How much does AI art generation cost?

Question

Accepted Answer

AI art generation costs range from free to $60+ per month depending on the platform and usage level.

**Free options:**
- Stable Diffusion (local, requires GPU)
- NightCafe (a free creation every day)
- Leonardo.ai (150 free tokens daily)
- Kling (free plan for AI video)
- ChatGPT Images (free in ChatGPT, with daily limits)

**Subscription costs:**
- Midjourney: $10-120/month
- ChatGPT Images: free on every ChatGPT plan, with higher limits on paid plans
- Ideogram: $20-60/month ($15-42/month billed yearly)
- Adobe Firefly: $9.99-199.99/month

**Video generation** is more expensive—Runway runs $12-76/month (billed annually). OpenAI's Sora, once bundled with ChatGPT plans, was discontinued in 2026.

Running Stable Diffusion locally is free after the initial GPU investment ($300-1500 for a capable graphics card).