img

Visit site ➜

Stable Diffusion

🤖 9.5 GoFind score

Image Quality	9/10
Pricing	Free
Ease of use	7/10
Functions and capabilities	txt2img, img2img, depth2img, Inpaint, Finetuning, Controlnet

Visit site ➜

Dall-E 2

🤖 7.5 GoFind score

Image Quality	7.8/10
Pricing	Limited free, Paid
Ease of use	9/10
Functions and capabilities	Text-to-Image, Inpainting, Outpainting

Visit site ➜

Table of Contents

1. Midjourney – Best AI Art Generator for Commercial Use

Midjourney is hands down the best AI art generator at the moment (as of early 2023). 

It replaced Stable Diffusion (#2 on our list) on the pedestal when they released the Midjourney v4 version in late 2022. 

Midjourney is crazy good. It beats all other image generators in terms of image quality and every other metric except for the price.

Just look at the examples:

It can generate anything: architecture, landscape, portraits, characters, book covers, realistic pictures, 2d and 3d illustrations, anime characters, and scenes. EVERYTHING. 

I’ve been using MJ for the last several months, and I’m still blown away by how good it is.

Let me tell you more about it.

(If you want to get a detailed review on Midjourney, subscribe not to miss the release of the complete guide).

Key features

• Best quality images
• Limited free usage (25 pics on free trial)
• Community-driven – prompt discovery is super easy
• Paid private generation
• Discord based interface
• Advanced prompt configurations
• Commercially viable
• Web-only app
• Censored outputs

Interface

Midjourney is quite different from other AI art and image generators because it’s a Discord bot.

There’s no software to download. 

You just register an account on their website, go to their discord, and generate pics on the public server. 

If you’re unhappy with the output, you can change the settings or the prompt and try again. All settings are available as bot commands.

After you generate the pictures, you can download them straight from the Discord channel or open your profile on the Midjourney web app and download them from there. I prefer the second option as the quality seems to be better.

The process is unusual at first, but it’s very straightforward. Once you figure it out (it’s easy), the generation process becomes effortless and smooth.

Community

I believe the Discord bot interface was created for a reason. The creators wanted to make their generator community-driven and let people share and learn from others.

And what can be more social than a social messaging platform? 

Midjourney Discord server is friendly and, in fact, very helpful if you’re just starting out. There are tons of structured information on any aspect of the model. 

You can ask any questions and get detailed answers from other users in the relevant channels.

What I like the most is how you can learn from others’ prompts and test your ideas right away.

If you subscribe to a paid plan, you’ll be able to invite the MJ bot to your own private server and generate images just for you.

MJ isn’t only limited to Discord. They also have a web app that is pretty powerful on paid plans for prompt discovery and managing the generated images.

You can browse and discover the endless feed of super awesome art, bookmark it, copy the prompts, and follow the creators you like the most.

Pricing

Midjourney is available in three paid plans: Basic, Standard, and Pro.

However, a free trial is also available with a one-time allocation of 25 free images. It’s enough to get a general idea and get used to the process. You can also use new Discord accounts for more free trials 😀

But trust me, it’s very addictive, and you’ll want more.

So, the Basic plan is $10 per month (or $8 if charged annually). For the money, you get about 200 images and access to the member gallery. Meaning you can use the basic functionality of the web app and browse the feed and the galleries.

The Standard plan is $30 per month ($24 when charged annually). It includes unlimited “relaxed” image generations and 15 GPU hours of “fast” generations, which equals to 900 “fast” images.

Fast and Relax are two modes for image generation in Midjourney: 

Fast mode means your requests will be served asap. In Relaxed mode, you will be put behind other users in a queue based on your previous use of the model.

The most advanced is the Pro plan, which includes all the features from smaller plans and provides twice as many Fast generations: 30 GPU hours = about 1800 images.

One additional feature is stealth mode generation. It means that the images generated in stealth mode will not be visible to anyone else on the Midjourney web app.

This is important for people who may not want to share their prompts or don’t want others to see what they’re generating. For example, if you generate pics for stocks, your prompts may become your competitive advantage. You don’t want to share those. 

Midjourney Max Resolution

Midjourney can generate images with a resolution of up to 2048×2048. But you can use image upscalers to make it 4096×4096 or higher.

Can You Use Midjourney Images Commercially?

Yes, you can use images generated by Midjourney commercially if you paid for any plan and generated them yourself. MJ’s terms of service allow that. 

You can’t use images generated by others. And, obviously, you can’t commercially use images that represent any copyrighted properties.

