What is Midjourney? Pricing and How to Create High-Quality Images

Midjourney is the legendary “AI painting machine” that turns any vague idea into stunning digital artworks with just a few descriptive words. Launched in 2022, it quickly became an icon of generative art. Midjourney operates entirely through Discord – you just need to type a prompt like “a cyberpunk city at sunset, retro-futuristic style, highly detailed, neon lighting” to instantly receive a series of gallery-quality images, ranging from anime, surrealism, and photorealistic styles to classic oil paintings.

With the latest versions v6.1 and Niji 6 (specializing in anime, launched in 2025), the level of detail, character consistency, and prompt understanding has reached a “near-magical” level, excelling in pure artistic creativity. Despite not having a dedicated web interface and requiring a paid subscription starting from $10/month, Midjourney remains the number one choice for millions of artists, designers, and content creators – a place where imagination truly has no limits, and every generation can be an unexpected masterpiece.

1. What is Midjourney?

Midjourney is a generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) program and service developed and hosted by Midjourney, Inc. – an independent research lab based in San Francisco, USA. Described as an “independent research lab,” Midjourney focuses on exploring and developing creative AI models, particularly text-to-image AI technology. The platform allows users to create artistic, realistic, or abstract images simply by entering a “prompt” (text description), such as “a futuristic city on a bioluminescent coast with a faint aurora.” Midjourney is not just an image generation tool but also a community ecosystem with over 21 million members on Discord – the largest server on the platform – where users share, vote on, and refine their creations. By 2025, Midjourney had expanded into text-to-video and text-to-3D, but its core remains text-to-image, with millions of daily users and widespread application in advertising, design, and entertainment.

1.1 History and Development

Midjourney was founded in 2022 by David Holz (CEO, former founder of Leap Motion and a renowned software engineer), along with a team of about 10 machine learning engineers. The initial goal was to build an independent lab to research and develop diffusion models for image creation and editing, aiming to democratize artistic creation with AI – helping anyone, without drawing skills, to create professional-quality images. It launched publicly as an open beta on July 12, 2022, on Discord, quickly attracting a community due to its collaborative nature (users vote on images to help the AI learn and improve). Key milestones: V1 (2022: basic, often distorted images); V4 (2022: improved realism); V6 (December 2023: text integration into images); V6.1 (July 2024: refined details); and V7 (April 2025: alpha, with a draft mode 10x faster, lower cost, and support for deepfakes/video). By 2025, Midjourney was self-funded, launched its own website (midjourney.com), and faced copyright lawsuits from Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. (June-September 2025), but it remained a leader with a community of 21 million members and collaborations like the one with Meta (August 2025) to create licensed content. The long-term goal: To turn AI into a “creative companion” rather than a replacement for artists, fostering a community “hive mind” for the AI to learn from human feedback.

1.2 Core Technology:

Midjourney’s core technology is the diffusion model – a type of deep learning algorithm inspired by the process of diffusion in physics, where molecules spread from areas of high concentration to low. To simplify: The AI starts with random “noise” (like TV static, representing a blurry image), then gradually “cleans” the noise over thousands of steps to create a clear image based on the prompt. The process: (1) Learning from massive data: Midjourney trains on billions of images from the internet (paired with text descriptions from datasets like LAION), using a large language model (LLM) to analyze the prompt into key concepts (e.g., “futuristic city” → a numerical vector representing colors, shapes, and styles). (2) Reverse diffusion: Noise is added to the original data to “forget” the image, and then the model learns to reverse this process (denoising) to reconstruct a high-quality image from the noise. (3) Integration: It combines cross-attention to ensure the image matches the prompt and custom algorithms to balance creativity (adding unexpected elements) with accuracy. By V7 (2025), the model is faster, more accurate with short prompts, and supports 3D/NeRF-like features for immersive content, but it still relies on diffusion to achieve high realism (>95% resemblance to professional photos).

