Asking what the best AI image generator is is a little like choosing who the best artist is. Ultimately, some of it will come down to personal preference, and which one will give the best results in terms of what you are looking to get out of it.
Assessing the likes of price, image quality, and depth, we've put together a guide to some of our favourite AI image generators, to help you work out which one you feel will be most appropriate for your needs.
Let's take a look at some of the best AI image generators.
What Are The Best AI Image Generators?
It's actually quite difficult to define what the 'best' AI image generator might be. Is it down to realism? Imagination? Cost? Speed? Or a combination of all these factors?
There is a wide range of AI image generators available, and many of them can deliver fantastic results. We've previously compared Dall.E and Midjourney, as two of the best known. But there are plenty of others as well.
Dall.E 2
DALL.E 2 is perhaps the most well-regarded AI image generator, and has recently entered beta testing. You need to be on their waitlist before you can get access to the system, where up to one million people will then be chosen.
DALL.E is easy to use and is particularly well-regarded for how realistic many of its images can be. Its understanding of user inputs is unmatched, and out of all the options available, is likely to get the closest to what you're visualising. With DALL.E, your imagination very much is the limit.
If you are lucky enough to get access to DALL.E, then you can try it for free. If you need or want to create further images, you can buy extra credits. We've explained in more detail in our is DALL.E free? article.
Midjourney AI
Midjourney is an AI that delivers highly imaginative results. But if you want something beautiful, that can even win an art competition, this is a great choice.
When it comes to more realistic photographs, Midjourney does fall short compared to the other choices on our list.
Users can access Midjourney via Discord - read our guide on how to use Midjourney for full details. From there, typing a prompt will allow the AI bot to produce images based on what you input. This makes it relatively easy to use.
Cost-wise, Midjourney AI is free to try, with some caveats. We've explained in detail in our is Midjourney AI free article.
Nightcafe
Nightcafe is another popular image generator, with over 23 million artworks produced so far. It's easy to use for beginners, and offers lots of control options for anyone more advanced. These include features such as multiple style images, bulk creation, custom seeds, and bulk downloads.
Creations belong to you, and you can do whatever you like with them. There's even an app available for Android and iOS devices.
Users can generate up to five free artworks per day, and earn extra credits through community participation. And if you need to, you can buy credits as well.
StableDiffusion
Next on our list is StableDiffusion which has an open-source model for AI image generation. It can even use images as well as text to generate other pictures.
Like many others, simply give it a prompt, and wait for it to generate images based on that prompt. From our own testing, the results can be a bit hit and miss, but the good ones are beautiful. Primarily used for art, it tends to work best when the descriptions are clear, and we'd suggest bumping the number of steps up to the max.
Compared to others on our list, such as Midjourney, StableDiffusion has far fewer restrictions on the images and what can be requested too.
What separates StableDiffusion is that not only is it free to use, but it's really accessible. It can be run both locally or via an online site if signed into your GitHub. Here's a look at how to run Stable Diffusion, if you want to learn more.
Deep Dream Generator
Deep Dream Generator by Google uses a neural network, which has learned from millions of images. You can create images based on a variety of art styles, and choose categories to help make your results as accurate as possible.
Cost-wise, you can sign up for a free account. Paid subscriptions allow you to create more images at a higher resolution, and start from $19 a month.
These are just a few of the best AI image generator options available. These are all capable of delivering fantastic images. You may find that some are preferable to others in terms of the style or finish you are looking for. But they are all well worth exploring. Alternatively, if you're looking for other AI tools, take a look at Jasper AI for more text-based work.