AI image generators are one part of the wave of generative AI technology that have become nearly inescapable. These products use text-to-image prompting to help you transform your ideas into a variety of images. I've used many of these products, from Dall-E 3 to Midjourney and Adobe Firefly. It can be a bit of a learning curve, getting to know the personality and features behind every program and building good prompt-writing habits. These AI image generators helped me create everything from test product shots to stock photography to whimsical sci-fi scenes. But not all AI image generators are built equally, and there are many options on the market. That's why CNET reviewers put together this list to help you find the right one for you, no matter your skills, project or budget.
CNET reviewers have spent months reviewing every program on this list, generating a slew of different images and pushing the programs to their limits. At some point during our testing, every service on this list produced a wonky or unusable image -- no AI image generator is perfect. The test of a truly superior AI image generator is how well-equipped it is to handle those quirks and fix flaws. Editing tools and customization options are a big part of that, which is why we test those extensively. Privacy policies, including how generators potentially train on your content, are also important considerations when selecting the best services, so we inspect those closely.
Here are our top AI image generators. For more, you can check out our top AI chatbots.
Read More: Big Tech Is Entering Its AI Video Era. Here Are the Major Models
What’s the best AI image generator?
Dall-E 3 by OpenAI is our best AI image generator pick. It can handle long, complex queries, giving you many editing and customization options. Its unique conversational flow also makes it easy to bring your artistic visions to life. If you don’t want to sign up for the $20 per month ChatGPT Plus subscription, Leonardo AI offers great AI imagery in its free plan. Beginners will find Canva’s user-friendly design easy and accessible to use, and professional creatives looking to experiment with AI art ought to try Adobe Firefly and its family of AI tools.
Best AI image generator of 2024
Dall-E did the best of text-to-image AI models I tried when it came to creating a caricature of an older man playing pickleball. The image is generally engaging and entertaining and doesn't have major anatomical problems that are common witih AI.
Best overall AI image generator
Dall-E 3
Pros
- Understands long, complex queries
- Engaging, dynamic images
- Conversational style allows for easy modifications
Cons
- Photorealistic images can look fake
- Slow to generate images
Dall-E 3 by OpenAI is CNET’s 2024 Editor’s choice for the best AI image generator. Dall-E 3 is great for amateurs and professionals, with many editing tools like different styles and customizations to take advantage of. Dall-E is unique among its competitors for its conversational flow, making it easy to send follow-up requests, and its ability to handle complex queries. OpenAI may use your content to improve its models, but the company says it won’t share your data with advertisers and offers a way to request to opt out of model training. With the $20 per month ChatGPT Plus subscription, Dall-E 3 creates vivid, engaging images with limited AI quirks.
Best free AI image generator
Leonardo AI
Pros
- Clear and detailed images
- Helpful prompt engineering tools
Cons
- No post-generation editing tools on the free plan
- Lackluster privacy policy
Leonardo is great for AI creatives on a budget. It has a comprehensive free plan that gives you ample generation credits at a fast speed. It doesn’t have any free post-generation editing tools (they’re paywalled), but it does have a prompt improvement tool and other customization elements that can guide you toward building the best prompts. Leonardo makes it easy to explore what’s possible with AI and create vivid, detailed AI images. Its free plan easily knocks its competitors out of the water, even the user-friendly Canva.
Pros
- Excellent artistic styles
- Good fine-tuning options
- Competitive generation speed
Cons
- Struggles with photorealistic images
- Difficulty when elements contact or interact
- Doesn’t accept complex queries
Adobe Firefly’s family of generative AI image tools is built directly into Adobe Creative Cloud, including Photoshop, which makes it a great option for professional creatives looking to experiment. Firefly offers a lot of stylistic and artistic options, and its refinement tools feel similar to editing software that creatives will be familiar with. Firefly is trained on Adobe’s own Stock catalog, which includes high-quality licensed and public domain content. Firefly does not train on your content. If you’re already paying for an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, Firefly can be an easy way to mock up ideas or spark inspiration.
Pros
- Excels at creating fun, whimsy and cartoon images
- Easy to use on desktop and on the mobile app
- Doesn’t share your content to train its AI
Cons
- Free plan has a hard limit on how many images you can create
- Hard to generate non-square images
Canva is an extremely user-friendly graphic design service, and its AI image generator Magic Media is a great option for amateur AI creators. Magic Media is a minimalist service, which isn’t great if you need extensive editing tools, but it’s great for folks on a budget and time crunch. Canva’s privacy policy is notably secure, as Canva does not train its AI on your content, and the images you generate are always private, unlike many competitors. Canva also makes it easy to integrate your AI images into your other projects, on desktop and on the mobile app. It’s a no-frills, easy-to-navigate AI image generator perfect for beginners and Canva lovers.
How we tested AI image generators
CNET takes a practical approach to reviewing AI image generators. Our goal is to determine how good it is relative to the competition and which purposes it serves best. To do that, we give the AI prompts based on real-world use cases, such as rendering in a particular style, combining elements into a single image and handling lengthier descriptions. We score the image generators on a 10-point scale that considers factors such as how well images match prompts, creativity of results and response speed. See how we test AI for more.
Factors to consider
Accuracy is an important factor to consider when evaluating AI image generators. Accuracy in this case refers to how well a service matches your prompt and how clearly elements and details are rendered. For example, a service that closely matches the sci-fi/fantasy spaceship scene described in a prompt would be considered accurate, as would a service that generates a picture of a human with a clear expression.
On the flip side, hallucinations, or the way AI makes stuff up, are also important to consider. Hallucinations for AI images tend to be seen in the weird quirks or flaws that you didn’t request, like people with three arms or disappearing elements. Creativity is an inherent necessity of an AI image generator, but hallucinations are obvious flubs, not whimsical or non-realistic style elements. All AI image generators run into these problems, but great AI services have them less infrequently and offer editing tools ready to fix them.
The number of clarifying prompts required indicates how much work you’ll have to put into getting the image you want. If you can’t follow up with an edit or additional request, that can be a red flag or annoyance to look out for. Generators that adhere closely to prompts and offer editing tools make it easier to bring your vision to life.
Response speed is also important to consider. Most image generators are pretty quick, under two minutes or so. Services that can generate images quicker than that, between 10-30 seconds, bring an edge to their user experience.
Other AI image generators we tested
Midjourney is a solid option for an AI image generator, but it didn’t make our top picks because it’s currently only available on Discord, is paid-only and inconsistently matches prompts. Midjourney does offer nice upscaling or editing tools for individual images, but you’ll have to use them often. It’s also noteworthy that all your images will be public and accessible in an online gallery unless you create in stealth mode, which is only available in the more expensive Pro and Mega plans.
Google’s ImageFX also did not make our top picks due to persistent inaccuracies and its “overbearing nannying,” which results in rejecting innocuous prompts. All AI generators struggle with photorealistic faces and hands, but ImageFX also struggles with inanimate objects and logos. This wouldn’t be a deal-breaker, except its editing and fine-tuning tools aren’t up to par to make images usable.