1.3 What Makes Midjourney Different

Midjourney stands out due to its combination of proprietary technology and a community-driven model, producing images with a high-end artistic style that is more detailed and creative than competitors like DALL-E (OpenAI), Stable Diffusion (Stability AI), or Adobe Firefly. Key differentiators: (1) Superior artistic style: It focuses on an “artistic flair” with rich textures, cinematic lighting, and balanced composition. For example, a simple prompt can generate images resembling oil paintings or Hollywood film stills, whereas Stable Diffusion often requires more tweaking to avoid distortions (like human hands). V7 (2025) improves character consistency (maintaining a face across multiple renders) and photorealism, surpassing DALL-E in texture detail (skin, fur, water). (2) Quality and speed: Images are sharper (supporting 8K upscaling), 10 times faster in draft mode (V7), and have high prompt accuracy (even with short prompts), unlike Stable Diffusion (which is free/open-source but less stable and requires a powerful GPU). (3) Exclusive Discord community: Initially without a dedicated app (transitioning to the web in 2024), its 21-million-member server allows users to upvote images for the AI to learn from, creating a creative “hive mind” – something DALL-E lacks. However, Midjourney is proprietary (not open-source), more expensive ($10-120/month), and faces copyright issues (lawsuits in 2025). In return, it offers stylistic flexibility (over 250 hybrid styles) and tools like Omni Reference (maintaining object consistency from a reference image). In summary, Midjourney is for professional artists seeking “unexpected inspiration,” while Stable Diffusion is suitable for developers who need customization.

2. Key Features of Midjourney AI

Midjourney is currently the world’s most powerful text-to-image tool in terms of artistry, detail, and surprising creativity. Below are the most “valuable” features that users in Vietnam and globally are leveraging every day.

3. Detailed Guide to Using Midjourney AI for Beginners

Midjourney is a powerful AI image generation tool, but getting started can be a bit complex as it primarily runs on Discord. This guide is for beginners in Vietnam in 2025, with simple steps based on the latest V7 (alpha) model. Midjourney is no longer free as of March 2023 (after its beta trial ended), so you’ll need to purchase a subscription plan from the start. Setup time is about 10-15 minutes.

3.1. Requirements and Preparation

• Discord Account (guide to create one if you don’t have it).

Midjourney operates entirely on Discord (or the midjourney.com website since 2024), so you need a Discord account:

• Download the free Discord app from discord.com (iOS/Android/PC).
• If you don’t have an account: Open the app → Click “Register” → Enter your email, username, password, date of birth → Verify your email/SMS.
• If you already have an account: Log in and verify your account (add a phone number to avoid restrictions).
• Tip: Use a separate account for Midjourney to avoid clutter with your personal servers. Discord supports Vietnamese, but the Midjourney interface is primarily in English.

• Understand that Midjourney is no longer free (as of March 2023).

Midjourney has discontinued its free trial to focus on high quality and its paid community. You need to purchase a subscription plan (starting from $10/month) to generate images. There are no free credits, but the Basic plan is sufficient for beginners (about 200 images/month). For testing, you can use the midjourney.com website to preview prompts without generating full images.

3.2. Subscribing and Purchasing a Midjourney Plan

• The Basic, Standard, Pro, and Mega plans and their specific costs.

Midjourney offers 4 subscription plans (billed monthly or annually with a 20% saving). Prices are in USD and are based on GPU time (GPU processing time, ~3.3-60 hours/month depending on the plan). Each image grid (4 variations) costs ~1 minute of GPU time in Fast mode. Annual plans: Basic $96/year (~$8/month), Standard $288/year (~$24/month), Pro $576/year (~$48/month), Mega $1,152/year (~$96/month).

• Basic ($10/month): 3.3 hours of Fast GPU time (~200 images), no Relax mode (slow generation that doesn’t consume GPU time), 3 concurrent jobs. Suitable for newbies.
• Standard ($30/month): 15 hours of Fast GPU time (~900 images), unlimited Relax mode (slow, relaxed generation), 3 concurrent jobs.
• Pro ($60/month): 30 hours of Fast GPU time (~1,800 images), unlimited Relax mode, Stealth mode (hides images from the public gallery), 12 concurrent jobs.
• Mega ($120/month): 60 hours of Fast GPU time (~3,600 images), all Pro features, 12 concurrent jobs. For businesses (companies with >$1 million USD in annual revenue must use the Pro/Mega plan according to the TOS).

Overage: $4/additional GPU hour. Stealth mode is only available for Pro/Mega plans (hides images from the Explore page).

• Guide to signing up and purchasing a plan on the Midjourney website.

1. Go to midjourney.com → Click “Sign In” (or “Join the Beta” if you’re new).
2. Log in with Discord (connect your Discord account).
3. After logging in, go to Manage Subscription (in the menu or directly at: midjourney.com/account).
4. Choose a plan: Scroll down to the Plans section → Click “Subscribe” under your desired plan.
5. Select payment: Monthly/Yearly, enter your credit card/PayPal information (supports VND through conversion).
6. Confirm: Click “Subscribe” → You will receive a confirmation email. The plan is activated immediately, and your GPU time is ready.

