The five services meter their plans in different units, so price alone tells you little. Midjourney sells fast GPU hours, Leonardo sells tokens, Ideogram and Adobe sell credits, and OpenAI bills its API in tokens. The commercial-use terms differ more than the prices do: Midjourney’s Terms of Service (effective 27 May 2026) require a Pro or Mega plan for a company with more than $1,000,000 a year in revenue, Leonardo’s free plan makes everything public, and Adobe offers IP indemnification only to eligible enterprise customers. Pick on terms first, then on allowance.
What each plan is measured in
Read from each vendor’s own page on 29 Sep 2026, USD. “Annual” is the per-month figure when billed yearly.
| Service | Entry paid plan | Mid plan | Top individual plan | Allowance is counted in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | Basic $10 ($8 annual) | Standard $30 ($24) | Mega $120 ($96) | Fast GPU hours: 3.3, 15, 30 (Pro $60), 60 |
| Ideogram | Plus $20 ($15 annual) | Pro $60 ($42) | Pro | Priority credits: 1,000 and 3,500 a month |
| Leonardo.Ai | Essential $12 ($10) | Premium $30 ($24) | Ultimate $60 ($48) | Fast tokens: 8,500, 25,000, 60,000 a month; prices exclude tax |
| Adobe Firefly | Standard $9.99 | Pro $19.99 | Premium $199.99 | Generative credits: 2,000, 4,000, 10,000 (Pro Plus $49.99), 50,000 |
| OpenAI GPT Image | No plan; API only | Tokens: $8 per million image input, $30 per million image output |
Notes on the table:
- Ideogram: the pricing page’s Monthly toggle shows $20 and $60, and its Yearly toggle shows $15 and $42 a month ($180 and $504 billed annually). Team is $30 a user monthly or $20 yearly, with a two-user minimum.
- Adobe: the dollar prices ($9.99, $19.99, $49.99, $199.99) could not be re-read from a US connection in the audit; from the Netherlands the plans page showed euro prices including VAT (Standard €11.17, Pro €22.36, Pro Plus €55.91 regular, Premium €223.68 regular; Pro Plus and Premium carried a first-year offer until 21 Oct). Credits (2,000, 4,000, 10,000, 50,000 a month) matched. Treat the dollar figures as US-store prices and confirm at checkout.
- OpenAI gives no per-image price on the pricing page. It points to a calculator in its image generation guide, and the pricing page lists two GPT Image 2.5 models. For consumer use inside ChatGPT the plan prices were not readable on the date checked, so none are given.
Cost of a unit of “fast” output
Where the allowance is a single, comparable unit, the arithmetic is simple. Our division from the table, allowance fully used:
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing (per month) | Allowance | Per unit, monthly | Per unit, annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midjourney Basic | $10 | $8 | 3.3 fast hours | $3.03 an hour | $2.42 |
| Midjourney Standard | $30 | $24 | 15 fast hours | $2.00 | $1.60 |
| Midjourney Pro | $60 | $48 | 30 fast hours | $2.00 | $1.60 |
| Leonardo Essential | $12 | $10 | 8,500 tokens | $1.41 per 1,000 | $1.18 |
| Leonardo Premium | $30 | $24 | 25,000 tokens | $1.20 | $0.96 |
| Leonardo Ultimate | $60 | $48 | 60,000 tokens | $1.00 | $0.80 |
| Ideogram Plus | $20 | $15 | 1,000 credits | $20 per 1,000 | $15 |
| Ideogram Pro | $60 | $42 | 3,500 credits | $17.14 | $12 |
| Adobe Firefly Standard | $9.99 | n/a | 2,000 credits | $5.00 | n/a |
| Adobe Firefly Premium | $199.99 | n/a | 50,000 credits | $4.00 | n/a |
The units are not interchangeable. A Midjourney fast hour, a Leonardo token and an Ideogram credit each buy a different amount of image, depending on the model and settings, and none of the pages states a price per image. Compare within a row of one vendor, never across vendors.
Two facts that change the sums. Midjourney’s extra fast time costs $4 an hour, double the $2 an hour inside Standard, Pro or Mega monthly billing. And Standard, Pro and Mega include unlimited images in Relax mode, so a light user pays for time they never spend fast. Ideogram’s unused subscription credits expire at the end of the billing cycle; top-up credits carry over.
Who may use the images commercially
| Service | What the vendor’s page says | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | You own the images you create, even after cancelling. Companies grossing over $1,000,000 a year must be on Pro or Mega | Upscaling another user’s image leaves it theirs; the terms give Midjourney a licence to your outputs and put third-party claims on you |
| Ideogram | “We do not claim ownership” of generated images; free to use for any purpose including commercial (pricing FAQ) | Images are published by default; only Plus and Pro can generate unpublished images |
| Leonardo | Commercial use is allowed. Paid private generations: the user retains full ownership | On the free plan everything is public and others may reuse it; for public generations Leonardo keeps perpetual rights |
| Adobe Firefly | Firefly outputs described as safe for commercial use | IP indemnification is stated only for eligible enterprise customers, and only for select outputs |
| OpenAI | As between you and OpenAI, you own the output and OpenAI assigns its rights | Output may not be unique; the assignment does not cover other users’ output or third-party output |
This is a reading of vendor pages, not legal advice. Dates of the documents read: OpenAI Terms of Use (Europe edition) updated 16 Jan 2026; Midjourney Terms of Service effective 27 May 2026; Leonardo help article dated 25 Aug 2026; the Ideogram FAQ and Adobe plans page are undated. Whether an AI image can be protected by copyright at all is a separate question; see can you use AI output commercially for what the US Copyright Office says, and consult a lawyer.
Pick by need
| You need | Look first at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Images a brand’s legal team will sign off | Adobe Firefly on an enterprise agreement | The only one of the five that states IP indemnification, for eligible enterprise customers |
| Private generation without a big bill | Ideogram Plus or Leonardo Essential | Both make private output a paid feature; compare token and credit allowance in the table |
| Heavy volume at a flat price | Midjourney Standard | Unlimited Relax images; check the $1M revenue rule if you are a company |
| Generation from your own scripts | OpenAI API | Token billing; use OpenAI’s calculator for a per-image cost |
| A named-model replacement for DALL-E 3 | GPT Image | What replaced DALL-E 3 |
What this page cannot tell you
Image quality, prompt accuracy and text rendering are not on any pricing or terms page, and we have not assessed them. For those, look for independent, named comparisons and run your own prompts on a free tier. On the reviews, Flux and Krea cover two more generators, and the DALL-E 3 page records the retirement.
Method
Researched from each vendor’s plan, terms and help pages, read 29 Sep 2026, in a real browser session where the vendor’s page blocks automated readers. Per-unit figures are our division and assume the whole allowance is used. Nothing here comes from using the products. Midjourney, Ideogram, Leonardo and OpenAI terms change; recheck before buying. All plans of the video and writing tools are in the pricing tracker.
Adobe Firefly credits, cost per output and indemnity terms in detail: Adobe Firefly review.