Midjourney pricing: you're buying GPU time, not images
Midjourney pricing sells GPU time. Your subscription buys a monthly allowance of Fast GPU minutes, and every prompt draws that balance down at a published rate rather than a fixed price per image. Four tiers run $10, $30, $60 and $120 a month, carrying 3.3 to 60 Fast hours.
Key takeaways
Midjourney charges for Fast GPU minutes, not images. An SD image prompt costs roughly 0.8 minutes, a batch of four HD videos 26.
Basic gets 3.3 Fast hours a month and no Relax Mode, so it's the only tier that genuinely runs out.
Extra Fast hours cost $4 on every plan, double the $2 an hour Standard, Pro and Mega effectively pay inside their plan.
Nothing rolls over. Subscription Fast time dies each month, purchased hours after 60 days, earned hours after 30.
Midjourney pricing in 2026
Plan | Monthly | Annual | Fast GPU time | Relax Mode
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic | $10 | $96 ($8/mo) | 3.3 hr (200 min) | None |
Standard | $30 | $288 ($24/mo) | 15 hr | Unlimited images |
Pro | $60 | $576 ($48/mo) | 30 hr | Images and SD video |
Mega | $120 | $1,152 ($96/mo) | 60 hr | Images and SD video |
What Midjourney actually meters
Midjourney meters Fast GPU time in minutes of active generation. The docs are careful: GPU time counts only while Midjourney works on your job, not while you wait in a queue. It publishes the conversion table too, which almost nobody here does.
Job | Approximate GPU cost
|
|---|---|
SD image prompt | 0.8 minutes |
HD image prompt | 1.3 minutes |
Variation | Under 1 minute |
Creative or subtle upscale | 2 minutes |
Batch of 4 SD videos | 8 minutes |
Batch of 4 HD videos | 26 minutes |
These are approximations and Midjourney says so. Nonstandard aspect ratios and older versions cost more, lower quality settings less, and Discord grid upscales are free. Turbo Mode runs four times faster and burns double the Fast time, so speed carries a straight 2x price here.
Basic's 200 minutes buys around 250 SD image prompts, roughly 153 HD ones, or 25 batches of four SD videos. Video is what makes GPU-hour metering bite: one HD batch eats 13% of Basic's monthly allowance.
How the GPU time balance works
Three pools of Fast time exist and each expires differently. Subscription time resets at renewal and doesn't carry over, on monthly and yearly plans alike. Purchased hours, bought at $4/hr from the Manage Subscription page, expire after 60 days and aren't refundable. Earned time expires 30 days after it's granted.
That last pool is unusual. Midjourney gives the top 2,000 members who rate the most images each day one free Fast hour, and occasionally pays Fast time for surveys. Users can work off part of their bill.
Both bought and earned hours need an active subscription to spend, so letting a plan lapse strands the balance. Upgrading mid-cycle discounts the new plan by unused Fast time, the one place it keeps value. Downgrades wait for renewal.
What happens when you hit the limit
Fast Mode stops, and what follows depends on your tier. Standard, Pro and Mega drop to Relax Mode, which is unlimited and queues prompts for 0 to 30 minutes depending on how heavily you've used it lately. Relax carries restrictions: no permutation prompts, no repeat parameter, no HD video, and video Relax only on Pro and Mega.
Basic has no Relax Mode, so running out means buying hours at $4, earning them by rating images, or waiting for renewal. Nothing auto-charges until you click buy, so there's no surprise invoice.
How Midjourney pricing has changed across all these years
Date | Milestone | Source
|
|---|---|---|
22 Sep 2026 | Prices and Fast hours unchanged in every snapshot since Feb 2025 | Vendor |
14 Apr, 24 Jul 2026 | V8.1 then V8.2 ship. V8.1 renders 4 to 5 times faster, changing what an hour buys | Vendor |
5 Jan 2026 | No student, school or non-profit discounts | Vendor |
Dec 2025 to Apr 2026 | Video resolution split into SD and HD by tier, Basic capped at SD | Vendor |
Apr to Jun 2025 | Video folded into the same Fast GPU pool. Relax video limited to Pro and Mega, no price change | Vendor |
15 Feb 2025 | Earliest snapshot: $10/$30/$60/$120, 3.3/15/30/60 Fast hours, $4/hr, 20% annual | Vendor |
17 Jan 2025 | Extra Fast Time article created, documenting the $4/hr top-up and 60-day expiry | Vendor |
Customer
Sentiment Highlights
"charged a FULL YEAR, not using this service"
Midjourney subscriber on annual billing, Trustpilot, August 2026
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How much does Midjourney cost?
What is Fast GPU time in Midjourney?
Do unused Midjourney Fast hours roll over?
What happens when you run out of Fast time on Midjourney?
