Does Midjourney have a free trial?
No. As of 2026-07, Midjourney does not offer a free trial or a free plan. You must subscribe to use it, starting with the Basic plan at $10 per month ($8/month if billed annually). Midjourney ended its free trial back in 2023 after heavy demand, and it has not returned.
Why — the first-principles explanation
Image generation is expensive to run. Every picture is computed on high-end GPUs, and those chips cost real money to buy, power, and cool. When you generate an image, you are renting a slice of that hardware for a few seconds. Midjourney measures this as 'fast GPU hours,' and each plan includes a set amount.
Because each generation has a hard cost, a free trial invites abuse: people make throwaway accounts, run thousands of images, and never pay. In 2023 Midjourney's free trial was flooded and the company shut it off. Since then the model has been subscription-only, which keeps demand tied to paying users and protects the service's speed.
So instead of a free trial, Midjourney offers a low entry price. The Basic plan is $10 a month and includes roughly 3.3 fast GPU hours, enough for around 200 images. If you cancel, you keep access until the billing period ends. That's the closest thing to a 'try it cheaply' path.
An example that makes it click
It's like an all-you-can-generate arcade that used to hand out free tokens. So many people grabbed free tokens and never bought any that the arcade stopped giving them out. Now the cheapest wristband costs ten dollars and gets you about 200 plays. There's no free sample anymore, but the entry ticket is small, and you can leave whenever you want.
How to do it
- Go to midjourney.com and sign in with a Google, Discord, or email account.
- Open the subscribe or manage-plan page.
- Choose the Basic plan at $10/month (or $8/month billed annually) to start cheaply.
- Generate images; Basic includes about 3.3 fast GPU hours, roughly 200 images.
- Cancel anytime, keeping access until the current billing period ends.
Key facts
- Midjourney has no free trial and no free plan as of 2026-07.
- The free trial was discontinued in 2023 due to overwhelming demand.
- The cheapest paid option is Basic at $10/month, or $8/month billed annually.
- Basic includes about 3.3 fast GPU hours, enough for roughly 200 image generations.
- You can cancel anytime and retain access until the end of the paid period.
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Does Midjourney have a free trial? No. As of 2026, there's no free trial and no free plan. To use it, you need a paid subscription, and the cheapest one, Basic, is ten dollars a month, or eight dollars a month if you pay for a year up front. Why no free option? Every image runs on expensive GPU chips, so free access got flooded with abuse back in 2023, and Midjourney shut it down for good. Instead, they keep the entry price low. Basic gives you about 3.3 fast GPU hours, which is roughly 200 images. And if you don't like it, you can cancel anytime and keep access until your month runs out. So there's no free sample, but there's a cheap way to test it.
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
Was there ever a free trial?
Yes, Midjourney offered a limited free trial until 2023, when it was suspended due to heavy demand and abuse. It has not returned as of 2026-07.
What's the cheapest way to try Midjourney?
The Basic plan at $10/month (or $8/month billed annually). You can cancel anytime and keep access through the end of the billing period.
Can I earn free image time?
Subscribers can earn extra fast time by rating images on the Midjourney website, but you still need a paid plan to start.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Midjourney generally does not advertise refunds for used subscriptions. Check current terms before subscribing, as policies can change.