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Midjourney Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Midjourney alternatives: ComfyUI, Invoke, Ideogram, Leonardo.Ai and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•2 min read•Photo Editing & AI Images
Verdict:Midjourney's docs list paid plans only: Basic at $10 a month, Standard at $30, Pro at $60 and Mega at $120, with 20% off for annual billing. Replacing it means picking between a hosted tool and running models yourself. For free hosted testing, Ideogram gives 30 credits a week to accounts that sign in with Google, Apple or Microsoft, and Plus is $20 a month. Adobe Firefly offers free daily generations with limits that refresh each day. Leonardo.ai has a free tier too, so check its pricing page for the current numbers. If you have a decent GPU, ComfyUI (GPL-3.0) and Invoke (Apache-2.0) cost nothing to run, and ComfyUI claims large models can run in as little as 4GB VRAM plus 8GB RAM. The trade-off is taste and effort. Midjourney's pull is its default look and simple prompting; local tools give you control, private generation and no credit counter, but you manage models, workflows and updates. Check each model's licence before commercial use. Leave Midjourney if you generate occasionally and want to stop paying, or if you need images to stay private. Stay if its style is the reason clients hire you. Test two or three free tools on your own prompts before deciding.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ComfyUI | Free (Free to run locally; Comfy Cloud is a separate paid hosted option) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free local generation with full control | Docs only |
| Invoke | Free (Free to use locally under the repository license; hosted Invoke plans were not checked) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Local editing and canvas workflows | Docs only |
| Ideogram | Free (Free plan: 10 slow credits a week, up to 40 images a week) | Web | Trying a hosted generator before paying | Docs only |
| Leonardo.Ai | Free (Free plan with a daily token allowance; check the pricing page for the current amount) | Web | Hosted images without owning a GPU | Docs only |
| Adobe Firefly | Free (Free plan with daily generations across image, video and audio; Adobe does not state a number on the page); paid from $9.99 per month, Standard (2,000 generative credits, monthly billing; Pro $19.99, Pro Plus $49.99, Premium $199.99) | Web | Adobe users who want daily free images | Docs only |
| ChatGPT | Free (Free plan at $0/month); paid from $8 per month (Go; Plus $20/month; availability varies by region) | Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows | AI assistant | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
See the tools in action
Explore the interface and watch a workflow before choosing.
Good fit if
- You have a GPU and want unlimited free images (ComfyUI is the pick)
- You want local inpainting and canvas editing (Invoke is the pick)
- You want a free hosted test before paying (Ideogram is the pick)
- You already use Adobe apps (Adobe Firefly is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Midjourney features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Midjourney today: See pricing page (Midjourney pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
ComfyUI
Compared with Midjourney: GPL-3.0 and free to run locally on Windows, macOS or Linux; the README says big models can run on as little as 4GB VRAM. Midjourney Basic is $10 a month; ComfyUI costs nothing but takes setup.
Price: Free (Free to run locally; Comfy Cloud is a separate paid hosted option) (ComfyUI pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. GPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 143.6k GitHub stars · latest release v0.43.0 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Free local generation with full control.
Invoke
Compared with Midjourney: Apache-2.0 with a canvas for inpainting and outpainting, supporting SD 1.5, SDXL and Flux variants. Free locally; it is a tool to run models, not a model with a Midjourney look.
Price: Free (Free to use locally under the repository license; hosted Invoke plans were not checked) (Invoke pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 28.9k GitHub stars · latest release v6.14.2 (Sep 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Local editing and canvas workflows.
Ideogram
Compared with Midjourney: Free plan gives 30 credits a week if you sign in with Google, Apple or Microsoft. Plus is $20 a month, double Midjourney Basic at $10 but with a free way to test first.
Price: Free (Free plan: 10 slow credits a week, up to 40 images a week) (Ideogram pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Trying a hosted generator before paying.
Leonardo.Ai
Compared with Midjourney: Has a free tier with daily tokens; check its pricing page for the current numbers. Hosted, so no GPU needed, unlike local tools.
Price: Free (Free plan with a daily token allowance; check the pricing page for the current amount) (Leonardo.Ai pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Hosted images without owning a GPU.
Adobe Firefly
Compared with Midjourney: Free daily generations with limits that refresh each day. Paid prices were shown in rupees on our fetch, so no USD figure. Fits Adobe users; style differs from Midjourney.
Price: Free (Free plan with daily generations across image, video and audio; Adobe does not state a number on the page); paid from $9.99 per month, Standard (2,000 generative credits, monthly billing; Pro $19.99, Pro Plus $49.99, Premium $199.99) (Adobe Firefly pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Adobe users who want daily free images.
Other popular options (paid)
ChatGPT
Compared with Midjourney: ChatGPT has a free plan and Plus at $20 a month, with image generation inside the chat rather than Midjourney's separate interface. Pro tiers run $100, $200 and $500 a month.
Price: Free (Free plan at $0/month); paid from $8 per month (Go; Plus $20/month; availability varies by region) (ChatGPT pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Which one to pick
- You have a GPU and want unlimited free images: ComfyUI
- You want local inpainting and canvas editing: Invoke
- You want a free hosted test before paying: Ideogram
- You already use Adobe apps: Adobe Firefly
Limits of this review
Docs-only for ComfyUI, Invoke, Ideogram, Leonardo.Ai, Adobe Firefly: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Midjourney. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-25: Midjourney, ComfyUI, Invoke, Ideogram, Leonardo.Ai, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.