Top 7 AI image generators that serve as excellent alternatives to Midjourney

Leonardo AI: Powerful performance and customisation

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Leonardo AI stands out with its professional interface and multiple models for different applications. You can customise images more granularly than any other tool here. The tool is also the most feature-rich on this list, putting it right on the top. For instance, you can set the resolution to a highly-detailed 2688×2688 pixels, choose the number of outputs, and even pick the depth of field for photorealistic images.

For photorealism, the optional Alchemy V2 model produces stunning results with impressive detail down to reflections, shadows, and subtle textures. LeonardoAI’s only constraint is a limit of just 7 free prompts, but this resets the next day so the free version should be sufficient for most users.

Adobe Firefly: Harnessing Adobe’s AI prowess

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You may not expect image editing pioneer Adobe to offer its own AI image generator, but Firefly leverages the Photoshop maker’s expertise. In our experience, this model generates more detailed human subjects than Dall-E 2 in our testing, even as inanimate objects and humans are on par in quality. There’s some scope for improvement in prompt recognition, though.

One surprising characteristic of this tool was the fact that every time we prompted it to generate images of humans, it generated characters with Indian features. It’s likely that Firefly identifies your location and generates regionally appropriate humans by default to workaround regional biases. For example, Indian users see Indian-looking people unless race is specified.

DALL-E 2: A versatile text-to-image AI from the creators of ChatGPT

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Developed by leading AI research company OpenAI, DALL-E 2 is renowned for efficiently generating images from text and is one of the most popular tools of its kind. It’s ideal for graphics, concept design, and other applications. The intuitive interface allows both novices and professionals to quickly create compelling visuals in any style, although prompt recognition accuracy seems to have taken a hit lately. Along with the usual stuff, the tool also offers additional features that let you modify existing images by adding or changing elements based on text prompts.

Bing Image Creator: Microsoft Edge users’ favourite

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Powered by DALL-E 2 but with its own style, Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator provides free image generation with a generous 90 images per day. We found it recognised prompts with a notably greater accuracy than others on this list. The model is capable of producing photorealistic output as well, although it does avoid generating unsavoury images with deliberate distortions and other safeguards. Microsoft Edge users would find this tool particularly useful since it’s integrated directly into the browser, accessible through its sidebar.

Stable Diffusion: Fantastic photorealism

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From Stability AI, Stable Diffusion incorporates advanced deep learning for fast image generation with text or image inputs. While the full version requires downloading the code from GitHub, the model is also accessible through the DreamStudio website that provides free access to a more limited version. Interestingly, “photorealistic” prompts yield very realistic results that stand out from the rest of these tools – just take a look at that one image above that got the iPhone logo perfectly right.

Picsart: Mobile photo editor plus AI image generator

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Known primarily as a photo editing app, Picsart now includes an AI image generator accessible with a free account. You can choose from various styles like Portrait, Nature, and Steampunk. Picsart also provides different aspect ratios. However, it struggled to interpret prompts accurately in our testing. But the style options make Picsart useful for quick AI image experiments, especially on mobile. Of course, it still offers all its signature photo editing capabilities as well.

Craiyon: An open-source option

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Craiyon delivers free, unlimited AI image generation through its website. Previously known as DALL-E Mini (even though it’s not actually associated with OpenAI), Craiyon generates six images per prompt for free. However, it lacks detail and accuracy compared to leading image generators. You often have to retry prompts until the output matches your vision. Still, the accessible interface makes Craiyon a fun starting point to explore AI art.