While technology is developing rapidly, AI image generator tools are emerging as powerful tools for designers, artists, and content creators. These new techniques offer the power of AI to transform your ideas into visually stunning images. These tools will create images based on your text description (usually known as “prompt“). With the help of those AI tools, we can save much more time, effort, and cost to have impressive images than before.
In our article today, we will together explore the “Top 6 best AI image generator tools reviews in 2024”. We will bring you a detailed analysis of each tool to help you choose the right one for your creative needs. Keep reading to see which one you would like to try most.
What are AI Image Generator Tools?
AI image generator tools are advanced software applications that allow you to create images easily and quickly, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. These tools use machine learning models to produce creative and stunning images based on input text data.
At the moment, there are a lot of AI image generator tools that can help to create many different styles of images, from photorealistic, watercolor, cartoonish, abstract, and surreal to anime. In the next part, we will review 7 of the best and most popular AI tools recently.
These tools have gained the attention of users from all over the world for their ability to generate fantastic images without taking much effort. But they have also raised ethical considerations. People can use these tools to generate images that look realistic but with fake content, such as people’s faces or events that never occurred. As with any AI technology, it is important to use them responsibly and ethically.
Reviews of 6 Best AI Image Generator Tools 2024
We have tested and selected below 7 best AI Image Generator tools that are worth your try. We will analyze the pros & cons, pricing, and practical examples of each tool.
Midjourney
| Pros | Create images with highly detailed and artistic qualityProvide deep customization tools for nuanced image creation |
| Cons | The high learning curve for beginnersComplicated setupNo free plan for a trialLimit use through DiscordGenerated images are public by default |
| Pricing | Month subscriptions start at $10/ month with limited generations (~200 images/ month)Standard Plan ($30/ month), Pro Plan ($60/ month), Mega Plan ($120/ month) |
| Best For | Illustrators, artists, marketers, designers. |
Midjourney stands for no 1 on the list because the overall outcomes are much more stunning, impressive, and appealing than other AI tools. From the textures, colors, and content to creativity – Midjourney sometimes can surprise you because of the images you receive after sending your prompts.
In 2022, Midjourney won first place in the digital category at an annual competition Colorado State Fair. The winning piece of image was submitted by Jason Allen, titled “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial.” This is that top-notch masterpiece:
As our test, Midjourney can create people, food, landscapes, and other real-world objects that look more realistic and natural than other AI tools do. Therefore, you can use Midjourney to create amazing dish images easily for your restaurant hotel, or food counter. Take a look at this image:
Prompt: <Delicious bowl with salmon, photography, Canon EF 35mm, f1. 8, intricated details, ultra-realistic, high on details, real life, HD, HDR, 8K, –ar 16:9>
Do you need a female model for your marketing campaign? This is how Midjourney can help:
Prompt: <A photo of a young beautiful female model, wearing a futuristic outfit in black, leather and metal elements, ultra-realistic, photography high on details, real life, Canon EF 35mm, f1. 8, HD, HDR, 8K,–ar 16:9>
Not only create realistic photos, but Midjourney also makes a strong impression on illustration and digital arts. It can generate images with much more creativity than you can think of.
To generate images that can best follow your ideas, you need to learn how to build a prompt. You have to learn about learning about photography terms as well as the structure of effective prompting. This may be a little difficult for beginning-level users. But in case you just images for easy tasks, just write the prompt in a casual style or ask ChatGPT to create a prompt for you. Sometimes, a simple prompt can even make fantastic images.
There is one thing strange: Midjourney is only used through the Discord server. After joining Discord, you type”/imagine” and follow with your prompt. The bot will create 4 variations of images and then you can scale, re-edit, download, and more. Luckily, this issue will be changed very soon. Midjourney says that they are testing a web app. The company also says that they will support Discord for a long time after that.
DreamStudio (Stable Diffusion)
| Pros | Easy to use, even with beginners or without AI experience.Many customization featuresOffer free credits for a trialVery affordableOperate fast and quite responsive |
| Cons | Not suitable for complex image requirements |
| Pricing | 25 credits for freeStart at $10 for every 1000 credits |
| Best For | Educators, designers, and content creators for social media images |
DreamStudio is a web app for Stable Diffusion. This is the only major AI image generator that still allows trials with free credit until now. And you can create any type of image you want, from photorealistic to illustration art.
Stable Diffusion is an open source, not like Midjourney or DALL-E. This means that you can download and run it locally on your own computer, as well as train the model for personal purposes. And because this is an open-source AI tool, it is constantly updated and getting better.
