MidJourney is one of the most iconic AI image-generation tools, known for its unique artistic style and stunning output quality. On Discord, it has already attracted over 19 million registered users, with 1.2 to 2.5 million people active every day—making it one of the most vibrant creative communities worldwide.
But since March 2023, MidJourney has stopped offering a free trial. That means if you want to fully experience what it can do, you’ll need to understand its different subscription plans and costs. In this article, I’ll break down MidJourney’s latest 2025 pricing and features, compare all four subscription tiers, and help you decide which one fits your needs best.
MidJourney Subscription Costs (2025)
MidJourney currently offers four subscription tiers, each with both monthly and yearly billing options. If you choose the annual plan, you’ll get a 20% discount:
- Basic Plan: $10/month, or $96/year (~$8/month), includes about 3.3 GPU hours
- Standard Plan: $30/month, or $288/year (~$24/month), includes about 15 GPU hours
- Pro Plan: $60/month, or $576/year (~$48/month), includes about 30 GPU hours
- Mega Plan: $120/month, or $1,152/year (~$96/month), includes about 60 GPU hours
Beyond the price differences, each tier also varies in GPU hours, generation speed, privacy options, and the number of concurrent tasks you can run. The comparison table below will give you a clear overview of how the plans differ.
From my own experience, the Standard Plan is the best choice for the MidJourney subscription. With 15 GPU hours plus unlimited Relax Mode, it easily covers everyday creative needs. If you’re a professional designer or working on client projects, the Pro Plan gives you better value for the extra speed and features. As for the Mega Plan, it’s really only practical for teams or companies, since the cost is quite high.
What Do the Different Features Mean?
In the table above, you might have noticed some features that look a little unfamiliar—like Fast Hours, Relax Mode, and Stealth Mode. Here’s what they actually mean. Understanding these differences is the key to picking the subscription plan that really fits your needs.
What is GPU Time?
GPU time refers to the actual amount of time MidJourney’s servers use their GPUs to generate your images or videos. Subscribing to MidJourney basically means you’re paying for access to this GPU time. Each time you submit a generation request, the real computation time—from when it starts processing to when it finishes—is counted as GPU time.
Note: this is not the time you spend waiting in the queue, but the actual working time of the server. For example, even if your image waits a few minutes before starting, the GPU may only need 30–60 seconds to process it, and only those 30–60 seconds will be deducted from your quota.
What are Fast Hours?
Fast Hours are your quota of “high-speed GPU time.” When you switch on Fast Mode, your request is given priority by the GPU, and an image usually takes less than a minute to complete.
- Each subscription tier comes with a fixed amount of Fast Hours (Basic: 3.3 hrs/month, Standard: 15 hrs/month, Pro: 30 hrs/month, Mega: 60 hrs/month).
- On average, 1 hour of Fast GPU ≈ 60 images.
- Once you’ve used up your Fast Hours, you can switch to Relax Mode to keep generating, or purchase extra time separately (around $4/hour).
What is Relax Mode?
Relax Mode also consumes GPU power, but it doesn’t count against your Fast Hours quota. In other words, Relax Mode gives you the possibility of “unlimited generations,” but the trade-off is slower processing and waiting in a queue.
- Only the Standard, Pro, and Mega plans include Relax Mode (not available with Basic).
- Best suited for bulk prompt testing or experimenting with creative ideas.
- A common workflow: explore ideas in Relax Mode first, then switch back to Fast Mode to quickly render high-quality final versions using your GPU time.
What is Stealth Mode?
Stealth Mode does not change how your GPU time is consumed—it mainly affects the visibility of your creations. By default, the images you generate are publicly displayed in the MidJourney community gallery.
Users with a Pro or Mega subscription can enable Stealth Mode to keep their work private while GPU usage is billed normally. This is especially important for commercial projects or creators with higher privacy needs.
MidJourney Subscription Tier Comparison
MidJourney’s GPU quota (Fast Hours) does not roll over to the next month—in other words, any unused hours will simply be cleared. That’s why it’s crucial to carefully choose the plan that truly fits your needs; otherwise, you might end up wasting money. Below, I’ll break down each subscription tier in detail and analyze its overall value for money.
Basic Plan ($10/month)
The Basic Plan is MidJourney’s entry-level option. It includes just 3.3 hours of Fast GPU time per month, with no access to Relax Mode, no support for Stealth Mode, and a limit of 3 concurrent tasks. It also doesn’t grant commercial usage rights, so the images you generate can only be used for personal projects.
At $10 per month, the Basic Plan works out to roughly $0.05–$0.10 per high-quality image. Considering the uniqueness and quality of the outputs, it still offers pretty solid value for casual users who just want to experiment.
Standard Plan ($30/month)
The Standard Plan is the most popular option among MidJourney users and is widely seen as the best value for money. It comes with 15 hours of Fast GPU time, unlimited access to Relax Mode, and supports up to 3 concurrent tasks.
This plan also includes commercial usage rights, meaning you can legally use your generated images in client or business projects. It’s perfect for creators who want to integrate MidJourney into their professional workflow. At $30 per month, the cost can often be recovered with just 1–2 client projects, while significantly boosting both efficiency and output quality.
Pro Plan ($60/month)
The Pro Plan offers 30 hours of Fast GPU time along with unlimited Relax Mode. It also unlocks Stealth Mode, allowing you to generate images privately without them being published in the community gallery. On top of that, the concurrent task limit jumps from 3 to 12, making it ideal for users who need to handle multiple requests at the same time.
Stealth Mode is especially valuable for protecting client confidentiality, while the higher concurrency supports smoother team workflows. At $48–$60 per month (depending on annual vs. monthly billing), the cost is still far more economical than hiring an additional designer.
