What these tools do and who needs them
An AI image generator draws a picture from a sentence you type. Social media managers, shop owners who need product mock-ups, office workers who need slide illustrations, and anyone who just wants to make art all use them. This category has pure generators (Midjourney, Leonardo AI, Ideogram, Nano Banana), design platforms with built-in generation (Canva AI, Adobe Firefly, Recraft), an open model you can run yourself (Stable Diffusion), and Napkin AI, which turns text into diagrams and infographics.
Three common free-tier traps
1. A free image is not always yours to sell. This is the most important rule in the category. Recraft’s free plan is stated as personal use only, not commercial, and every generation is public; Stable Diffusion’s community licence allows commercial use below US$1 million annual revenue. Before using output for client work or print, check the free-tier field on the tool page for a commercial-use statement; if none is written, do not assume it is allowed.
2. Free credits usually expire the same day, and they are not always daily. Leonardo AI gives 150 fast tokens a day that expire after 24 hours; Ideogram gives 10 slow credits a week, not a day; Adobe Firefly’s page now only says “free daily generations” with no number. So “how many free images a month” often has no fixed answer.
3. Free output carries a watermark or brand mark. Napkin AI’s free exports carry its brand mark; Canva AI’s free plan is capped at 200 standard or 20 premium AI actions, and the premium ones go fast. Note also that Midjourney, the best-known name here, no longer has a free plan at all.
How to choose: three plain rules
- For commercial work, check the licence before the image quality. A beautiful image you cannot use is worthless.
- Decide between artistic style and correct text. For posters where the words must render correctly, pick a text-rendering specialist (Ideogram’s main claim); for mood illustration, pick an art-oriented generator.
- Occasional use suits credits; daily use suits a subscription. Here 5 tools are credit-based, 4 subscription and 1 usage-based. Free credits tend to expire, so daily users often do better on a subscription.
Category numbers (from the AMPM database, computed 2026-09-12)
- Tools listed: 10, all active.
- With a free tier: 8 (80%). Without: Midjourney and Replicate.
- With a fixed monthly plan: 8; cheapest monthly plan per tool ranges from US$4.99 to US$20 (lowest: Nano Banana at US$4.99; highest: Ideogram at US$20).
- Billing model: credits 5, subscription 4, usage 1.
- Free plan stated as non-commercial: Recraft. Free plan stated as watermarked: Napkin AI. No free plan: Midjourney, Replicate.
Read on
How we verify watermark and licence rules: guides. Side-by-side plans: price comparison. Free-to-use tools only: free list.
