guides/midjourney-pricing.md

midjourney pricing: what each plan gets you, and is it worth it?

updated 2026-10-18 · prices checked on vendor pages

quick answer: Midjourney has four plans: Basic $10/mo, Standard $30/mo, Pro $60/mo and Mega $120/mo. pay for a year upfront and you get 20% off ($8, $24, $48 and $96 a month). there's no free plan and no free trial on the website or Discord. you're paying for GPU time, not a number of pictures.

we rank Midjourney #1 in image, video and design (8.5/10). it's the one people reach for when the picture has to look the business. the price list is short, but the way it's measured catches people out, so get a drink in and we'll walk through it.

last checked: 18 oct 2026, against Midjourney's own help centre (sources at the bottom).

the plans at a glance

all four plans come under Midjourney's general commercial terms. every plan is a subscription that renews automatically until you cancel.

you're buying GPU time, not pictures

this is the bit that confuses folk at the bar. Midjourney sells you time on its GPUs, a bit like data on a phone contract. it only counts while it's actually making your stuff, not while you're staring at the screen.

Midjourney's own rough costs per job:

so, back-of-a-beer-mat maths using those numbers: Basic's 200 fast minutes is roughly 250 SD image prompts a month, or about 25 batches of SD video. upscales, odd aspect ratios and older model versions can cost more, so treat that as a ceiling, not a promise.

fast, relax and turbo

• fast mode uses your monthly fast time. it resets when your subscription renews and unused fast time doesn't roll over.
• relax mode is unlimited and doesn't touch your fast time, but your jobs queue up. Midjourney says waits run from 0 to 30 minutes, and lighter relax users usually wait less. it's images only on Standard, and images plus SD video on Pro and Mega. Basic doesn't get it at all.
• turbo mode is up to four times faster than fast, but it uses double the fast time per job. it's experimental and not currently supported on V8.1.

relax mode is the real reason Standard exists. if you make a lot of images and can wait for them, $30 a month is effectively all-you-can-eat.

the catches (read these before you get your wallet out)

1. no proper free trial. there's no free trial on midjourney.com or Discord. the only taster is a limited trial in the niji・journey mobile app for iOS and Android.

2. Basic has no relax mode. once your 200 fast minutes are gone, you either buy more at $4 an hour, upgrade, or wait for the renewal. a busy session can chew through it quicker than you think.

3. your pictures are public by default. stealth mode, which keeps your images and videos private, is only on Pro and Mega. client work or anything under wraps? that's Pro territory.

4. the $1M rule. if your company makes more than $1,000,000 a year in gross revenue, Midjourney's terms say you must be on Pro or Mega.

5. refunds are tight. you only qualify if you've used less than 20 GPU minutes across the lifetime of your account, relax time included. if you're eligible, the option pops up when you cancel. so don't sign up for a year "to try it".

6. yearly is paid upfront. the 20% saving is real, but you're handing over the full year on day one.

which plan should you pick?

• trying it out, or a few images a week: Basic, $10/mo. watch the fast time.
• making images most days: Standard, $30/mo. unlimited relax images is the whole point.
• client work, private images, or a company over $1M revenue: Pro, $60/mo, for stealth mode and the licence rule.
• video in relax mode, or a small studio hammering it: pro or Mega. mega doubles Pro's fast hours to 60.

is Midjourney worth it vs the rest?

if looks are the whole job, Midjourney is still our pick, and Standard is where it starts to feel like good value. if you need words spelled properly in the image (logos, posters, thumbnails), Ideogram is the specialist. if video is the main event, look at Runway and Kling 4.0. and if you're building image generation into an app rather than making pictures by hand, Nano Banana 2.1 via the Gemini API bills per image instead of per month. the full line-up is in our image, video and design rankings.

faq

how much does Midjourney cost?

Basic is $10/mo, Standard $30/mo, Pro $60/mo and Mega $120/mo. paying yearly upfront knocks 20% off: $96, $288, $576 or $1,152 a year.

is there a Midjourney free trial?

not on the website or Discord. Midjourney points to a limited trial in the niji・journey app for iOS and Android instead.

what's the difference between Midjourney Basic and Standard?

Basic gives you 3.3 hours (200 minutes) of fast GPU time and no relax mode. Standard gives you 15 fast hours, unlimited relax-mode images and HD video.

do Midjourney fast hours roll over?

no. unused monthly fast time is lost when your subscription renews. extra fast time is $4 an hour.

can i use Midjourney images commercially?

all plans come under Midjourney's general commercial terms, but companies making more than $1,000,000 a year in gross revenue must be on Pro or Mega.

tools in this guide

• Midjourney
• Ideogram
• Runway
• Kling 4.0
• Nano Banana 2.1 (Gemini API)

sources

checked 2026-10-18

• comparing Midjourney plans: https://docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/27870484040333-Comparing-Midjourney-Plans
• GPU speed (fast, relax, turbo): https://docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/32016412137741-GPU-Speed-Fast-Relax-Turbo
• free trials: https://docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/27870399340173-Free-Trials
• requesting a refund: https://docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/25386088618253-Requesting-a-Refund
• Ideogram pricing: https://ideogram.ai/pricing
• runway pricing: https://runway.com/pricing

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