creative

What are negative prompts and how do I use them?

Negative prompts tell the AI what NOT to include in your image. They’re essential for Stable Diffusion and Flux, and can dramatically improve output quality.

Basic negative prompt template:

blurry, low quality, distorted, deformed, ugly, bad anatomy,
extra limbs, extra fingers, mutated hands, poorly drawn face,
watermark, text, signature, cropped

When to add specific negatives:

  • Getting unwanted text → add “text, words, letters, watermark”
  • Wrong style → add the unwanted style name
  • Artifacts → add “jpeg artifacts, noise, grain”
  • Anatomy issues → add “bad hands, extra fingers, deformed”

Platform support:

PlatformNegative Prompt Support
Stable DiffusionFull support
FluxFull support
MidjourneyLimited (--no parameter)
DALL-ENo direct support
Leonardo.aiFull support

Pro tips:

  • Keep negatives focused on actual problems
  • Don’t overload with unnecessary terms
  • Some models have optimized negative embeddings
  • Test with and without to see impact

Negative prompts are your quality control tool—use them to eliminate the common artifacts AI tends to produce.