• Tip: If you purchase on Discord (/subscribe), you will be redirected to the website. You can cancel your plan at any time via Manage Subscription.

3.3. Getting Started with Midjourney on Discord

• Join the official Midjourney server and the “newbies” channels.

1. Open Discord → Click the “+” on the left → “Join a Server” → Paste the link: discord.gg/midjourney → Join.
2. The server has >21 million members. Find channels #newbies-1 to #newbies-100 (or #general-#) – this is where newbies start, and it’s less crowded.
3. In a newbie channel: Type /imagine + a prompt to try it out (after subscribing). Look at other people’s images to learn about prompts.

• Tip: Use #prompt-craft for prompt suggestions, #vietnam-art for the Vietnamese community (search for the separate “Midjourney Vietnam” room with >50k members).

• Create a private server and invite the Midjourney Bot for a more personal experience.

1. On Discord: Click the “+” on the left → “Create My Own” → Create a new server (example name: “Midjourney VN”).
2. Invite the bot: Go to the main Midjourney server → Click the Member List icon (on the right) → Find “Midjourney Bot” → Right-click → “Add to Server” → Select your server → Authorize (allow the bot to send messages, embed links).
3. In your private server: Type /imagine to create private images (not public). Invite friends to join and collaborate.

• Benefits: More private images (though still public on midjourney.com unless in Stealth mode), easy to organize threads.

3.4. Basic Commands and How to Create Your First Image

• The /imagine command: How to enter a prompt to create an image.

1. In a newbie channel or your private server: Type /imagine → Enter → The prompt box will appear.
2. Enter a description: For example, “/imagine prompt: A Vietnamese dragon flying over the Red River, Dong Ho painting style, highly detailed –ar 16:9 –v 7” (add parameters like –ar for aspect ratio, –v 7 for the latest version).
3. Send: The bot will generate a grid of 4 images in 10-60 seconds (depending on Fast/Relax mode).

• Tip: A good prompt: Subject + style + details + parameters (–q 2 for high quality, –stylize 600 for artistic).

• The /settings command: Adjust basic settings.

Type /settings → Select a preset: Raw (less intervention), High Stylize (artistic), Version (latest V7). Or adjust individually: –stylize (0-1000), –chaos (0-100 for diversity).

• The U (Upscale) and V (Variations) buttons after generating an image.

After the 4-image grid:

• U1-U4: Upscale the selected image to a higher resolution (2x, better quality, uses GPU time).
• V1-V4: Create similar variations (Strong V changes a lot, Subtle keeps it similar).
• Click the button below the image → The bot will generate more.

• Saving images and managing your creations.

• Right-click the image → “Save Image As” (PC) or long-press → Save (mobile).
• Management: On midjourney.com → Organize (personal gallery, filter prompts, delete). Use /show [Job ID] to review. Save prompts by copying from the bot’s message.
• Tip: Use Remix mode (/remix on) to edit old images with a new prompt. Track your GPU time with /info.

Start with the Basic plan, try a simple prompt like “Ancient Hanoi scene, cyberpunk style –v 7”. Join the Vietnamese community to learn more! If you encounter an error, check your subscription or ask in #support on Discord.

4. The Art of Writing Effective Prompts for Midjourney

Writing prompts is the skill that determines 90% of the image quality. A beginner only needs about a week of practice to start creating impressive images. Below are the formulas and practical tips most used by the Vietnamese and global communities in 2025.

4.1. Basic Prompt Structure (The Golden Formula)

text

Main Subject + Physical Details + Clothing/Props + Artistic Style + Artist/Period + Lighting + Environment + Mood + Technical Parameters

Complete example:

“Beautiful Vietnamese girl, 20 years old, long black hair, wearing white áo dài, intricate lace details, standing in misty rice field at golden hour, soft cinematic lighting, in the style of Gregory Crewdson and Phan Kế An, highly detailed, 8k, masterpiece –ar 2:3 –v 7 –stylize 750 –q 2”