Got any more questions? Check out our detailed guide or leave a comment below!

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2. Stable Diffusion – Best Open Source Free AI Art Generator

Stable Diffusion is the best free open-source AI art and images generator with no restrictions and censorship that you can run locally on your PC, Mac, or use on Google Colab.

If MidJourney is the Mac in the world of ai art generators that you can just use right away, Stable Diffusion is the PC. Powerful, free, open source, and customizable. It has a huge ecosystem of different apps and tools, a giant community, and a wide variety of custom models. But also a learning curve.

Interested? Let’s dive in!

Quick Facts about Stable Diffusion

Stable Diffusion is an open source image generation model released by StabilityAI under the Creative ML OpenRAIL-M license that allows for commercial and non-commercial usage.

Basically, Stable Diffusion is a technology platform that many AI art generation apps are built on. The platform is being actively developed, and new, better versions are released regularly. As well as new online web apps and UI interfaces that build on top of this model.

How to use Stable Diffusion

Stable Diffusion is available for local installation on Windows and Mac. The most popular Stable Diffusion apps that run locally are Automatic1111 Webgui and Diffusion Bee (Mac only).

Note: Stable Diffusion requires a powerful GPU, and if you don’t have one, better use Google Colab or paid services powered by SD models. Some of them are on our list below.

You can also try Stable Diffusion without installing any software by using online apps or Google Colab. The most popular online app for Stable Diffusion is the ‘native’ DreamStudio. 

There are other apps and websites that use the Stable Diffusion model, and some of those have their own custom models. More on the online websites later. 

If you are a developer, you can also access the Stable Diffusion model via API.

Stable Diffusion is also available as a plugin for popular software like Blender, Photoshop, etc.

And this all is just the tip of the iceberg. I told ya the ecosystem is massive!

Key Features

• Free and Open Source
• Lots of apps and instruments
• A huge community that shares prompts and creates tutorials
• Customizable.
• Uncensored generation.
• Powerful features: text to image, image to image, inpainting, outpainting, and more.

Stable Diffusion Possibilities

The model is released under an open-source license, meaning everyone can use it however they like. You can install it and generate all sorts of images, including NSFW content.

The installation process is pretty complex for non-geek users, but there are many detailed and easy to follow tutorials that will help you. And the big community on Discord and Reddit will help you if you have any questions. But be aware that using SD on your computer may take a lot of time (and resources) per image generation.

Since the model is open source, many enthusiasts have modified it by training it on their own set of images so it would generate better images of a particular style. This process is called finetuning, and you can even do that yourself. 

For example, this guy finetuned SD so it would better generate his face, and now he creates believable stories about time travel with his own selfies in different eras settings.

And if you don’t want to spend too much time figuring out the finetuning process, you can try using finetuned models of others. For generating anime, pokemon, portraits, photorealistic images, macro photos, etc. Let me know in the comments if you’re interested in this.

What else can you do with Stable Diffusion besides direct text-to-image generation?

SD allows for image-to-image generation!

Have you seen the latest AI avatar trend? That thing is made with Stable Diffusion! 

You upload an image (it can be your drawing, photo, anything!) and change its style with a single prompt. You can also ‘draw’ on it using text or change the setting. 

Or take a look at this:

You can inpaint elements into a photo or change parts of it. It’s like a super advanced Photoshop that you can talk to. Outpainting is available too. It works the same way but for the outer borders. You can paint things around the picture, and they would fit in organically. 

Interface

Once you install the software, the interface is pretty intuitive and straightforward. You write your prompt, change the settings if necessary and generate your picture.

(a screenshot and a description for WebGUI)

With online websites like DreamStudio, it’s even easier:

Pricing

Since the model is open source, it means it’s completely free. You download it and use it without any restrictions.

But keep in mind that generating images requires a lot of computing power, and you’re going to need a powerful GPU and PC build, and that costs money.

Also, if you decide to use online websites, they’re not completely free as well. It costs them a lot of money to run such a huge and complex infrastructure, so most of the time, you’ll have to pay for credits or wait until they renew.

Stable Diffusion Max Resolution

Stable Diffusion can generate images with a resolution of 2048×2048 and higher when outpainting is applied. Use AI upscalers to increase the resolution.

Can You Use Stable Diffusion Images Commercially?

Yes, you can use Stable Diffusion images commercially since its license allows for noncommercial and commercial ethical and legal use.

What are you interested in the most? Let me know in the comments below!

