Top 6 Best AI Tools for Image Design in 2024

 Image generation software can be extremely helpful AI tools for startups and small businesses that might not have the marketing budget to produce high-quality creative assets. They’re also excellent resources for designers to lean on in their own creative processes to make initial sketches, explore new artistic styles, and find inspiration. 

If you’re looking to create data visualizations, edit photos, or solidify your brand’s artistic style, these AI image-generation tools have you covered. 

1. Midjourney

via Midjourney

Midjourney is an AI-powered image generator tool that empowers individuals to unlock their creativity and embrace a wide spectrum of artistic styles. Simply describe your vision, and Midjourney’s Discord bot will take it from there. With the ability to transform text prompts into graphics, individuals, and teams can use the generative AI to create everything from detailed web designs to social media campaigns. 

Midjourney best features

• Easy-to-use and engaging UI
• There have been significant improvements to this app’s web graphics quality
• Midjourney has a strong community behind it because it exists within Discord

Midjourney limitations 

• Its prompting tool can upscale images but might the original design in the process
• If you’re new to Discord, Midjourney can feel a bit confusing

Midjourney pricing

• Free trial 
• Basic Plan: $10 per month
• Standard Plan: $30 per month
• Pro Plan: $60 per month

2. DALL·E 2

via DALL-E 2

Developed by OpenAI, DALL-E 2 is a popular image generation tool for producing realistic and creative images based on your text prompts. Features like Outpainting give DALL-E the ability to support a greater range of images in various media formats, including realistic art styles, oil paintings, and illustrations.  

DALL·E 2 best features

• DALL-E 2 can create surreal AI-generated art that is interesting to look at
• Its UI is user-friendly and makes it easy to start creating a masterpiece
• You can mix and match DALL-E 2’s different media to curate unique and stylized images

DALL·E 2 limitations 

• The quality isn’t consistent in every artistic style. Some images will turn out more pixelated or blurry than others
• More complex AI art concepts require lengthier processing times 

DALL·E 2 pricing

This AI image generation tool operates on a credit pricing model. Each text prompt costs approximately one credit, and you can currently buy credits in blocks of 115.

• Free
• 115 credits: $15

3. NightCafe

Via NightCafe

NightCafe “gamifies” the typical image generation approach through friendly challenges between its regular users to build a stronger community. You can also access different AI algorithms from NightCafe to experiment with similar tools, including DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion, without leaving the app. 

NightCafe best features

• NightCafe allows you to choose your own artistic style 
• You can access other machine-learning algorithms
• Daily art challenges to foster a tight-knit community of users

NightCafe limitations 

• Less access to customer service and support options
• Some filters are much more sensitive than others when generating art

NightCafe pricing

• Free: 5 credits per day plus bonuses for participating in community events
• AI Beginner: $5.99 for 100 credits per month
• AI Hobbyist: $9.99 for 200 credits per month
• AI Enthusiast: $19.99 for 500 credits per month
• AI Artist: $49.99 for 1400 credits per month

Users also have the option to buy additional credits outside of their subscription, starting at $7.99 for every 100 credits.

4. BlueWillow

via BlueWillow

BlueWillow’s AI art-generating capabilities make it possible to create brand logos, marketing assets, and graphics in the blink of an eye. This tool is accessible with a verified Discord account and creates four images per every text description you enter. The more detailed the description, the better your results will be!

BlueWillow best features

• A strong Discord community of over 300 million users 
• You can enhance the quality of BlueWillow’s output or reshuffle your results for another four images if the app misses the mark
• Save your BlueWillow images directly to your computer
• Different artistic styles to create graphics or photo-realistic images

BlueWillow limitations 

• You have to have a Discord account to use BlueWillow
• This tool may be better for individual art requests than professional branding or rolling campaigns

BlueWillow pricing

• Free
• Willower: $5 per month
• Blue Angel: $10 per month
• Sapphire: $20 per month

5. Bria

via Bria

Bria leverages AI to create customized and ethical visual content at scale and with ease. It’s designed for professional teams, enterprises, artists, and developers who require visually engaging marketing copy, social media assets, advertising content, or any other creative project under the sun.

Used correctly, Bria has the power to streamline the content creation process, allowing teams to save time and effort without sacrificing quality. 

Bria best features

• Encourages ethical AI development so artists can maintain full control over their art
• Background generator and object re-generator to tailor your content down to the final detail
• Ability to adjust facial expressions, appearance, and people featured in your content
• Open access to nonprofits and academics

Bria limitations 

• Can be somewhat challenging to learn Bria’s UI at first
• It might not be compatible with your current operating systems or tech stack for a fully streamlined experience
• Paid plans can be pretty pricey

Bria pricing

• Starter: Free
• Basic: $99 per month
• Pro: $290 per month
• Ultimate: Contact for pricing

6. Stockimg

via Stockimg.ai

Stockimg uses AI to generate professional and high-quality images in seconds. From stock images to book covers, posters, and more, Stockimg can provide creative brand solutions for a wide range of use cases. By providing descriptions or text inputs, users can easily access customized images that align with their specific requirements.

Stockimg best features

• Create your own design or choose from a gallery of AI-made stock images for quick use
• Stockimg is designed to generate stock images, book covers, posters, wallpaper, logos, illustrations, icons, and even web or mobile UI
• A clean and intuitive UI that’s easy to learn

Stockimg limitations 

• Not a lot of ways to customize your AI-generated output
• Stockimg sometimes struggles to understand images that require text (i.e. book covers, graphics, and posters) and will generate gibberish text

Stockimg pricing

• Free Plan
• Starter Plan: $19 per month
• Premium Plan: $29 per month
• Enterprise Plan: Contact Stockimg for information