Midjourney
by Midjourney
The image model with the strongest default aesthetic. V7 is the current flagship. Discord-native with a web app. No free tier.
$10+/mo
Paid polish vs open-source freedom.
Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion
Our pick
Stable Diffusion wins
Fully free — no card required; Midjourney has no free plan.
Try Stable Diffusion free →VS
Stable Diffusion
by Stability AI
The open-source family of image models. Runs locally on any modern GPU. Endless community fine-tunes, LoRAs, ControlNets. SDXL and SD3.
Free
Head-to-head
| Feature | Midjourney | Stable Diffusion |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Midjourney | Stability AI |
| Category | Image Generation | Image Generation |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Starting price | $10/mo | Free |
| Strengths | unmatched default aesthetic, strong community, consistent style references | free forever, runs locally, total control |
| Weaknesses | no free tier, Discord-centric UX | setup complexity, hardware requirements |
What hardware do you need to run Stable Diffusion locally?
Image models live in GPU memory (VRAM). The model you want decides the card: more VRAM means bigger models and larger images without errors.
| Model | GPU memory | Runs well on |
|---|---|---|
| Stable Diffusion 1.5 | ~4-6 GB | Almost any NVIDIA card from the last 6 years; 16 GB Mac |
| SDXL | ~8 GB (12 GB comfortable) | 12-16 GB GPU; 24 GB Mac |
| Flux.1 dev | ~12-16 GB with fp8 / GGUF, 24 GB for full quality | 16 GB GPU minimum, 24-32 GB ideal |
Three good picks
Best value GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
16 GB VRAM · SDXL and Flux (fp8) without running out of memory
The cheapest current card with 16 GB of video memory. Make sure it is the 16 GB version, not the 8 GB one.
24 GB on a budget
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 24GB
24 GB VRAM · Flux dev at full quality, larger batches
The classic local-AI card: 24 GB for less than a new 24 GB+ card. Mostly sold renewed or used, so check the seller and the return window. Needs a 750 W+ power supply.
No compromises
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 32GB
32 GB VRAM · 32B models with long context, Flux at high quality
The most memory on a single consumer card. Expensive and power hungry (needs a 1000 W supply); only worth it if you run models every day.
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