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3. Dall-E 2 – Best Image Generator for Print on Demand

Dalle 2 is one of the pioneers in the space of AI image and art generators. I won’t lecture you on the history of the industry, but you must know that the OpenAI team and their Dalle model have been the first who came so close to actually generating usable and ‘believable’ images.

Dalle 2 takes third place on our list of the best ai image generators. 

It was trained on stock images mainly. That’s why it can generate photorealistic pictures best, as well as art and renders.

What I really like in Dalle 2 is its image editing or inpainting/outpainting abilities. Check out what it did to a popular painting:

Key Features

• Outstanding image editing abilities: inpainting and outpainting
• Simple interface
• API Available
• Hyper-realistic image generation
• Limited free trial
• Complex prompting is possible

Dalle 2 Possibilities

As I’ve mentioned, Dalle 2 is great for generating highly specific photorealistic images. So it’s not really an “art” generator, but rather an “image” generator.

What makes it stand out is its editing features. Stable Diffusion can also do in- and outpainting, but the quality isn’t always the best. It’s especially true for photos and photorealistic images. Dalle 2 does it much better for photos.

And since the interface is SO MUCH simpler, I’d recommend Dalle 2 over SD if you’re looking for a quick edit here and there.

Dalle 2 Max Resolution

Dalle 2 can generate images with a resolution of 1024×1024. But you can always edit the image and outpaint it to a higher resolution. And use AI upscalers to increase the resolution.

Pricing

Dalle 2 isn’t free. There are three tiers for different resolution generation.

The most expensive one is for 1024×1024 generation. It charges $0.020 per image. 

Smaller ones are cheaper, but I doubt you’ll want that when Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are available.

For now, Dalle 2 is in Beta, so they still offer a limited free generation. They give you free credits every month, and if that’s not enough, you can buy about 115 image generations for $15.

Can You Use Dalle 2 Images Commercially?

Yes, you can use Dalle 2 images commercially for selling, printing, or even licensing.

Back to the table of contents

4. Getimg.ai – Best AI Art and Image Generator for Artists

At this point, you should know that you can finetune the Stable Diffusion model to train it to produce better-quality images for specific styles.

And many people in the AI art community have already done this and shared their models with others! 

You can find them on Huggingface or CivitAI for free. 

But there’s one problem: you should have a powerful GPU and go through the painful process of installing complicated software to run these models.

This is where Getimg.ai comes into play. It gives you instant access to 26 finetuned models!

That’s right! You can choose between 25 different custom Stable Diffusion models and generate images for free right after registration. 

Let’s get into the details!

Key Features

• 26 custom SD models
• Limited free generation
• AI Editor 
• Simple interface with advanced settings
• All the benefits of SD
• Uncensored generation
• Training of your own SD model with DreamBooth

Models examples

26 different models is a lot to cover, but it wouldn’t be a fair review without proper representation. So here are some image examples generated with the models available at Getimg.ai. The list of examples isn’t exhaustive. There’s A LOT more. But just to give you hint, here are some:

Pricing

The pricing model is pretty simple.

After the registration, you get a free plan with 100 free monthly credits. One credit – one action. It could be image generation, enhancing images, training your own model with DreamBooth, AI editor action, etc.

When you run out of free credits, you can move to one of the paid plans: Basic, Starter, Hobby, or Pro.

On the Basic plan, you get 3,000 credits for $12 per month. That’s $0.004 per image.

If you pick the Starter plan, you’ll get 12,000 credits for $29. That’s $0.0024 per image.

The Hobby plan offers 24,000 credits for $49. That’s $0.002 per image.

The most advanced plan gives you 60,000 credits for $99 at $0.00165 per image.

All the features remain the same on all the plans.

Can You Use Getimg Images Commercially?

Yes, you can use Getimg.ai images commercially because you own the property right.

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5. Dreamlike.art – Best AI Art Generator for Photos and Gaming Assets

Dreamlike is another AI image generator powered by Stable Diffusion that uses custom finetuned versions of SD. And these versions are 🔥🔥🔥. 

Take a look!

Key Features

• Custom AI models
• Free generation
• Simple credit system
• Advanced UI and tools
• Active Discord community
• Outstanding image quality

Dreamlike Art Platform Review

The Dreamlike platform is simple but powerful. It gives you free access to advanced tools and custom AI art models. It generates images of outstanding quality.

The website combines the generation tool and portfolio functionality in a way that enhances your creative process and gives you easy access to all your previous works.