4.2. Important Elements in a Prompt

4.3. Advanced Parameters

4.4. Practical Tips and Tricks for Writing Prompts

1. Always write in English (AI understands English best). If you’re not fluent, use ChatGPT/Gemini to translate and optimize your prompt.
2. The more specific, the better: Instead of “beautiful girl” → “stunning 22-year-old Vietnamese girl, sharp cat eyes, long wavy black hair, porcelain skin, wearing elegant white áo dài with lotus embroidery”.
3. Use commas (,) instead of long sentences → AI understands it more easily.
4. Use strong negative prompting:
   text
   –no blurry, low quality, bad anatomy, extra fingers, watermark, text, logo, deformed face
5. Combine Vietnamese + international artists → for extremely unique results:
   text
   in the style of Bùi Xuân Phái and Greg Rutkowski
6. Experiment with synonyms:
   • Replace “beautiful” with “stunning / ethereal / breathtaking”
   • Replace “light” with “volumetric god rays / soft ambient / rim lighting”
7. Learn from the best prompts:
   • Go to midjourney.com/explore → filter by Top 24h → click on an image → view the original prompt.
   • Join the “Midjourney Vietnam” server → there are #prompt-tieng-viet and #prompt-share channels.
   • Use the /describe command: upload a beautiful image → the bot will suggest 4 prompts → use them as a foundation.

Example of a “one-shot” prompt for Vietnamese users (V7)

text

Hanoi old quarter at dusk, narrow alley with hanging red lanterns, wet cobblestone street reflecting neon signs, steam from pho stall, cinematic atmosphere, in the style of Gregory Crewdson and Nguyễn Tư Nghiêm, dramatic lighting, highly detailed, 8k –ar 3:2 –v 7 –stylize 800 –q 2 –no blur, text, watermark

By practicing just 20-30 prompts with the structure above, you’ll be able to create gallery-quality images in just one week!

5. Practical Applications of Midjourney in Life and Work

Midjourney has gone far beyond being “just for fun” and has become a real production tool for tens of thousands of Vietnamese users: freelancers, agencies, studios, startups, advertising agencies, publishers, universities, and more. Below are the 7 hottest applications, with practical examples from Vietnamese users in 2025.

Top 5 Professions Where Vietnamese People Earn Real Money from Midjourney in 2025

1. Freelance Prompt Engineer (5-30 million VND/month): Write in-depth prompts for agencies.
2. AI Concept Artist (15-60 million VND): Work remotely for studios in the US, Korea, and Japan.
3. NFT/Print-on-demand (10-200 million VND): Sell Midjourney artwork on OpenSea, Redbubble.
4. Social Media Content Creator: Create images + short videos with Midjourney → go viral on TikTok.
5. Midjourney Instructor: Online courses for 3-7 million VND/student (extremely popular on Unica, Kyna).

Legal Considerations in Vietnam

• Use the Pro/Mega plan + enable Stealth Mode for sensitive commercial projects.
• Do not sell raw (unedited) images directly without a commercial license.
• Post-processing with Photoshop + 10-20% manual drawing is recommended to avoid copyright risks when registering for intellectual property.

6. Pros and Cons of Midjourney AI

Midjourney is a leading text-to-image tool, trusted by over 21 million users on Discord and tens of thousands of Vietnamese creators. Based on community reviews (Reddit, X, G2), a post on X (@AIArtVibe, October 2025), and hands-on experience with the V7 alpha, here is an objective analysis of its pros and cons, focusing on the Vietnamese context.

6.1. Pros

6.2. Disadvantages

Evaluation Summary

• Strengths: Midjourney is the #1 choice for artistic quality, ease of use, and an extremely strong support community (especially in Vietnam with >50k members). Suitable for freelancers and startups looking to save costs and time (80-90%).
• Weaknesses: Minimum cost of $10/month, requires basic English, and needs post-processing to ensure commercial copyright. Not ideal if you need accurate text or only want a free option (Stable Diffusion is better for this case).

Recommendation: Start with the Basic Plan ($10/month), learn prompts from “Midjourney Vietnam” on Discord, and do light post-processing with Photoshop/Canva for optimization. If you want to make money from Midjourney (NFTs, advertising), upgrade to the Pro plan ($60/month) for Stealth Mode and a full license. With the Vietnamese creative market projected to grow by 200% in 2025, Midjourney is an indispensable tool for anyone who wants to lead!

7. Midjourney vs. Other AI Image Generation Tools: A Detailed Comparison

Midjourney V7 (alpha) continues to lead in artistic quality, but competitors like DALL-E 3 (integrated with GPT-4o), Stable Diffusion (SDXL 1.0), and Adobe Firefly (v3) have narrowed the gap thanks to 2025 updates. The comparison below is based on benchmarks from Writesonic, eWeek, and Vertu, focusing on strengths, limitations, and suitability for users in Vietnam (where the creative community has grown by 150% thanks to TikTok/YouTube).

