Compare pricing, ratings, functions, limits, privacy, pros and cons side by side.
Midjourney, Inc.
Midjourney creates high-quality AI images from text prompts and is popular for creative visuals, concept art and style exploration.
Runway AI, Inc.
Runway focuses on AI video, generative clips, image-to-video and creative editing for creators and marketing teams.
Midjourney fits AI Image Generators. Runway is relevant to compare because both tools share at least one category.
Midjourney: 8.3/10 · Runway: 8.6/10
| Factor | MidjourneyMidjourney → | RunwayRunway → |
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| Rating | No user ratings | No user ratings |
| Score overview | 8.3/10 | 8.6/10 |
| Ease of use | 8.2/10 | 8.6/10 |
| Price/value | 7.8/10 | 7.8/10 |
| Output quality | 9.5/10 | 8.6/10 |
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| API | — | ✅ |
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| Privacy | 6.8/10 | 8.0/10 |
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Scores from other platforms are shown separately because each source measures a different audience. ToolLions never averages them into one artificial score.
| Platform | Midjourney | Runway |
|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot ↗ | — | 1.2/5Company & service reviews · 277 reviews · Checked 18 Jul 2026 |
| G2 ↗ | — | 3.9/5Product reviews · 24 reviews · Checked 17 Jul 2026 |
| Product Hunt ↗ | — | 4.4/5Product reviews · 18 reviews · Checked 17 Jul 2026 |
| Gartner Peer Insights ↗ | — | 4.4/5Product reviews · 10 reviews · Checked 18 Jul 2026 |
| Capterra (Runway Gen-2 listing) ↗ | — | 4.5/5Product reviews · 2 reviews · Checked 17 Jul 2026 |
Free access, payment triggers, real limits and the most suitable plan—without mixing monthly and annual prices.
| Buying question | Midjourney | Runway |
|---|---|---|
| Free access | No confirmed free access | Limited evaluation account with selected models and a one-time balance. · 125 one-time credits · 5 GB |
| When payment is needed | Choose Midjourney when image quality and creative exploration matter more than automation or enterprise administration. Standard is usually the best value for frequent image creators. Pro is the practical choice for agencies, confidential client work and recurring video use. Mega mainly fits studios that regularly use large amounts of Fast GPU time. | Payment becomes necessary when the 125 one-time trial credits are used, or when you need recurring credits, all current models, watermark-free exports, 4K upscaling, more storage or team features. |
| Credits and limits | Midjourney is a subscription-based generative media platform for creating images and short image-to-video clips through midjourney.com and Discord. The current V8.1 image model supports native 2K HD output and faster rendering. Users can guide results with text prompts, image prompts, Style References, Moodboards, Personalization profiles, seeds and model-version parameters. Omni Reference is available in V7 for placing referenced characters and objects into new scenes. The web Editor supports Remix, inpainting, pan, zoom out, resizing and prompt suggestions. Every plan includes Fast GPU time. Standard, Pro and Mega add unlimited Relax image generation, while Pro and Mega also add unlimited SD video in Relax Mode and Stealth Mode. Midjourney is especially strong for concept art, advertising, editorial illustration, fashion, product imagery and creative direction. Its main weaknesses are no general free plan, no public API, limited team administration, costly privacy and consistency that still requires iteration. All four plans are paid subscriptions and buy monthly Fast GPU time rather than a fixed number of images. Standard adds unlimited Relax images; Pro and Mega add unlimited Relax images and standard-definition video plus Stealth mode. Unused subscription Fast time does not roll over, while purchased extra Fast time costs $4 per hour and expires after 60 days. Creations are public by default unless eligible users deliberately enable Stealth mode and work outside public Discord channels. · Only niji journey offers a limited trial · Relax is not unlimited Fast generation | 625 credits · 625 credits/month · 100 GB |
| Likely best-value plan | $24 / month · Designers, illustrators, creative directors, marketers, filmmakers, game studios, agencies and independent creators who prioritize visual quality and stylistic control. · Standard is a paid GPU-time plan for Midjourney image and video generation, with capabilities derived from its Fast, Relax and privacy allowances. | Standard · $15 monthly or $12/month with $144 annual prepayment · Best for Occasional creators producing short clips · This is the lowest recurring plan with all image and video models, watermark-free exports, 4K upscaling and 625 monthly credits. |
| Value verdict | Choose Midjourney when image quality and creative exploration matter more than automation or enterprise administration. Standard is usually the best value for frequent image creators. Pro is the practical choice for agencies, confidential client work and recurring video use. Mega mainly fits studios that regularly use large amounts of Fast GPU time. | Standard has the clearest entry value for occasional recurring work because it unlocks the full model range, removes watermarks and adds 4K upscaling. Pro is the more practical default for regular creators because 2,250 monthly credits reduce the chance that a few retries exhaust the allowance. Max has the lowest effective cost per included subscription credit, but only for genuinely high-volume users. |
No confirmed free access
Limited evaluation account with selected models and a one-time balance. · 125 one-time credits · 5 GB
Choose Midjourney when image quality and creative exploration matter more than automation or enterprise administration. Standard is usually the best value for frequent image creators. Pro is the practical choice for agencies, confidential client work and recurring video use. Mega mainly fits studios that regularly use large amounts of Fast GPU time.