It sounds generic and salesy, but I tried it, and I really liked the experience. The interface is intuitive and feels natural. The output is close to perfect with the right settings. And it’s super easy to manage all of your previous generations too.

Studio tools

The Studio is where you generate all your images. It consists of two main sections: the generation settings and a list of your previous generations.

To generate an image, do the following:

1. Pick the model;
2. Write the prompt;
3. Click the Dream button.

That’s it. It’s that easy.

One thing that wasn’t too obvious at first was how to generate larger, better quality images. But I’ve figured it out fast: there’s an Enhance button on every image! Hover over the image you want to upscale and click the Enhance button in the lower right corner:

Studio tools include some advanced settings too, but that’s a story for another article. Let me know in the comments if you’re interested in the detailed guide!

The platform is powerful, and I wouldn’t review every setting and feature in this short review. But it’s free, and you can go and explore them yourself!

Dreamlike Models

There are four models available at the moment of writing: Dreamlike Diffusion, Dreamlike Photoreal, Dreamlike Anime, and Stable Diffusion 1.5.

The first one is Dreamlike Diffusion. The model is best at generating all sorts of high-quality concept art. Landscapes, characters, abstract stuff, etc. It’s basically an upgraded Stable Diffusion 1.5 for concept art.

Dreamlike Photoreal generates excellent photorealistic images. I’m not saying it’s perfect. There are artifacts, and it’s especially true for images with people. But the overall quality is superior to any AI art generation model I’ve seen out there!  

Dreamlike Anime is the latest model, and you can guess it, it’s for generating anime style images. Again, it all depends on the prompt and the settings, but you can generate some outstanding anime images. Check out the examples below:

And Stable Diffusion 1.5 is just that – the “raw” SD 1.5 model, which is now outdated but still generates decent-quality images.

Pricing

Dreamlike AI generator has a simple credit system. 

Initially, after registration, you get 50 credits which equals to about 50 images generated with SD 1.5 and 25 images generated by custom models.

Then when you go under 50 credits, the platform gives you 1 credit per hour if you visited the website within the last 48 hours.

If you used your free credits, you can buy additional packs of 3000, 9000, and 30,000 credits for $15, $30, or $75, respectively.

Can You Use Dreamlike Art Images Commercially?

Yes, you can use Dreamlike images commercially according to the original Stable Diffusion license and Dreamlike’s Contribution license. However, the latter grants the website’s owner the rights over your images and allows them to redistribute them, change, sell, publish, etc. For more information, refer to the Terms of Service on their website.

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6. Lexica Aperture – Best Image Generator for Human Faces

Lexica is the search engine for images generated by AI and the prompts they’re created with. It’s a very useful app for AI artists and art enthusiasts.

But it’s an AI art generators list, right?

Yes, and Lexica does have an AI art generator. It’s powered by a finetuned Stable Diffusion model that they called Aperture.

Take a look at what it’s capable of:

Impressive, isn’t it? Let’s take a closer look at it:

Key Features

• Very simple interface
• Search engine for images and prompts
• Unique finetuned AI model
• Creates better photorealistic images than standard SD
• Limited free image generation

Pricing

It’s not clear from their site, but Lexica Aperture does have a free plan that gives you 100 free generations per month. Or rather, 25 generations with 4 images per generation.

After that, you’ll have to subscribe to a paid plan if you want to continue using this.

There are three paid plans: Starter, Pro, and Max.

The Starter plan gives you 1000 images per month. The Pro plan is 3000 images per month. And the Max plan is 7000 images per month, and you also can hide your images and keep them private.

Can You Use Lexica Aperture Images Commercially?

Yes, you can use Lexica Aperture images commercially if you paid for the plan. The rights also depend on your team size. You must have the right plan to use the images if you have a team.

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7. Mage.space – Best AI Art Generator for Anime

Did I tell you the Stable Diffusion ecosystem is huge? Because it is! And Mage.space proves it!

Mage is a web-based online free AI art generator that provides access to 16 custom Stable Diffusion models for all sorts of styles.

Let’s take a closer look:

Models

Mage generator offers access to 16 custom models. But only two of them are free: Stable Diffusion v1.5 and v2.1. Both are very capable, but it’s not what Mage is interesting for.

Here’s the list of all Mage models:

As you can see, most of the models are only available on paid plans. 

Are they worth it? 

It’s up to you to decide. But I would say this is one of the best ways to try them all without the installation hustle. And the prices are affordable.

