Tuesday, October 27, 2026 · Edition updated 6:00 AM ETTUE, OCT 27 editionNext edition in Next in --:--:--
Intelligence Verdict
AI tools · Make something new

Image creation

Pictures from a written description. What each tool costs, where it runs, what it shipped last, and what its terms say about what you make.

  • 10tools compared
  • 8 of 10have a free plan
  • $4.99a month, the cheapest paid plan
10 tools

Compare them.

Makers' own descriptions, plans and terms, read Oct 20, 2026, so company-reported. Open "Rights" or "Your data" on a card for the maker's own words.

Midjourney

Midjourney, Inc.

No free planPaid from $10 a month

Plans page mentions no free plan or trial (free GPU time can be earned by rating images)

  • Web

LatestTesting Thinking ModeOct 8, 2026

Rights and 1 dispute
Who owns what you make
“You own all Assets You create with the Services to the fullest extent possible under applicable law.”

Midjourney Terms of Service, May 27, 2026

In dispute, Jun 11, 2025

Disney and Universal sued Midjourney for copyright infringement; AP: 'The complaint in a Los Angeles federal court claims Midjourney pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios'.

Ongoing; in pretrial discovery (a discovery conference was set for 2026-05-22 per Graphic Policy, 2026-05-11, a non-trusted outlet). No ruling or settlement verified.

Associated Press, via Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce

Website · Prices · company-reported · Full details

“our new state-of-the-art image model that brings sharper details, more precise editing, and faster generation”

Free planPaid from $8 a month

'Limited image creation' on the Free plan (no number given)

  • Web
  • Phone app
  • Computer app

LatestIntroducing ChatGPT Images 2.5Sep 8, 2026

Rights
Who owns what you make
“As between you and OpenAI, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, you (a) retain your ownership rights in Input and (b) own the Output.”

OpenAI Terms of Use, Jan 1, 2026

Website · Prices · Description · company-reported · Full details

“State-of-the-art image generation and editing models, built on Gemini”

Free planPaid from $4.99 a month

Image generation and editing included on free Gemini; no quota stated

  • Web
  • Phone app

LatestNano Banana 2: Combining Pro capabilities with lightning-fast speedFeb 26, 2026

Rights
Who owns what you make
“Some of our services allow you to generate original content. Google won't claim ownership over that content.”

Google Terms of Service, Jul 30, 2026

Website · Prices · Description · company-reported · Full details

Free planPaid from $9.99 a month

'a free plan with limited daily generations'

  • Web

LatestAdobe Firefly introduces new agentic capabilities and an upgraded creative AI studioJun 18, 2026

Rights
Who owns what you make
“For features without the beta label, you can use Firefly-generated outputs in your commercial projects.”

Adobe Firefly FAQ, May 13, 2026

Website · Prices · company-reported · Full details

Ideogram

Ideogram, Inc. · Canada

Free planPaid from $20 a month

Eligible free accounts get 'weekly credits' ('the amount may vary'); images are published by default

  • Web
Rights
Who owns what you make
“We do not claim ownership of your generated images.”

Ideogram pricing page FAQ, Oct 20, 2026

Website · Prices · company-reported · Full details

FLUX

Black Forest Labs · Germany

“Today we are releasing FLUX 3 Image Klein, a 5.6B parameter open weights model for text-to-image generation, image editing”

Free planPaid prices not shown in US dollars

Open-weights FLUX 3 Image Klein is free for commercial use under the FLUX Kommunity License for individuals/companies under $5M annual revenue

LatestFLUX 3 Image KleinOct 15, 2026

Rights
Who owns what you make
“We claim no ownership rights in and to Your Content”

Black Forest Labs Terms of Service, Aug 1, 2026

Website · Prices · Description · company-reported · Full details

Recraft

Recraft

Free planPaid prices not shown in US dollars

Free-plan images are owned by Recraft, shown publicly, and not licensed for commercial use

  • Web
Rights
Who owns what you make
“Images created during a paid subscription remain private and under your ownership even after the subscription ends.”

Recraft pricing page, Oct 20, 2026

Website · Prices · company-reported · Full details

Leonardo.Ai

Leonardo.Ai (Canva) · Australia

Free planPaid from $12 a month

150 fast tokens per day; creations public; no private generations

  • Web
Rights
Who owns what you make
“Yes, you retain full ownership, copyright, and other intellectual property rights of images that you generate.”

Leonardo.Ai pricing FAQ, Oct 20, 2026

Website · Prices · company-reported · Full details

Ranked by people's votes

Which models people prefer.

On Arena (formerly LMArena), people compare two results for the same request without knowing which model made which, and vote. Many of the apps above run these models.

Pictures from words
  1. 1GPT-Image-2.5 SunburstOpenAI · preliminary1425
  2. 2GPT-Image-2.5 FlareOpenAI · preliminary1398
  3. 3GPT-Image-2 (Medium)OpenAI1383
  4. 4Grok Imagine Image 2.0SpaceXAI · preliminary1334
  5. 5MAI-Image-2.6Microsoft AI1332

Arena, Oct 7, 2026 · 6,604,125 votes; 82 models