Payment becomes necessary when the 125 one-time trial credits are used, or when you need recurring credits, all current models, watermark-free exports, 4K upscaling, more storage or team features.
Midjourney is a subscription-based generative media platform for creating images and short image-to-video clips through midjourney.com and Discord. The current V8.1 image model supports native 2K HD output and faster rendering. Users can guide results with text prompts, image prompts, Style References, Moodboards, Personalization profiles, seeds and model-version parameters. Omni Reference is available in V7 for placing referenced characters and objects into new scenes. The web Editor supports Remix, inpainting, pan, zoom out, resizing and prompt suggestions. Every plan includes Fast GPU time. Standard, Pro and Mega add unlimited Relax image generation, while Pro and Mega also add unlimited SD video in Relax Mode and Stealth Mode. Midjourney is especially strong for concept art, advertising, editorial illustration, fashion, product imagery and creative direction. Its main weaknesses are no general free plan, no public API, limited team administration, costly privacy and consistency that still requires iteration. All four plans are paid subscriptions and buy monthly Fast GPU time rather than a fixed number of images. Standard adds unlimited Relax images; Pro and Mega add unlimited Relax images and standard-definition video plus Stealth mode. Unused subscription Fast time does not roll over, while purchased extra Fast time costs $4 per hour and expires after 60 days. Creations are public by default unless eligible users deliberately enable Stealth mode and work outside public Discord channels. · Only niji journey offers a limited trial · Relax is not unlimited Fast generation
625 credits · 625 credits/month · 100 GB
$24 / month · Designers, illustrators, creative directors, marketers, filmmakers, game studios, agencies and independent creators who prioritize visual quality and stylistic control. · Standard is a paid GPU-time plan for Midjourney image and video generation, with capabilities derived from its Fast, Relax and privacy allowances.
Standard · $15 monthly or $12/month with $144 annual prepayment · Best for Occasional creators producing short clips · This is the lowest recurring plan with all image and video models, watermark-free exports, 4K upscaling and 625 monthly credits.
Choose Midjourney when image quality and creative exploration matter more than automation or enterprise administration. Standard is usually the best value for frequent image creators. Pro is the practical choice for agencies, confidential client work and recurring video use. Mega mainly fits studios that regularly use large amounts of Fast GPU time.
Standard has the clearest entry value for occasional recurring work because it unlocks the full model range, removes watermarks and adds 4K upscaling. Pro is the more practical default for regular creators because 2,250 monthly credits reduce the chance that a few retries exhaust the allowance. Max has the lowest effective cost per included subscription credit, but only for genuinely high-volume users.
A concise selection of sourced findings; extra research stays on the individual tool pages.
Choose Midjourney when image quality and creative exploration matter more than automation or enterprise administration. Standard is usually the best value for frequent image creators. Pro is the practical choice for agencies, confidential client work and recurring video use. Mega mainly fits studios that regularly use large amounts of Fast GPU time.
Midjourney is a subscription-based generative media platform for creating images and short image-to-video clips through midjourney.com and Discord. The current V8.1 image model supports native 2K HD output and faster rendering. Users can guide results with text prompts, image prompts, Style References, Moodboards, Personalization profiles, seeds and model-version parameters. Omni Reference is available in V7 for placing referenced characters and objects into new scenes. The web Editor supports Remix, inpainting, pan, zoom out, resizing and prompt suggestions. Every plan includes Fast GPU time. Standard, Pro and Mega add unlimited Relax image generation, while Pro and Mega also add unlimited SD video in Relax Mode and Stealth Mode. Midjourney is especially strong for concept art, advertising, editorial illustration, fashion, product imagery and creative direction. Its main weaknesses are no general free plan, no public API, limited team administration, costly privacy and consistency that still requires iteration. All four plans are paid subscriptions and buy monthly Fast GPU time rather than a fixed number of images. Standard adds unlimited Relax images; Pro and Mega add unlimited Relax images and standard-definition video plus Stealth mode. Unused subscription Fast time does not roll over, while purchased extra Fast time costs $4 per hour and expires after 60 days. Creations are public by default unless eligible users deliberately enable Stealth mode and work outside public Discord channels.
