Midjourney vs Leonardo AI
Midjourney and Leonardo AI side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Midjourney | Leonardo AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Image Generation | Image Generation |
| Starting price | $8+/mo (checked October 2026) | Free; paid plans from $12/mo (checked October 2026) |
| Free tier | Not listed | Yes |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Leonardo AI lists a free tier and Midjourney does not.
Midjourney has the lower starting price ($8/mo against $12/mo for Leonardo AI). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Image Generation category.
About each tool
Midjourney
Subscription AI image and short-video generator used on midjourney.com and in Discord. Basic is $8 a month billed annually ($10 monthly); no free tier.
Who it is for
Individuals and companies that want to generate images or short animated clips from prompts. Midjourney's plans page says companies with more than $1,000,000 USD in gross annual revenue must use the Pro or Mega plan.
Strengths
- All plans work on both the midjourney.com website and in Discord, once a Discord account is connected in Account Settings
- Standard, Pro and Mega include Relax Mode with unlimited image generations. Fast GPU time is 3.3 hours a month on Basic, 15 on Standard, 30 on Pro and 60 on Mega
- Stealth Mode, which keeps images and videos private, is available on Pro and Mega
- The docs say annual billing is 20% cheaper than monthly, and extra Fast GPU time costs $4 an hour on every plan
Limitations
- Basic has no Relax Mode, so once its 3.3 Fast hours are used you need to buy extra GPU time to keep generating
- Companies with more than $1,000,000 USD in gross annual revenue must buy Pro or Mega
- Concurrent Fast image jobs are 3 on Basic and Standard and 12 on Pro and Mega, and queued jobs are capped at 10 on every plan
Leonardo AI
AI image and video generator with a real-time canvas, custom model training, team plans and an API. Free plan of 150 tokens a day; Essential is $12 a month ($10 billed yearly).
Strengths
- The Free plan gives 150 fast tokens a day
- Paid plans keep unused monthly tokens in a rollover bank that holds up to three months' worth
- Paid plans have private generations, and the Terms of Service say private content is not used to train AI models without written consent
- Text-to-video, image-to-video, in-painting, out-painting, a real-time canvas, custom model training and Blueprints workflows are listed in the vendor's own material
- Team plans list SOC 2 Type I and Type II accreditation and private team generations
Limitations
- Free plan creations are public, and the Terms of Service say the Free plan's outputs vest in Leonardo, which grants the user a non-exclusive commercial licence. A vendor blog says Free plans include commercial use, so read the Terms
- Free daily tokens do not accumulate and expire at the daily reset
- Different features cost different token amounts. For example, Alchemy V2 costs 16 tokens an image, Full 3D Texture Generation costs 30 and the Upscaler costs 5
- Per the Terms of Service, public content on paid plans gives Leonardo a broad licence, including for AI training, unless you generate privately
