Midjourney Pricing: Plans, Costs, and the GPU-Hour Model
Midjourney runs on a subscription model with four tiers in 2026: Basic at $10 per month, Standard at $30, Pro at $60, and Mega at $120. Pay for a full year upfront and every tier drops by 20%. There is no free plan and no free trial, so the cheapest way to generate your first image is the $10 Basic tier. Those headline numbers are the easy part. The detail that trips up almost every new subscriber is what you are actually buying, which is fast GPU time, not a quota of images.
This breakdown walks through each plan, the difference between paying monthly and annually, and the GPU-hour billing system that decides how far your subscription stretches. It also covers Relax mode, Stealth mode, what happens when you run out of fast hours, and the revenue threshold that forces larger companies onto specific plans. All figures are vendor-reported from Midjourney's official documentation and verified June 9, 2026.
The Four Plans
Midjourney sells four plans, and the main lever that separates them is how many fast GPU hours you get each month. Fast hours are the near-immediate processing time that turns your prompt into images right away. The more you generate, the more fast time you burn, which is why a casual user and a studio artist sit at opposite ends of this lineup.
Here are the four tiers at their standard monthly rates, with the annual equivalent shown in each card. The fast GPU hours are the number to watch, because that allotment is what you are really paying for.
Practitioner note: The fast GPU hours roughly double as you step up the ladder, but the price doubles too. So the cost per fast hour stays close to flat across tiers. You are not buying a volume discount on generation. You are buying a higher monthly ceiling plus access to features such as Relax video and Stealth that the lower tiers lock out.
Monthly vs Annual Billing
Every plan comes in two flavors: pay month to month, or pay for a year upfront and take 20% off. The annual option is a real saving, not a teaser rate, but it does mean committing a lump sum at signup. The table below lays out both prices side by side along with the total annual cost so you can see exactly what the yearly commitment looks like.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Annual total | Fast GPU hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $10 | $8 | $96/yr | 3.3 hr/mo |
| Standard | $30 | $24 | $288/yr | 15 hr/mo |
| Pro | $60 | $48 | $576/yr | 30 hr/mo |
| Mega | $120 | $96 | $1,152/yr | 60 hr/mo |
If you are testing whether Midjourney fits your workflow, start monthly. The month to month rate costs more per month, but it lets you cancel after a single billing cycle. Once you know the tool earns its keep, switching to annual locks in the lower rate. Your fast GPU hour allotment is identical either way; only the price changes.
The GPU-Hour Billing Model
This is the part that confuses almost everyone the first time they subscribe. Midjourney does not sell you a fixed number of images per month. It sells you fast GPU time. Every generation you run consumes a slice of that time, and when the meter hits zero your fast generations stop until the next billing cycle or until you buy more.
A single still image consumes roughly one GPU minute. Video is far hungrier: an HD video batch can eat around 26 GPU minutes in one go. That means a plan's headline hours translate into very different output depending on what you make. Basic's 3.3 fast hours is roughly 200 fast minutes, which covers a few hundred still images but only a handful of HD video batches.
The practical takeaway is to budget by activity, not by image count. If you mostly make stills, even Standard's 15 fast hours goes a long way. If you plan to lean into video, fast hours evaporate quickly and you will either climb to a higher tier or buy extra time. Understanding this before you subscribe is the difference between a plan that feels generous and one that feels like it runs dry in a week.
Why GPU time and not image count: Different generations cost different amounts of compute. A quick still and a long HD video are not the same workload, so a flat per-image quota would either overcharge light users or undercharge heavy ones. Billing by GPU time ties your cost to the actual compute you consume.
Relax and Stealth Modes
Fast GPU hours are not the only way to generate. Two other modes change the economics and privacy of your subscription, and which ones you get depends entirely on your tier.
Relax mode: unlimited but queued
Relax mode lets you generate without spending fast GPU hours. The trade is speed: Relax jobs go into a shared queue and can wait anywhere from a few seconds to around 30 minutes before they run. For a working artist who can batch requests and step away, Relax effectively makes image generation unlimited once your fast hours are gone.
