AI Weekly’s July 28, 2026 comparison of AI image generators shows prices that range from a free self-hosted Stable Diffusion setup to 10 dollars a month for Midjourney’s Basic plan, 9.99 dollars for Adobe Firefly Standard and about 0.03 to 0.10 dollars per image for Ideogram through its API. Those figures, plus the licence terms behind them, are what a real AI image generator comparison should weigh.
This guide compares leading tools on quality, licence and price, explains how to check commercial use terms, and covers copyright caveats. It draws on AI Weekly and Prodia. Prices and licences change, so confirm them on each provider’s page before you pay.
How to Compare AI Image Generators
Three questions decide most choices. Is the image quality good enough for your use? What does it cost at your volume? Does the licence allow what you want to do with the images?
The best tool for a social media graphic is not always the best for a client logo or a book cover. Match the tool to the job and to the risk.
Quality, Price and Free Tier at a Glance
This table comes from AI Weekly’s July 2026 comparison. Prices are starting points and may change.
| Tool | Strength (AI Weekly) | Starting price | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midjourney (V8.2) | Artistic output, native 2K | 10 dollars a month (Basic) | None |
| OpenAI gpt-image-2 | Instruction following and editing | About 0.005 to 0.006 dollars an image (low quality) | None listed |
| Adobe Firefly (Image Model 5) | Commercial IP safety, Creative Cloud | 9.99 dollars a month (Standard) | 25 credits a month |
| FLUX.2 | Photorealism, API pricing | About 0.014 dollars per megapixel (klein 4B) | [dev] free for non-commercial use |
| Ideogram 4.0 | Text inside images | API 0.03, 0.06 or 0.10 dollars per image | Open weights, non-commercial |
| Stable Diffusion 3.5 | Fine-tuning, no per-image cost | Free apart from hardware | Free to self-host |
| Google Imagen 4 | Pay per image on Vertex AI | About 0.02 to 0.04 dollars per image | None listed |
Prodia’s May 2026 comparison adds DALL-E 3 at 20 dollars a month as a subscription, Midjourney from 10 dollars a month and FLUX.1 Kontext dev at 0.015 dollars per image via SiliconFlow. Pricing models differ between articles, so always check the provider.
Licence and Commercial Use: What to Check
AI Weekly gives a practical summary of licences. It also says Midjourney’s terms change periodically, so read them before commercial work.
| Tool | Licence notes (AI Weekly) |
|---|---|
| Midjourney | Paid subscribers get a broad commercial licence under the terms, which change periodically |
| Adobe Firefly | Trained on licensed Adobe Stock and public-domain images; outputs carry Content Credentials (C2PA) |
| FLUX.2 | [dev] weights are non-commercial only; FLUX.1 [schnell] is Apache 2.0 and usable commercially |
| Ideogram 4.0 | Open weights are non-commercial; commercial self-hosting needs a paid licence; outputs cannot train competing models |
| Stable Diffusion 3.5 | Free for commercial use under a 1 million dollar annual revenue cap; enterprise licence above |
| OpenAI and Google Imagen | Not addressed in the article; check provider terms |
This is general information, not legal advice. If you plan to sell products, brand work or client assets, check the current terms and consider asking a qualified lawyer.
Copyright: Who Owns an AI Image
Prodia says the US Copyright Office indicates that visuals created solely with AI cannot obtain copyright protection without considerable human involvement. That means you may use an image, but may not be able to stop others copying it.
If an image is central to your brand, add substantial human work, such as editing and composition, and keep records of your process. For questions on ownership, consult a qualified legal professional.
Which Tool for Which Job
Use this as a starting point and test two tools on your own brief.
| Your job | Tool to try first | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Artistic illustrations | Midjourney | Strong artistic output |
| Commercial work where provenance matters | Adobe Firefly | Licensed training data and Content Credentials |
| Images with text in them | Ideogram 4.0 | Strength in text rendering |
| Photorealistic images through an API | FLUX.2 | Photorealism and API pricing |
| Developers wanting no per-image cost | Stable Diffusion 3.5 | Free to self-host, with a revenue cap |
| Editing from instructions | OpenAI gpt-image-2 | Instruction following and image editing |
If you want to understand what happens inside these tools, our explainer on how diffusion models work is a good next read.
Using AI Images Responsibly
Label AI-generated images where readers would expect it, avoid imitating a living artist’s style for commercial use, and check images for errors such as extra fingers or garbled text. Our guide to detecting AI-generated content explains why labelling matters.
If you are thinking about selling your work, read our overview of stock photography as passive income, and check each marketplace’s policy on AI-made images first.