This is what DreamStudio looks like:
You will have a big control over many aspects when creating images with Stable Diffusion. Set up the height and width of the image, how much the image will be like with the prompt, steps to spend generating, the number of images generated, and more – you can edit these factors by simply using a slider. Overall, Stable Diffusion allows you to have the best control and customization of generating the images. DreamStudio also provides inpainting and outpainting features. Anyway, I don’t highly appreciate this because no success was received in our experiment.
You can easily create high-quality and fantastic images by using DreamStudio without any deep experience or knowledge about prompt engineering. This is beneficial and accessible for any level of users. Following are some images generated by DreamStudio:
DreamStudio brings impressive outputs in creating stunning illustrations and digital art. For example:
Prompt <City view of Tokyo at night, in the swirling, starry style of Vincent van Gogh’s ’Starry Night’, cherry blossom>
An example of illustration:
Prompt <An illustration of two kawaii cats enjoying a sunny day>
You can see that it takes no effort to create those images with DreamStudio. You just need to describe what you want about your images and make some easy customizations. No complex prompt is necessary here.
As mentioned above, this AI tool costs you based on a credit system. 25 free credits are good for 120 images or 30 prompts with the basic and default settings.
DALL-E 3
| Pros | It’s free for all users of ChatGPT PlusSurprisingly easy to useFast responseCan used through ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing’s AI Copilot |
| Cons | Less control over the creation process (AI automatically edits the prompts)Limit in advanced and professional features.Expensive if you don’t use ChatGPT |
| Pricing | Fee included in Pro Plan of ChatGPT$20/month |
| Best For | Content creators, marketers, educators, students |
The users of ChatGPT Plus will take advantage because this Pro plan includes DALL-E 3 (new version). And the ChatGPT Plus users can use DALL-E as much as they like. DALL-E was lauched in 2022 by Open AI. It is considered the pioneer in AI image creation. But after that, many cutting-edge AI tools were released, and DALL-E was falling behind. Quality of image and customization features – they both don’t reach the users’ desire.
The new version DALL-E 3 allows you to create images with more detail in a few simple instructions. All you need to do is type your prompt and the tool will do the rest. It will automatically optimize the prompt to bring the best outcomes. Compared with previous version, DALL-E 1 and DALL-E 2, this version has many more improvements.
One thing that everyone must admit when using DALL-E 3 is that it is super easy to use. You enter your prompt to describe how the image will look like, wait a few seconds, and there you are – 2 or 4 variations will be displayed for you to choose from. You don’t need to do anything else because this tool will edit and expand the prompts automatically.
For example:
Prompt <Innovate clothing, maybe a men’s suit, wearing for a fashion show>
Or prompt: <Create a fantasy world with weird and unique creatures, like “city in the clouds with dragon guardians”>
You can see that creating AI images is similar to chatting in ChatGPT. Tell the tool what you need with no complex prompt formatting at all. And the results are amazing – high-quality and impressive. The outputs are great to use in presentations, lessons, articles, and even for ads and marketing.
Adobe Firefly
| Pros | Intuitive interface, great for both beginners and pros.Integration well and seamlessly with Adobe Creative Suite. |
| Cons | The learning curve for advanced features. |
| Pricing | Monthly subscription starts at $4.99 for 100 creditsInclude a free plan with 25 credits/ month |
| Best For | Digital creators who are already familiar with Adobe applications.Professional artists and graphic designersMarketers and business organizations want to craft branded content. |
In 2023, Adobe introduced its first AI text-to-image generator tool, called Abode Firefly. And this AI model brings some impression by providing shining features. Not only generating images, Firefly can also generate recolor vector artwork, and unique text effects as well as add other-generated AI elements into the images. You can do all of these by giving detailed text descriptions.
You can try Adobe Firely for free on the web or through Adobe Express. But for the best experience, you should use on latest version of Photoshop. As a text-to-image generator, the quality of images generated by the tool can vary.
You can easily set up ratio, tone, color, style, and more by using the simple interface. However, the outputs of Firefly can be quite hit-and-miss. But because Firefly is integrated with Photoshop, this helps to elevate the experience.
And that particular feature is Generative Full. You can use Photoshop tools to select an area of the image, and then replace it with other things by typing down a prompt. As per our testing, it looks quite cohesive.
Below are some images generated from Adobe Firefly:
Prompt <Cinematic artwork of a woman standing in the center and covered by smoke, pink and orange colors>
Prompt <A whimsical creature, alone in a forest at night, neon and glowing colors>
Overall, sometimes you will have to edit the prompt as well as add more elements and details to have your desired images.
Leonardo
| Pros | Free trial with 150 imagesVery friendly interfaceEasy to use for even no-experience users.Good control over the image-generating process |
| Cons | Quite expensive |
| Pricing | Basic plan: $10/monthStandard plan: $49/monthPro plan: $299/monthCustom plan: Custom pricing |
| Best For | Illustrators, artists, marketers, designers, enterprise |
The first impression you will surely have when accessing Leonardo is the interface. It looks really awesome, visual, friendly, and easy to use. You will find it no difficulty to use this AI tool.
