Key Takeaways

  • Get started with Midjourney by downloading Discord and creating an account.
  • Sign up for Midjourney through Discord, choose a subscription plan, and create prompts.
  • Use variations, parameters, and remixes to get different results, before downloading your AI-generated images for creative use.

Midjourney is a rare AI image generator that requires a different sign-up process than what's expected. So to help you cut through the confusion, we have made a simple guide to help you get started using Midjourney.

Step 1: Download Discord Before Creating AI Art With Discord

Midjourney is hosted on a platform called Discord, where different online communities get together under what are called "servers". The Midjourney server is where you can create AI images and see what others are doing too.

Head to the Discord Download page and click the correct download link for your operating system. It's available as a mobile application, but to start with, download the desktop version for either Mac or Windows. Follow the installation instructions to finish setting it up.

Once installed, head to the Discord Registration page to make an account for yourself. After you've done this, you'll be ready to sign up for Midjourney.

Discord web registration page

If you need some more help with Discord, then don’t worry, you can learn how to get started with Discord here.

Step 2: Sign Up to Midjourney to Start Creating AI Art

Navigate to the Midjourney website and click on Join the Beta at the bottom-right.

Next, click Accept Invite. You will be prompted to open the Discord app by your browser, but if this doesn't happen, you can click Continue to Discord.

Discord invite for Midjourney server

Once Discord opens, click on one of the Newbies rooms. You can find them listed under the heading Newcomer Rooms in the navigation panel on the left.

Midjourney discord server showing the newcomer room

In the text box at the bottom of the screen, type the command /subscribe and hit enter twice on the keyboard.

Subscribe command for Midjourney in the Discord chat

You will receive a message from the Midjourney Bot with a link to Manage Account. Click this link to open a page with all the available subscription plans. Finally, click the Subscribe button on the plan you want to buy.

Midjourney subscription plan web page overview

While it's no longer free to try, Midjourney is still worth subscribing to. A basic plan at $10 a month offers you enough server time to create hundreds of images with the option to cancel the subscription at any time.

Step 3: How to Create a Prompt Using Midjourney

Head back to one of the Newcomer Rooms named Newbies, followed by a number. Any one of these will do.

Because there are usually a lot of people generating images on these channels, it makes it difficult to keep track of your work. So to avoid this, we reccomend opening a private chat with the Midjourney Bot. You can use the chat to generate all your images in one convenient place.

To open a private chat, click on the Midjourney Bot name wherever you can see it on the channel. Then in the message box that appears, type Hi and hit enter.

Sending a private message to the Midjourney Bot

Once you have the private chat open, you’re ready to begin. To get Midjourney to generate an image, you'll want to run a Discord command. All you have to do is type /imagine and then begin describing whatever it is you would like Midjourney to create.

example of imagine command in Midjourney

Midjourney will produce four images for each prompt. If you like one of them, you can use the U buttons to separate the image from the set. The top left and right images are U1 and U2, and the bottom left and right images are U3 and U4.

Set of four images in Midjourney of Tokyo in the rain

There are all kinds of AI art prompt ideas worth trying out, so let your imagination run wild.

Illustrated image of colorful Tokyo street made using Midjourney

Step 4: Making Variations in Your AI Art on Midjourney

Underneath each set of images are buttons labeled V1 to V4. They match the images in the set, starting from the top left and right (V1 and V2) and moving down to the bottom left and right images (V3 and V4).

When you click one of these buttons, Midjourney will create a variation of that image. This is useful for spinning-out an idea until you get an image that you really like.

As it is, this function is like a game of roulette where the output is random. So the way to gain control over variations is to turn on the Remix setting.

In the text box, type the command /remix and hit enter twice. You will see a message confirming the Remix mode has been turned on. Now, when you hit the V button on an image, you will see the Remix Prompt dialogue.

remix prompt in Midjourney

You can use this to make changes to the original prompt. Feel free to add new subjects, change colors or alter any other part of the image. Because this is still a variation, Midjourney will make sure to produce an image close in composition to the original.

Illustrated image of Tokyo street in daytime rain made using Midjourney

Step 5: How to Get the Best Results With Your AI Art on Midjourney

To really get the most out of Midjourney, you can include a number of different parameters in your prompt. These parameters are like tags that you put at the end of your prompt to tell Midjourney to behave differently than it normally would.

How to Change the Aspect Ratio in Your Midjourney AI Art

One of the most useful commands to know when you're just starting out is the one for aspect ratio, which uses the tag --ar. With this parameter, you can change the image from the default square shape to landscape or portrait.

In the image below, we added --ar 2:1 to the end of the prompt, which creates a nice wide-angle image of the scene.

Here's the full prompt:

  • /imagine Illustration of Tokyo in the rain, people walking with clear umbrellas, moody, daytime --ar 2:1
wide angle illustrated image of a Tokyo street made using Midjourney

You can learn about the different aspect ratios in Midjourney and get to know which ratio is used for profile pictures, desktop images, printing images and more.

How to Upscale Your AI Images in Midjourney

Upscaling your image to the highest resolution is another essential feature worth understanding.

First, select the image you want to upscale using the U buttons, just as we did in step 3. Once the image is separated from the set, click the Upscale (Subtle) button. If you're using an earlier version of Midjourney, the button will be labeled Upscale (4x).

upscale button on Midjourney prompt

Using Other Parameters in Midjourney

There are a huge number of different parameters that you can use to adjust Midjourney's end results, such as the chaos, style, and weird parameters. Each of these can have an immense impact on your AI-generated images.

You can explore the full list of paramters in the official Midjourney documentation.

Step 6: How to Download Your AI-Generated Image From Midjourney

When you're ready to download an image, separate the image from the set using the U buttons, then click on the image to preview it.

In the bottom left corner of the image, click Open in Browser. In the browser, you can right-click on the image and select Save Image As.

Illustrated image of Tokyo street in evening sun and rain

Step 7: How to Make Use of Your AI Art

Now that you're up and running with Midjourney, there are plenty of ways to put the AI image generator to good use.

Creating custom desktop images with Midjourney is the perfect excuse to create AI art and a great way to put it on display.

a colorful illustration of Tokyo streets made using the Midjourney-1 program

Another fun way to use Midjourney is to create AI self-portraits to replace your profile picture. It uses some of the more advanced features on offer, like uploading your own image as a reference for the AI model.

You can dabble in typography, too, and use Midjourney to create text. Or combine all these techniques together to create the perfect logo using Midjourney.

There are a lot of AI image generators available out there, but Midjourney may just be the most advanced option available to anybody who cares about AI art. Midjourney's results can sometimes be nothing short of breathtaking.

Getting started with Midjourney isn’t as difficult as it initially seems. Midjourney is a powerful tool with a serious suite of features, and once you start to play with it, you'll soon be creating your very own masterpieces.