Mega Plan ($120/month)
The Mega Plan is MidJourney’s top-tier subscription. It includes 60 hours of Fast GPU time each month, unlimited Relax Mode, and Stealth Mode, with up to 12 concurrent tasks. This plan allows you to generate over 3,600 high-speed images per month, far exceeding the output of other tiers.
With 60 hours of monthly GPU time, the Mega Plan is well-suited for large-scale marketing campaigns and multiple projects running in parallel. At $96–$120 per month (depending on annual or monthly billing), it offers a clear cost advantage compared to traditional design outsourcing.
Which MidJourney Subscription Is Right for You?
If you’re still unsure, the choice can actually be broken down quite simply by matching your needs with your budget:
- Just curious about AI art? Want to generate the occasional avatar or social media banner 👉 Go with the Basic Plan.
- Content creator, blogger, or freelance designer? Need regular illustrations or cover images 👉 The Standard Plan is the best value.
- Professional designer or small studio? Working on client projects and need privacy protection 👉 The Pro Plan is the smarter pick.
- Enterprise, agency, or team? Require high-volume, large-scale creation 👉 The Mega Plan is built for you.
Can You Still Try MidJourney for Free?
After reading the breakdown above, you might still be wondering: “What if I don’t know how many images I’ll need in a month?” or “Can I at least test MidJourney’s output before committing to a plan?” Unfortunately, MidJourney has completely discontinued its free trial service.
In the early days, new users could generate about 25 images for free. But due to heavy server demand and abuse, the company gradually phased this out. Now, every new user must pick and subscribe to a paid plan before using MidJourney.
That said, there are still workarounds if you just want to test it out. I’ve personally tried a few alternatives, and some third-party AI platforms (like Rita, which integrates MidJourney’s official model) are worth considering.
They let you experience the same image-generation power without having to immediately pay for a MidJourney subscription.
Platforms That Offer a MidJourney Free Trial
Rita is an all-in-one AI platform that covers the core creative tools you’re most likely to need—AI chat, image generation, video creation, and even music production. Each feature is powered by today’s leading models (like ChatGPT, MidJourney, and Stable Diffusion).
Rita connects directly to MidJourney’s official models, including V6, V6.1, and the latest V7, delivering results identical to the official platform.
Unlike MidJourney’s fixed subscription plans, Rita uses a more flexible credit-based system, with two options: $3.69/month for 200 credits or $8.99/month for 1,200 credits. If you purchase multiple months at once, the average monthly fee becomes even lower.
In terms of usage, each MidJourney generation consumes 10 credits, but Rita also gives you 10 free credits every day, which means you essentially get one free trial image daily.
On top of that, purchased credits roll over into the next billing cycle, unlike MidJourney’s “use-it-or-lose-it” system. This flexibility makes Rita better suited for different usage habits and more cost-efficient overall.
How to Lower Your MidJourney Subscription Cost
If you still want to stick with MidJourney’s official subscription, there are a few practical tricks that can help you reduce the cost without compromising your experience.
Use a Subscription-Sharing Platform (Recommended)
Compared to buying a plan on your own, subscription sharing is one of the best ways to bring the price down. For instance, GamsGo is a good reviews account-sharing platform that offers MidJourney subscriptions for under $15. This has become my go-to way of subscribing to MidJourney Standard—it gives me the same full features at just a fraction of the official cost.
Make Smart Use of Relax Mode
If you’re on the Standard plan or higher, take full advantage of unlimited Relax Mode for bulk experiments and non-urgent projects. By running these tasks in Relax Mode, you can save your precious Fast Hours for truly urgent or high-priority work.
Choose the Annual Plan Discount
All MidJourney plans offer a 20% discount for annual billing, which is the most straightforward way to save. For example, the Standard Plan drops to about $24/month with annual billing, saving you $6 each month—or a total of $72 per year compared to paying monthly.
Comparing MidJourney with Other AI Image Generators
Aside from MidJourney, you can also try other AI image generators—there are plenty of MidJourney alternatives on the market. Some of them even offer free trial versions. Popular options include OpenAI’s DALL·E 3, the open-source Stable Diffusion, and Adobe Firefly.
Each has its own strengths, and understanding their features and pricing can help you decide whether MidJourney truly fits your needs best. The table below gives you a quick overview of the core pricing for each AI tool.
DALL·E 3 is built directly into ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) and can only be used through the ChatGPT platform, usually with some free credits included.
It has strong comprehension abilities, making it well-suited for turning complex text prompts into images. However, its results are generally more realistic in style and lack the strong artistic touch that MidJourney provides.
Stable Diffusion is an open-source and free model that you can download and run locally.
It supports training and fine-tuning, allowing for a highly customizable image-generation experience with great flexibility. The drawback is that it has a higher learning curve and requires both solid hardware and technical knowledge.
Firefly is Adobe’s generative AI, deeply integrated into Photoshop, Illustrator, and other Creative Cloud apps.
Designers can call on AI tools directly within their familiar workflows to handle tasks like retouching, background replacement, canvas extension, and object removal. However, it doesn’t create original works with a distinctive style and atmosphere, the way MidJourney does.
Summary
While MidJourney may be relatively expensive, it remains ahead of the competition in terms of image quality, artistic creativity, and professional-grade features. For creators who are aiming for the very best results, its pricing is justified.
The subscription tier I recommend most is the MidJourney Standard Plan, as it strikes the ideal balance between cost and features. It includes commercial usage rights, unlimited Relax Mode, and enough Fast Hours to meet most professional needs.
However, if you’re budget-conscious and don’t require heavy image generation, a subscription-sharing platform or Rita, which integrates MidJourney’s official models, can give you a more affordable way to enjoy the same benefits.