You will also be persuaded by the ability to create photorealistic images of Leonardo. Its results are nearly up to Midjourney thanks to the fine-tuned PhotoReal. Additionally, Leonardo stands out for its amazing amount of control. You can add the reference images you want and set up how the tool should follow.
Realtime Generation is a useful feature of Leonardo. This feature allows you to see what you are typing prompts in real time. So, you can edit the output on the go instead of waiting until the image creation finishes.
And one feature that will impress you most is Realtime Canvas. It is very fun and exciting to try. In the painting canvas, you can use a brush to draw to Leonardo will convert your drawings into an image in real time. Look at the example right below, it is so awesome and satisfying.
Realtime Canvas also has Inpaint mode. You simply use the brush to draw on an existing image to edit it.
If you want to have the best-desired result, Canvas Editor will give you a big help. This feature lets you generate or modify certain parts by using the brush. You can create many elements and then combine them into a single one. You will take time to practice if you are at the beginning level.
And one more unique feature of Leonardo is that generating motion videos. You just need to upload your preferred images and add some motions to it. Then, you can share the output on social media networking platforms.
And now, enjoy some fantastic images created by Leonardo:
Prompt <”Over a vast and dusky landscape, an alien ship floating the horizon, emanating a soft and otherworldly glow. The ship hovering silently and its eerie shadows on the ground. Around it, vibrant sky, creating a strange atmosphere and raise wonder as the unknown signals between two worlds”.>
Prompt <” In a sunlit garden, a joyful puppy chases a delicate butterfly amidst vibrant flowers. Their playful dance captures the essence of nature’s spontaneous joys and innocence”>
Prompt <A sketch of a thoughtful middle-aged man in a natural setting, realistic pencil sketch, impressionism art, full-body shot, hatching, and shading techniques, emphasis on capturing mood and emotion, soft lighting, and nature-inspired elements in the background.>
Craiyon
| Pros | No need for any AI skills and knowledge.Generating images quicklyIdeal to use for fun and casual purposes |
| Cons | Realism and detail in images limitedNot suitable for professional-using purposes. |
| Pricing | It’s free, but there are ads.Paid plans start at $5/month with ads removal.Professional Plan: $20/ monthEnterprise Plan: Custom Pricing |
| Best For | Anyone who wants to try creating images by using AI tools for free, especially students and educators. |
Back in 2022, This Craiyon emerged as one of the first AI image-generating tools. It operates by using DALL-E mini technology to generate images based on simple text prompts. The best thing is that Craiyon is completely free. You can experience Craiyon both on desktop and Android apps.
The quality of images generated by Craiyon can’t be compared with other tools like Midjourney or DreamStudio. Anyway, you can still generate many decent and cool illustrations.
If you want to receive better results, you need to practice and learn how to improve the text prompts. Let’s take a look at the below image:
AI Image Generator Tools 2024 In the Nutshell
Here is a brief recap of the Best AI image generator tools:
| Tools | Key features | Pricing |
| Midjourney | Top-notch & high-quality imagesComplex prompts need a learning curve | No free planBasic plan: $10/ monthStandard plan: $30/ monthPro plan: $60/ monthMega plan: $120/ month |
| DreamStudio | Exceptional quality of generated imagesFriendly user interface | Free 25 credits$10 for every 1000 credits |
| DALL-E 3 | Super easy to useAutomatically modify the prompts | Included in the Plus plan of ChatGPT ($20/month). |
| Adobe Firefly | Great editing and customizing toolsHigh-quality images (but hit and miss) | Paid month starts at $4.99 for 100 creditsFree with 25 credits/ month |
| Leonardo | Fantastic quality images (nearly up Midjourney)Friendly interfaceUnique features (Realtime Canvas, Motion) | Basic plan: $10/monthStandard plan: $49/monthPro plan: $299/monthCustom plan: Custom pricing |
| Craiyon | Completely free (with ads)The quality of images is basicSuitable for simple image generation requests. | Basic plans: $5/month with ads removal.Professional Plan: $20/ monthEnterprise Plan: Custom Pricing |
Other AI Image Generator Tools Alternatives
There are many AI tools to generate images out there. If you would like to take a tour and discover more about other AI image-creating tools, look through the list below:
- NightCafe
- ContentShake AI
- BlueWillow
- PicsArt
- Canva
- Fotor
Final Words,
Depending on your purposes, references, and budgets, you can pick a suitable AI image generator tool. Thanks to AI technology, creating images hasn’t ever been so easy like that. From objects to people, these AI tools can help to generate just in a few seconds. It saves you precious time and effort so that you can concentrate on other important tasks.