Where else (except the aforementioned options) could you generate photorealistic images, anime characters, fantasy concept art, 3d art, and a whole lot more with no NSFW censorship and unlimited generation?

Let me know in the comments if you know such a place.

Key Features

• Unlimited generation
• 16 finetuned SD models
• Unlimited free generation
• Enhancing capabilities
• NSFW allowed (only paid plans)
• Simple interface

Pricing 

There are three pricing plans at Mage: Free, Basic, and Pro.

All plans offer unlimited image generation, and unlimited enhancing.

The Free plan gives you access to only two basic models. Although I wouldn’t say Stable Diffusion v2.1 is basic. It’s very capable and can generate outstanding images if prompted right.

The Basic plan extends the Free plan by allowing the NSFW generation and multiple active sessions. All for $4 per month. Still only two models.

The Pro plan gives you the best option. For $15 per month, you get all the benefits of the previous plans plus the ad-free experience and access to the rest of the models. And you also get improved generation speed because the Pro plan uses advanced hardware.

Can You Use Mage.space Images Commercially?

Yes, according to the Terms of service, you can use Mage.space images commercially as you own all the rights to your work. 

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8. Nightcafe

To be completely honest, I haven’t used Nightcafe or any other inferior image generation tools ever since Midjourney v4 and SD 1.5 were out. 

I considered Nightcafe and most other text-to-image generators tier-2 level, and not really worth my time since it’s just another interface to the same models. And most of the time, the lag between the SD model release and it being implemented on Nightcafe is weeks.

That being said, Nightcafe isn’t bad at all and has its pros. In fact, if you’re unsure what exactly you need and you’re just starting out and want to try a bit of everything, I’d recommend Nightcafe!

Key Features

• Access to several models in one place
• Simple interface
• Active community
• Original “evolve” functionality for repurposing someone else’s content
• Limited free generation
• Complicated credits system
• Relatively slow

Pricing

There are four pricing tiers: AI Hobbyist, AI Enthusiast, AI Artist, and AI Professional. The more you pay, the cheaper each image generation will be. But overall, it’s still more expensive than using “native” platforms. 

Can You Use Nightcafe Images Commercially?

Yes, you can use Nightcafe images commercially if you didn’t use any copyrighted material while creating your art.

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9. ArtBreeder

ArtBreeder is a totally different kind of art generator. It’s not a text-to-image generator but rather an advanced (and complicated) editing tool where you can merge two images together and change all sorts of parameters to achieve the desired result.

Let’s see what it can do!

Possibilities

At the start, there are just two tools: Collager and Splicer.

The Collager looks like “a traditional” image generator where you write what you want. But here, you also draw or make a collage before generating to give the final output a silhouette that you want.

The Splicer is an older tool that runs on the previous generation GAN model. 

This tool allows you to “breed” your images from the parent ones and choose what characteristics from each “parent” image you want to transfer to your “child” one.

There are limited categories, though. You can pick between general, portraits, landscapes, buildings, paintings, sci bio art, characters,  albums, furry portraits, and anime portraits. 

You can also upload your own image to start with, but it can only be a portrait or a landscape.

After you pick your category, choose the image to start with. It can be an existing art or an uploaded image. Then, create.

Key Features

• Unique “breeding” feature
• Completely free (payment is optional)
• Specialized for inspiration
• Web-based

Pricing

Paying for Artbreeder is optional. You can use the platform without ever paying. 

But what do paid plans offer?

Depending on the plan, you get increased image uploads (compared to 3 on a free plan), more high-resolution downloads, more video frames generation, and additional features like Google Drive sync, privacy controls, and custom “genes.”

Can You Use Artbreeder Images Commercially?

Yes, you can use ArtBreeder images commercially if the objects in your art aren’t copyrighted entities.

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10. StarryAI – Abstract Art AI Generator

I wouldn’t say StarryAI is best at anything. It’s just another AI art generator on the market.

What’s interesting about is that it uses completely custom trained AI models rather than finetuned SD like the rest of the competitors.

It has three models: Argo, Argo 2, and Altair. Each for its own use case.

Argo is meant to be used for artistic and product renders.

Argo 2 is the improved version of the first one. And I would say it’s the most capable one.

Both of these can generate images in multiple styles.

The output is decent but I wouldn’t compare it to other models. It’s just different.

The last model is Altair. It’s for generating abstract art in different styles. It’s not bad but nothing impressive.

Overall, it’s a decent AI art generator for illustrations or if you liked some specific art style that it produced. But I wouldn’t recommend it for starters as there are more capable options out there. 

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