If you already pay for ChatGPT, my answer is shorter. I used Midjourney back in the day, and what made me stop is another subscription, and I wasn’t using it often, just for images. It wasn’t worth it.

Every header image on this blog comes out of a subscription I already had. So below you get Midjourney’s real prices from its own help center, and then my honest take on whether you need it at all.

Midjourney’s 4 plans run $10 to $120, and only 3 get unlimited images

From Midjourney’s Comparing Plans page, checked October 18, 2026. The “roughly how many prompts” column is my math, explained under the table.

Midjourney’s plan table, captured October 18, 2026.

How the math works: Midjourney sells GPU time, and every prompt draws it down. Its GPU speed page lists a standard (SD) prompt at about 0.8 minutes and an HD prompt at 1.3. Divide the plan’s minutes by that and you get the column. Upscales, odd aspect ratios and older versions cost more, so treat it as a ceiling.

Each prompt gives you a grid of four options, so 250 prompts is a lot of pictures. One more rule from the same page: unused Fast time does not carry over to next month.

Why I stopped paying for Midjourney

Back then, image generation inside your regular AI subscription was not good enough. ChatGPT had it, but it was very ugly. You have to get lucky to get a good one, and then you couldn’t edit it. That’s very early on.

Midjourney was different. You typed one prompt and got several images to pick from. At the time it was kind of the Photoshop of AI images.

It made me feel like I was this artist, but I really didn’t use it.

So it was one more monthly bill for something I opened now and then. That’s the whole reason I left.

What I tell an Etsy owner who already pays $20 for ChatGPT

Say you run an Etsy shop, you make a few social graphics a week, and you already pay $20 for ChatGPT Plus. Should you add Midjourney’s cheapest plan?

I tell her don’t add it. ChatGPT has arguably one of the best, if not the best, image model generation now. That’s my opinion. I didn’t run a benchmark.

What I can point to is the editing. They have so much editing now that you can generate an image and make surgical edits.

OpenAI’s image help page says you can select part of an image with the selection tool and describe the change. It also warns that highlights are not always precise and edits may spill past the area you picked.

One correction to how I said it out loud. I called it “Image Gen 2 or 2.5 or whatever we’re in right now.” It’s 2.5: OpenAI’s Images 2.5 announcement says it is rolling out to ChatGPT users on all tiers.

And it’s all included with your subscription, so you get more bang out of it. On ChatGPT’s pricing page today, Free lists “Limited image creation,” Go lists “More image creation,” and Plus lists “More complex and accurate image creation.” OpenAI publishes no image count per day for any of them.

My own ChatGPT plan screen, October 18, 2026.

That’s my receipt. I’m on ChatGPT Pro 200, and the images on this site, more than a hundred headers since July, run through that subscription. I’m on the big plan for other work. For a few social graphics a week, Plus is plenty.

Where Midjourney still wins: four options per prompt and the look

Midjourney does a couple of things ChatGPT doesn’t, and you should hear them.

• Four options every time. One prompt returns a grid of four, so you pick instead of re-rolling. In my use, ChatGPT hands you one at a time.
• Unlimited images on Standard and up. Relax mode has no image cap. ChatGPT Plus has a limit it doesn’t publish.
• Its own editor now. V8.2, the default since July 24, 2026 per the Version page, added an Edit model for changing parts of an image.

But I think Grok Imagine has that Midjourney feel. It gives you a spread of options from one prompt.

My Grok Imagine screen, September 10, 2026. One prompt, four takes.

Imagine is part of xAI’s $8 Plus plan, per xAI’s pricing page, and the free plan lists it as limited. If you’re heavy on images, that’s the one I’d debate, not Midjourney. More on that in is Grok Imagine free.

At the same time, you can just run a prompt and have AI give you multiple. Ask ChatGPT for three versions and pick one.

It’s not even a deal breaker. You’re paying for ChatGPT, keep it.

Is Midjourney free? No, the only trial is in the niji journey app

Midjourney’s Free Trials page says it plainly: “No free trial is currently available in Discord or the midjourney.com website.”

The one exception is a limited trial in the separate niji journey app on iOS and Android. It’s a taste of the tool before you pay.

If you find a page saying Midjourney is free for everyone, check its date before you believe it.

Basic or Standard: the extra $20 buys unlimited images

On Basic you get 200 minutes of Fast time, and that’s it. When it runs out, you buy more at $4 an hour (the same rate on every plan) or you wait for your renewal date.

That’s exactly what tripped up u/utnutn on r/midjourney, who hit the “run out of hours” message on Basic and asked: “Does this mean ‘I have to wait for 30 days time to use’; OR ‘wait until the day the next payment is taken’?”

The answer is the renewal date. Midjourney resets Fast time each time your subscription renews. Switching to Relax won’t help on Basic, because Basic doesn’t have it.

Standard adds Relax: unlimited images that wait in line for “0 to 30 minutes,” per Midjourney, with shorter waits if you use Relax less often.

So for u/Clear_Ad9788, who asked “I plan to use it mostly everyday, would it be enough for a month?”: by my math, Basic works out to around eight SD prompts a day over 30 days. Daily use means Standard.

Pro at $60 is for privacy and the $1M rule

Two reasons push people up to Pro. The rest of what it adds is more Fast time, more prompts running at once, and Relax for SD video.

Privacy. Stealth mode is only on Pro and Mega, per the Stealth Mode page. On Basic and Standard, your images show up on Midjourney’s website.

Two catches: images you make in a public Discord channel stay visible even with Stealth on, and upgrading doesn’t hide your old public images. You have to make those private by hand.

This is the real question for a seller. u/Admirable_Papaya_494 put it this way: “Now digital products has become very cheap so it is challenging to pay 60 usd per month for private mode.”

Company size. Every paid plan allows commercial use. But Midjourney’s commercial use page says a business grossing more than $1,000,000 a year needs Pro or Mega. It also says you own your images, even if you cancel later.

Which Midjourney plan to pick, by who you are

• You already pay for ChatGPT and make a few graphics a week: skip Midjourney. Use the editor you already have, and see is ChatGPT Plus worth it if you’re still deciding on Plus.
• You want lots of options per prompt and pay for nothing yet: try Grok Imagine first. See how to use Grok.
• You want the Midjourney look specifically and make images most days: Standard. Basic runs dry and has no Relax.
• Your designs are your product, or your company grosses over $1M: Pro, for Stealth or because the terms require it.
• You’re testing a few prompts: use the niji journey trial, not a paid plan.

For me, no job brings me back. I would not pay for it again. And if you’re sorting out which AI subscriptions earn a slot at all, start with the AI plan tracker.

Where this comes from

The prices, trial, Stealth and $1M rules are from Midjourney’s help center, and the ChatGPT and Grok image rows from their pricing pages, all checked October 18, 2026. The plan screen and the Grok Imagine screen are my own accounts.

I used Midjourney back in the day and stopped. I haven’t tried V8.2 or today’s web app.

Published October 18, 2026. Prices checked the same day against Midjourney’s help center.