Midjourney — official documentation ↗$10/month or $8/month with annual billing ($96/year) | $30/month or $24/month with annual billing ($288/year) | $60/month or $48/month with annual billing ($576/year) | $120/month or $96/month with annual billing ($1152/year)
Midjourney — official pricing page ↗No general free trial on the website or Discord; a limited niji journey mobile trial may be available.
Midjourney — official pricing page ↗No hands-on practical test was performed. Findings are based on official public sources checked on 14 July 2026.
Runway is one of the strongest all-round AI media production platforms. Gen-4.5, Aleph 2.0, Act-Two, third-party models, Agent, Apps, Workflows, MCP and the API create exceptional breadth, but real cost depends on credits and self-serve terms allow training on inputs and outputs.
The current public lineup is Free, Standard, Pro, Max and Enterprise. Max replaced Unlimited for new subscribers on 1 June 2026; remaining Unlimited accounts are scheduled to move on 1 September 2026.
Runway pricing and Max migration notice ↗Free includes 125 one-time credits that do not expire. It has no recurring monthly allowance, Free users cannot buy additional credits and only a selected model set is available.
Runway pricing and credit documentation ↗Gen-4.5 costs 12 credits per generated second. Standard therefore represents about 52 seconds per month, Pro about 187 seconds and Max about 791 seconds before retries. Standard and Pro credits reset, Max rolls over up to one month and purchased credits never expire.
Runway pricing and credits ↗Runway changes models, credit rates and product packaging quickly. The Unlimited-to-Max migration is still in progress for legacy subscribers, independent benchmark rankings are dynamic and exact Enterprise data terms depend on contract.
Compares only confirmed snapshots stored for each tool. No trend is claimed when fewer than two comparable measurements exist.
| Tool | Tracked entry price | Price change 12 months | External review trend | Important changes 90 days | Last checked | Tracking started |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | — | Not enough history | Not enough history | 0 | — | — |
| Runway | $12 | -20.0% | Not enough history | 20 | 2026-07-18 | 2026-07-17 |
We compare shared core functions with matching test slugs. Tool-specific functions are shown separately instead of forcing unrelated products through identical tasks.
Why tested: A strong reference frame gives later Runway image-to-video tests clear identity, object and background markers. This task measures whether Runway can create that production-ready starting image from a detailed prompt.
Test setup: A new image generation was started in the Runway desktop web application. No image or style reference was uploaded. The prompt was entered as text, the aspect ratio was set to 16:9, Nano Banana Pro was selected, Quality optimization was active and the 20-credit job was manually approved. The first generated image was downloaded and evaluated without regeneration, inpainting, cropping or retouching.
Input used: Text-only input. The prompt requested a woman in a red coat beside a yellow vintage car on a European street, with a blue bicycle, three terracotta plant pots and a café with green window frames as consistency markers. The downloaded output measured 2048 × 1143 pixels.
Prompt / instruction: Create a photorealistic cinematic image of a woman around 30 years old standing beside a yellow vintage car on a quiet European street. She has shoulder-length dark brown hair, a clearly visible face and is wearing a long red coat, black trousers and white sneakers. Her full body and both hands must be visible. One hand rests naturally on the car door. The street contains a blue bicycle leaning against a brick wall, three small plants in identical terracotta pots and a café with green window frames in the background. Use soft overcast daylight, realistic proportions, natural skin texture and sharp details. Camera: eye-level medium-wide shot, 35mm lens, subject centered slightly to the left. No motion blur, no text, no logos, no extra people, no distorted hands, no cropped limbs.
Evaluation criteria: Prompt adherence; facial and hand anatomy; full-body visibility; correct clothing and object placement; one bicycle and three plant pots; realistic materials and lighting; composition; absence of extra people; absence of cropped limbs; and compliance with the no-text and no-logo instruction.
Result: The first-pass Runway image is highly usable as a reference frame. The woman, red coat, black trousers, white sneakers, yellow vintage car, green café windows, blue bicycle and three plant pots are all present. Her full body and both hands are visible, and the hands, face, car geometry, lighting and street perspective look convincing. The medium-wide eye-level composition also follows the request well. The main failures are strict rather than structural: a Mercedes emblem is clearly visible despite the no-logo instruction, and the café boards and bicycle contain small unreadable or brand-like lettering despite the no-text instruction. The hand rests on the mirror and door area rather than clearly on the door itself, and the three pots are similar but not perfectly identical. Overall, the image is a strong first result, but it would need a small cleanup pass before publication under the original no-text and no-logo requirements.
Sources and notes: ToolLions editorial Runway test evidence from 2026-07-19: prompt and interface screenshot, Quality-setting screenshot, approval panel and original downloaded output. Add the relevant official Runway documentation URL before publication.
