In the world of artificial intelligence generated images, there are two main competitors: DALL-E 2 and Midjourney. Both are text to image generators that use AI to create images from text descriptions. But which one is the best? In this article, we’ll compare the features, quality, image generation from text, pricing, and ease of use of each AI image generator to answer that question.
Development
Dall-E is an AI system developed by OpenAI (the same company that developed ChatGPT), a San Francisco-based research lab. It is a large-scale language model trained on a dataset of text and images, which generates images from text descriptions.
MidJourney, meanwhile, is also an AI-based solution developed by an independent research lab. It is in beta phase and is continuously learning with new features and capabilities. MidJourney also includes a DMCA takedown policy in its terms of service to protect artists.
DALL-E 2 and Midjourney are two completely different applications, owned by two different companies. However, both can produce beautiful AI-generated artworks from a few text instructions.
Performance and capabilities
Dall-E uses natural language descriptions to create high-resolution images and artwork. On April 6, 2022, OpenAI released the enhanced version of Dall-E, called Dall-E 2, which uses Clip (Contrastive language image pre-training) technology to associate images with their corresponding captions.
MidJourney also offers excellent performance and creates realistic artwork from natural language commands. It is constantly evolving from version 1 to version 5, with regular updates to improve AI efficiency.
Access to DALL-E 2 and Midjourney
Both tools offer free versions. DALL-E 2 is very easy to use and accessible directly from the OpenAI website. OpenAI offers new users 50 free credits to experiment. After the first month, this is reduced to 15 credits or 60 images.
On Dalle, each prompt is one credit, so you’ll need to purchase credit packs once you’ve used them up.
The easiest way to access Midjourney is through Discord. Once you have access to Discord, you must join the Midjourney server to access the software. As with DALL-E 2, you just need to give a few instructions to the AI and it will generate beautiful artworks in a few seconds. Midjourney offers 25 free images, then costs $10 for the basic plan and $30 for the standard plan to continue using the tool.
Quality of the art
Creating images with Dall-E and MidJourney is undeniably easier, and both offer exceptional quality that continues to improve . We compared the quality of the art created by Dall-E and MidJourney using the same prompt twice:
Prompt: scrambler motorcycle in cyberpunk new york city, blue and purple cinematic lighting, hyper realistic
Dall-E’s version on the left and Midjourney V5 on the right
Prompt : young beautiful girl with red long hair is sitting on the stone on the sea-shore in the evening, the is vintage lamp near the girl, the are stars on the sky, romantic atmosphere
The version of Dalle on the left and Midjourney V5 on the right
The images created by MidJourney are clear and detailed, with a coherent atmosphere reflecting well the idea of the prompt while the images generated by Dall-E are simpler, less detailed, but has a more artistic and less realistic side.
On the third and last image of the tile, we can see that it did not succeed in faithfully representing the prompt.
Note that regarding the image resolution, Midjourney offers the possibility to change the aspect ratio of your prompt with a maximum resolution of 2048×1280, while DALL-E 2 is limited to 1024×1024.
Which is the best option
It’shard to say whether Midjourney or DALL-E 2 is better, as both are very capable models capable of producing impressive results in the art and design field.
Midjourney is available via Discord, while DALL-E 2 is only available via the OpenAI website. The choice between the two models will depend on your preferences and budget .
OpenAI offers free credits every month, which allows users to access the model indefinitely without charge. Midjourney, on the other hand, only offers 25 free images before charging for the service. If you’re still undecided between the two models, it might be worth trying them both to see which you prefer.
It’s still too early to make a final judgement on the quality, as they are both in the beta phase and are still evolving, so it’s best to get an idea for yourself by trying both simultaneously.