Relax has tier rules. Image generation in Relax is available on Standard, Pro, and Mega. The Basic plan has no Relax mode at all, so once Basic's 3.3 fast hours are spent, you are done for the month unless you buy more time. SD video in Relax is available only on Pro and Mega. Note that HD video, permutations, and Max Upscale never run in Relax regardless of tier; those always draw from fast hours.
Stealth mode: keeping work private
By default, images you generate on Midjourney are visible to others in the community gallery. Stealth mode keeps your generations private. It is available only on the Pro and Mega plans. If you are producing client work, unreleased product art, or anything under an embargo, Stealth is the feature that justifies the jump to Pro on its own.
What Happens When You Run Out of Hours
Hitting zero fast hours mid-month is common, especially for anyone working with video. You have two options. On Standard and up, you can drop to Relax mode and keep generating images for free in the queue. On any plan, you can buy more fast GPU time.
Extra fast time costs $4 per hour. The useful detail here is that purchased hours do not expire. Unlike your monthly allotment, which resets each cycle, top-up hours roll forward until you use them. That makes buying a block of extra time a reasonable hedge for a busy month rather than a use-it-or-lose-it gamble.
For a heavy month, do the math before upgrading. If you are on Standard at $30 and need a few extra fast hours, buying them at $4 each may be cheaper than jumping to Pro at $60. But if you are routinely buying eight or more extra hours every month, the higher tier's larger allotment plus its extra features usually wins.
Commercial Use and the $1M Rule
Any paid Midjourney subscription grants what the company calls General Commercial Terms. In plain language, that lets you use the images and videos you generate in nearly any way you want, including for commercial projects. There is no separate license to buy for everyday business use on top of your subscription.
There is one threshold that larger organizations must respect. Companies with more than $1,000,000 in gross annual revenue are required to be on the Pro or Mega plan to use Midjourney commercially. A million-dollar business cannot run its production work off a $10 Basic seat. If your company clears that revenue bar, budget for at least the Pro tier from the start.
Read the terms before you ship: Commercial rights and their conditions live in Midjourney's Terms of Service, and they can change. Generative image licensing also sits against a backdrop of ongoing copyright litigation in this space. Treat the summary here as a starting point and confirm the current terms at midjourney.com before you build a commercial pipeline on it.
For freelancers and small studios under the revenue threshold, any tier works for client work, with the practical caveat that Stealth mode for private generation only arrives at Pro. For larger companies, the plan choice is effectively made for you by the revenue rule.
Which Plan to Pick
The right tier comes down to how much you generate, whether you touch video, and whether your work needs to stay private. Here is how the four plans map to common profiles.
One more decision rule cuts through all of this: if your company earns more than $1 million a year, the revenue rule puts you on Pro or Mega regardless of how little you generate. For everyone else, start on the tier that matches your volume, lean on monthly billing while you test, and move to annual once the tool has proven itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Midjourney cost?
Midjourney has four monthly plans: Basic at $10, Standard at $30, Pro at $60, and Mega at $120. Paying annually cuts each price by 20% when billed upfront, which works out to $8, $24, $48, and $96 per month respectively. Pricing is vendor-reported and verified June 9, 2026.
Is Midjourney free?
No. Midjourney removed its free trial in March 2023 and has been subscription-only since. The cheapest way in is the Basic plan at $10 per month, or $8 per month if you pay for a year upfront.
What is Midjourney's GPU-hour billing model?
Midjourney bills by fast GPU time, not by image count. Each plan includes a monthly allotment of fast GPU hours: 3.3 on Basic, 15 on Standard, 30 on Pro, and 60 on Mega. A single still image uses roughly one GPU minute, while an HD video batch uses about 26. When you run out, extra fast hours cost $4 each and do not expire.
Which plans include Relax and Stealth modes?
Relax mode gives unlimited but queued generation. Image generation in Relax is available on Standard, Pro, and Mega; SD video in Relax is available only on Pro and Mega. Basic has no Relax mode. Stealth mode, which keeps generations private, is available only on Pro and Mega.
Do businesses need a specific plan to use Midjourney commercially?
Any paid subscription grants General Commercial Terms for using your images and videos. However, companies with more than $1,000,000 in gross annual revenue must be on the Pro or Mega plan to use Midjourney commercially.