Is Midjourney free?
No, Midjourney is not free as of 2026-07. It has no free plan and no free trial. You need a paid subscription to generate images, starting at $10 per month for the Basic plan ($8/month if billed annually). The free trial was discontinued back in 2023 and has not returned.
Why — the first-principles explanation
The reason Midjourney isn't free comes down to hardware cost. Each image is rendered on high-end GPUs that are expensive to run. Unlike a website that serves the same page cheaply to millions, every single generation burns real computing power, so giving it away has a direct dollar cost per picture.
In 2023 Midjourney did offer a free trial, but it was overwhelmed. People created disposable accounts to generate endlessly without paying, which strained the servers and slowed things down for everyone. The company shut the trial off, and the service has been subscription-only since.
Instead of free access, Midjourney keeps the entry price low: $10 a month for Basic, which includes about 3.3 fast GPU hours (roughly 200 images). You can cancel anytime and keep access until the period ends, and subscribers can earn a little extra fast time by rating images. But there is no way to use it for free.
An example that makes it click
Think of a car-racing arcade where each race costs the arcade real electricity. They tried handing out free tokens, but people grabbed endless free tokens and never bought a thing, jamming the machines. So they stopped the freebies and set a low ten-dollar wristband that gets you about 200 races. Cheap to start, but nothing is truly free.
How to do it
- Go to midjourney.com and sign in with Google, email, or Discord.
- Open the subscribe page (there is no free option to select).
- Choose Basic at $10/month, the cheapest way to start.
- Optionally switch to annual billing to pay $8/month.
- Generate images, and cancel anytime while keeping access until the period ends.
Key facts
- Midjourney has no free plan and no free trial as of 2026-07.
- The free trial ended in 2023 after being overwhelmed by demand.
- The lowest-cost plan is Basic at $10/month, or $8/month billed annually.
- Basic includes about 3.3 fast GPU hours, roughly 200 images.
- Subscribers can earn extra fast time by rating images on the website.
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Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no cost to you.▶ The 60-second explainer (script)
Is Midjourney free? No. As of 2026, there's no free plan and no free trial. To make images, you need a paid subscription, and the cheapest one is ten dollars a month, or eight if you pay for a full year. Why isn't it free? Because every image runs on expensive graphics chips, so each picture actually costs money to produce. Midjourney did offer a free trial back in 2023, but so many people abused it with throwaway accounts that they shut it down. Instead, they keep the starting price low. Basic gives you about 3.3 fast GPU hours, which is roughly 200 images, and you can cancel anytime. You can even earn a little extra fast time by rating other images. But bottom line, there's no free way to use it.
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
Can I try Midjourney for free?
Not currently. There's no free trial as of 2026-07. The cheapest entry is the Basic plan at $10/month, which you can cancel anytime.
Why did Midjourney remove the free trial?
The 2023 free trial was flooded with users generating images without paying, straining servers, so Midjourney switched to subscription-only.
Are there free alternatives?
Other AI image tools offer free tiers, but Midjourney itself does not. Quality, style, and rights differ across tools, so compare before switching.
Can I earn free image time?
Paid subscribers can earn extra fast GPU time by rating images on the Midjourney website, but a paid plan is still required to start.