7.1. Midjourney vs. DALL-E 3

• Strengths: Midjourney excels in artistic quality (cinematic, emotional depth >95% similar to professional paintings), unexpected creativity (supports 300+ hybrid styles), and its Discord community (21 million users). DALL-E 3 is strong in prompt accuracy (98% text rendering, photorealistic), ChatGPT integration (conversational editing), and an easy-to-use API for automation.
• Limitations: Midjourney is less accurate with details (sometimes incorrect anatomy, garbled text) and is dependent on Discord (lags during peak hours). DALL-E 3 is less creative (images are “safer,” with less artistic flair) and has a prompt length limit (400 characters).
• Who is it for: Midjourney is for artists/concept designers (e.g., Vietnamese creators making NFTs, album covers). DALL-E 3 is for marketers/developers (creating quick banners, integrating with CMS like WordPress).
• Speed: Midjourney is faster (3-5 seconds/grid in Draft Mode V7); DALL-E 3 is slower (10-20 seconds, but more stable).
• Copyright: Both support commercial use (paid plans), but DALL-E 3 is safer (not facing lawsuits like Midjourney from Disney in 2025), with full ownership; Midjourney requires post-processing to avoid risks.

7.2. Midjourney vs. Stable Diffusion

• Strengths: Midjourney is easy to use (simple prompts produce beautiful images instantly), with consistent quality (V7 improves character consistency by 80%). Stable Diffusion (SDXL) is strong in open source (thousands of custom models on Civitai) and flexibility (inpainting/outpainting, ControlNet for precise poses).
• Limitations: Midjourney is proprietary (no model customization) and has a high cost ($10+/month). Stable Diffusion has technical requirements (local installation needs a powerful GPU, complex UI like Automatic1111).
• Open Source: Midjourney is closed source (self-funded, does not share code). Stable Diffusion is fully open source (Stability AI), easy to fork/train new models.
• Customization Capability: Stable Diffusion is superior (change steps, samplers, LoRA for Vietnamese styles like “cyberpunk ao dai”); Midjourney only allows customization through parameters (–cref, –sref).
• Technical Requirements: Midjourney has low requirements (Discord/web). Stable Diffusion has high requirements (install Python, NVIDIA GPU ≥8GB for local use; or use web versions like Hugging Face which are free but slow).
• Who is it for: Midjourney is for newbies/freelancers (quick concept creation). Stable Diffusion is for developers/researchers (customizing assets for Vietnamese games like “Arena of Valor”).

7.3. Midjourney vs. Adobe Firefly

• Strengths: Midjourney is strong in artistry (surreal, mood-driven >95% aesthetic score) and has a creative community. Firefly is strong in integration (seamless with Photoshop/Illustrator, Generative Fill for quick edits).
• Limitations: Midjourney has poor commercial safety (LAION dataset leading to lawsuits in 2025). Firefly is less creative (results are “safe,” with little abstract flair).
• Ecosystem Integration: Firefly is superior (Creative Cloud, API for enterprise; e.g., direct export to InDesign). Midjourney is only available on Discord/web, with no deep integration.
• Commercial Style: Firefly is ideal (trained on licensed Adobe Stock, 100% commercial-safe, watermark-free). Midjourney requires Stealth Mode (Pro+), with higher copyright risks.
• Who is it for: Midjourney is for independent artists (NFTs, concept art). Firefly is for Vietnamese designers/agencies (Shopee ads, brand kits).

7.4. Other free alternatives

• Stable Diffusion (Online): Free/open-source via Hugging Face/Civitai; highly customizable, but requires a local GPU for speed (good for Vietnamese devs).
• Bing Image Creator (DALL-E 3): 100% free via Bing/ChatGPT free; 15 boosts/day, easy to use, good for photorealism.
• Google Imagen 3 (via Gemini): Unlimited free use; hyper-realistic, supports Vietnamese prompts, but has poor editing capabilities.
• Playground AI: 50 free images/day; user-friendly, supports Stable Diffusion XL, good for newbies.
• Craiyon: Completely free, fast for basic sketches; lower quality but unlimited.
• Leonardo AI (Free Tier): 150 tokens/day (~30 images); strong for game assets, train custom models.

Overall comparison table