Midjourney Plans: Which One Should You Choose?

Are you thinking about getting a Midjourney subscription?

Anyone who’s understood just how powerful Midjourney is and how useful it can be in many areas will have thought about subscribing to one of the paid Midjourney plans.

However, many people have difficulties deciding whether they should go for Midjourney’s “Basic”, “Standard” or “Pro” plan.

In this guide, we’ll give you a detailed overview of all Midjourney plans, their pros, and cons, and also give you a clear recommendation on which one you should choose.

Let’s dive right in.

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Midjourney Plans: Which One Should You Choose?
Here’s the answer. Great article by @ChrisHeidorn right here: https://tokenizedhq.com/midjourney-plans/

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Which Midjourney Plan Should You Get?

UPDATED on 20 December 2022 to reflect the addition of a third “Pro” plan. It gives you 30 hours of Fast GPU time for $60/month and includes “Private Mode”. It also looks like the “Corporate” plan may have been removed for good, although this has not been confirmed.

Let’s kick things off with an easy choice.

If you are subscribing on behalf of a business that generates more than $1 million in revenue per year, then there’s actually nothing to decide.

Midjourney’s terms of service require you to sign up for a “Corporate” membership, although it’s not quite clear wether this plan still exists.

It seems plausible that the newly introduced “Pro” plan may have replaced the “Corporate” plan.

We’ll show you what that means and how much it costs later in this article, but for now, let’s focus on the users that actually have a choice.

If you do not fall into the “Corporate” category, then you’re probably asking yourself whether you should start off with the “Basic” plan or go straight for the “Standard” or “Pro” plan.

The primary difference between these three Midjourney plans is the price ($10/month vs. $30/month vs. $60/month) and the amount of Fast GPU time they give you (200 mins/month vs. 15 hrs/month vs. 30 hrs/month).

Furthermore, the “Standard” and “Pro” plans also give you access to “Relax Mode“, which effectively allows you to create unlimited variations without using any of your Fast GPU time.

It is this “unlimited” part that can easily persuade many users to opt for the more expensive plans, however, it is not necessarily the best choice for everyone.

If you only plan to use Midjourney occasionally and don’t necessarily need to churn out dozens of variations in order to get perfect results, then I strongly advise you to start off with the “Basic” plan.

Even if you’re unsure whether the 200 minutes will be enough, any additional requirements you may have will be billed in “Metered Mode”.

In other words, if you do end up needing more Fast GPU time, you’ll be billed on your actual usage, which may very likely end up being much less than $30.

And if turns out you actually do need much more Fast GPU time, you can still make the switch in the next month.

However, if you already know that you’re going to use Midjourney rather excessively and also want to create hundreds of upscales, then the “Standard” or “Pro” membership is probably the better choice of two Midjourney plans.

So, in other words, I generally recommend starting off with the “Basic” plan and then making the switch to “Standard” once you realize that you actually need it.

Review of All Midjourney Plans

A lot of people tend to struggle with the 3 different Midjourney plans.

Sure enough, the “Corporate” plan is relatively self-explanatory.

However, the concept of “Fast GPU Time” is something that most of us aren’t familiar with and it makes it rather difficult to determine which one of the Midjourney plans is the right one for us.

There are 3 major differentiating factors among the Midjourney plans:

• Fast GPU Time
• Relax GPU Time
• Private Visibility

I’ve intentionally left out “Metered Mode” and “Personal Bot Chat” because they are available with all 3 Midjourney plans and therefore they aren’t a deciding factor.

The most relevant factor will usually be “Fast GPU Time”.

For context, GPU Time refers to the processing time that is necessary to generate images in Midjourney.

AI models are extremely resource-heavy processes, which is why a regular CPU usually isn’t enough.

Instead, the much more expensive GPUs are necessary for computations to happen in a reasonably short time (this is effectively the same problem as Proof-of-Work in Bitcoin mining).

The difference between “Fast” and “Relax” GPU Time is that “Fast” has the highest level of priority.

While “Relax Mode” is generally sufficient for generating image variations, upscale can only be created using “Fast GPU Time”, or else it would take far too long for them to finish.

So the key question for every user is this: Is my Fast GPU Time allocation of the Midjourney plans sufficient for my image generation needs?

Since the “Basic” plan only comes with 200 minutes per month, some users rightfully wonder whether the “Standard” plan might be better for them.

The fact that it comes with “Unlimited” Relax GPU Time looks particularly attractive.

This effectively allows you to optimize your Relax and Fast GPU time between simple image variations and resource-heavy upscales.

That being said, the fact that 200 minutes might not be enough for you does not automatically mean that the “Standard” membership is the right one for you.

After all, considering that both plans support “Metered Mode” if you end up needing more Fast GPU time, someone who only needs 300 minutes might still opt to stick with the “Basic” plan.

The 3rd differentiating factor is clearly the availability of “Private Mode”, although it does come at an extra cost.

If you absolutely do not want your images to be available to the public, then you’ll have to book this add-on at $20/month.

The exception to this case is if you already know that you need up to 30 hrs of Fast GPU time, in which case the “Pro” membership comes with “Private Mode” for free.

You can check out our guide on how to subscribe to Midjourney once you’ve made your final decision.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Before we close off this guide, let’s quickly address some of the most common questions related to Midjourney plans.

Conclusion

Given that most AI models are very heavy on resources, it’s not surprising that none of the Midjourney plans offer a truly “unlimited” service as a flat fee.

GPU time is an entirely new concept to most users and will take some time until everyone understands that they are effectively “renting” processing power.

However, for the vast majority of Midjourney users, the most affordable plan is probably more than sufficient for their daily needs.

Here at Tokenized, we want to help you learn as much as possible about the AI software industry. We help you navigate the world of tech and the digitalization of our society at large, including the tokenization of assets and services.