Midjourney

Editor's Review

Midjourney V8.2 has been the default model since July 24, 2026, refining aesthetics, quality, and personalization controls. Pricing is completely unchanged: Basic $10/month (3.3 fast GPU hours, ~200 images, no Relax), Standard $30/month (15 fast hours + unlimited Relax), Pro $60/month (30 hours + Stealth privacy), Mega $120/month. Annual billing saves 20% but hours still reset monthly. Extra fast hours cost $4/hour on any plan. There is still no free tier whatsoever—the only major generator with zero free entry (only the separate niji·journey mobile app has a limited trial). Commercial terms: only companies with over $1M annual revenue must start at Pro; general commercial use is fine on Basic. What changed is the competitive pressure. ChatGPT's Images 2.5 and Google's free Nano Banana 2 now cover casual image needs, making Midjourney's "is it worth it" question sharper than two months ago. The October 2026 consensus across multiple reviews: buy it if you generate weekly, care deeply about aesthetics, and want fine control; for occasional use, the free alternatives suffice. Text rendering remains weak (~30% accuracy on multi-word phrases). The plan almost everyone should take is still Standard $30/month—multiple October reviews converge on this. Versus competitors: Midjourney wins on artistic aesthetic; DALL-E 3 wins on text rendering and ChatGPT integration; Flux wins on open-source local deployment.