DALL.E Vs Midjourney: AI Art Generators Compared


An astronaut riding a horse in a photorealistic style - DALL.E vs Midjourney
Credit: OpenAI

If you are contemplating using an AI art generator, then the match-up of DALL.E Vs Midjourney is a great place to start.

As two of the best-known, and arguably most advanced, image generators on the market, both of them have the potential to provide you with great results, such as creating an AI comic book.

But if you aren't sure which one will suit you best, then a comparison of the two may just be what you need, to help sway you one way or the other. So, whether you know how to use Midjourney or not, we'll explain some of the key differences, so you can decide which one feels more suitable for you.

DALL.E Vs Midjourney: Main Differences

We'll start with a quick rundown of the two programs - how they run, and how they are set up - before looking at things like accessibility, price, and what the art they produce is actually like.

Dall.E

OpenAI describes its system as:

DALL·E 2 is a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.

DALL·E 2 is the second iteration of the AI software. Having begun life as a research project, it has now entered beta testing.

It uses a database of over 650 million image and caption combinations, to enable users to create images that meet their needs.

dystopian end of the world where humans find joy playing with oldschool arcade machines - dall.e vs midjourney
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Credit: Midjourney AI

Midjourney

The Midjourney team says the following about its product:

Midjourney is an independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species.

It operates via a Discord chat bot, which you provide a prompt. Also in beta, Midjourney is currently on its V3 image generation algorithms.

Without getting into the intricacies of how they work, which makes our heads hurt, the two systems actually have a lot in common. Both require prompts from the user. Both will provide a selection of image results. And both base their creations on vast numbers of images and words, to try to generate the best results possible.

Let's look at some key differences.

DALL.E Vs Midjourney: Accessibility

Let's start with the obvious. Both systems are in beta testing, which means they aren't necessarily available to everyone immediately.

Midjourney is available via Discord, so if you have a Discord account, you're already most of the way there. They've even expanded accessibility to the point where you can invite the Midjourney AI bot to any Discord server with up to 30000 people in it.

This means that Midjourney is available to a huge number of people.

DALL·E, while also in Beta, is much harder to get hold of. Anyone who wants to access it must be signed up to the DALL·E waiting list. OpenAI has stated that they intend to invite 1 million people from the waitlist to enjoy DALL·E.

1 million sounds like a lot. But we don't know exactly how big that waitlist is. So accessibility is far more restricted than for Midjourney. It's possible that numbers will be increased as the servers grow to cope with demand. But it isn't guaranteed. And unless you are lucky enough to get that invite, DALL·E might well be out of reach.

DALL.E Vs Midjourney: Price

Assuming you can access both systems, price might be a factor that pushes you in one direction or the other. And here, the two are very similarly aligned.

We've examined whether DALL·E is free and whether Midjourney AI is free. But the gist is that services allow users to create a limited number of images for free each month. When that number is reached, users can then purchase additional credits for generating more art.

Midjourney will cost you $10 a month for up to 200 images. DALL·E charges $15 for 115-generation increments (equivalent to 460 images).

The pricing structures are very similar. Both are technically free, but many people may find that they run out of credits very quickly, whichever option they prefer.

DALL.E Vs Midjourney: Which One Is Right For You?

We've talked about cost, and we've talked about accessibility. But the biggest question of all is, which one produces better results.

And here, the answer is entirely subjective. As with any art, it is entirely down to personal preference which one you prefer, and which one best fits your needs. Both systems are widely lauded for the quality of the results they produce.

The prompts you use will be a huge factor in determining how happy you are with your results.

However, DALL·E does have a better understanding or awareness compared to other AI generators. This allows it to produce images considered more photo-realistic, or even indistinguishable from photos. While Midjourney may be better for art, DALL·E 2 could outperform this for stock images, presentations or mock-ups.

A Tesla on Mars - Dall.E vs Midjourney
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Credit: OpenAI

Finally, if the image resolution is also a factor, then Midjourney can generate images with a resolution of 1792x1024, while DALL·E is slightly more limited at 1024x1024.

As we said earlier, both can produce fantastic results. It's a personal preference.

But at least now you'll have an idea of which one might produce the sort of results you are looking for. Alternatively, if you want to look at other options, check out how to run Stable Diffusion.

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