Best AI Art Generators: Choose Your Creative Tool Wisely

Artificial intelligence (AI) has unlocked new creative possibilities for generating stunning visual artworks and designs. In just the past few years, AI art generators have exploded in popularity, allowing anyone to create unique images simply by providing a text prompt.

With so many options now available, it can be challenging to determine which AI art generator is the best fit for your needs. This comprehensive guide provides an in-depth look at 15 top AI art generators to help you find the right creative tool for your goals and preferences.

How Do AI Art Generators Work?

Before diving into the top tools, it helps to understand how these AI systems are able to generate art in the first place.

Most AI art generators use a type of machine learning called generative adversarial networks (GANs). GANs utilize two neural networks – a generator and discriminator – that compete against each other to become better over time.

The generator tries to create images that fool the discriminator, while the discriminator tries to identify which images are computer-generated vs real. Through this adversarial process, the generator becomes adept at synthesizing realistic images.

By training these GANs on huge datasets of images, texts, and artworks, AI art generators can make connections between visual concepts and language. When you provide a text prompt, the system draws on all these learnings to generate a new image that matches the description.

Now let‘s explore some of the top contenders in detail:

DALL-E 2

Created by: OpenAI

Key Capabilities: Photorealistic image generation, creative flexibility, control over styling

Use Cases: Illustrations, digital art, social media posts, merchandise designs

Pricing: $15 for 115 credits, with each image costing 0.02 credits

Developed by research lab OpenAI, DALL-E 2 is currently one of the most advanced AI art generators available. The system can create highly realistic and intricately detailed images from text prompts.

DALL-E 2 gives users a high degree of control over image styles, lighting, colors, and other attributes. You can smoothly morph and iterate on a generated image to achieve your desired look. The system also allows for outpainting – expanding an image beyond its original borders.

In addition to flexibility, DALL-E 2 generates images with stunning photorealism. Its outputs have a level of coherency and logical consistency that sets it apart from other generators.

Pros: Unparalleled realism and detail, extensive customization options, creative flexibility

Cons: Credits can get expensive for heavy usage, long waitlists for access

![An astronaut riding a horse on Mars, digital art]

Midjourney

Created by: Midjourney Labs

Key Capabilities: Stylized art, quick iteration, community engagement

Use Cases: Concept art, character design, landscapes, posters

Pricing: $10/month for basic, $30/month for standard, $600/year for pro

Midjourney focuses on generating stylized and captivating visuals optimized for artists and designers. The Discord-based platform has developed an engaged community where users can collaborate on prompts and exchange feedback.

Instead of photorealism, Midjourney excels at filtering images through different art styles like fantasy, steampunk, and minimalism. The system is fast at churning out initial concepts, though fine-tuning a particular look takes longer.

Midjourney makes it easy to build upon ideas through iterative prompts. Share your generated images with the community to get helpful suggestions for improvements.

Pros: Great for stylized art, fast initial results, helpful community
Cons: Final polished images take time, style options less diverse than some competitors

![An astronaut riding a horse on Mars, futuristic digital art]

Stable Diffusion

Created by: Stability AI

Key Capabilities: Text-to-image generation, photorealism, inpainting

Use Cases: Social media posts, book/album covers, editing/retouching images

Pricing: $20 per month for standalone app, free models available

Stable Diffusion offers an open source framework for creating and training AI image generators. While DALL-E 2 remains limited access, Stable Diffusion provides models and apps that anyone can experiment with.

The system can produce reasonable photorealistic images from short text prompts. Users praise Stable Diffusion for its textual inversion capabilities – the ability to edit specific parts of an image by adding or removing text.

For example, you can fix imperfections in a portrait photo or alter the background of a landscape scene using text instructions. Stable Diffusion also allows for outpainting beyond the image borders to expand a scene.

Pros: Free community models available, great text inversion/editing features
Cons: Image quality lags behind DALL-E 2, requires technical setup

![An astronaut riding a horse on Mars, with a futuristic city in the background]

Artbreeder

Created by: Artbreeder

Key Capabilities: Image mixing, editing faces/figures, animation

Use Cases: Profile pictures, concept characters, animated shorts

Pricing: Free – $38.99 per month

Artbreeder provides a unique collaborative approach to AI art generation. The platform allows you to upload your own images and "breed" them together with other artworks and photos to produce original creations.

In addition to mixing varied visuals, Artbreeder makes it easy to quickly edit faces, figures, and portraits. For example, you can modify hair color, skin tone, facial features, and other attributes on a photograph.

Artists can use Artbreeder‘s animation tools to add movement to their generated art. The platform facilitates bringing still AI creations to life.

Pros: Unique image mixing approach, great for portraits and characters
Cons: Relies heavily on existing image uploads, smaller community of users

![A digitally created portrait of an astronaut riding a horse]

NightCafe

Created by: NightCafe Studios

Key Capabilities: Artisticfilters, text-to-image, color and style control

Use Cases: Wall art, posters, converting photos to paintings

Pricing: Free – $39.99 per month

NightCafe lets you turn your photos into stunning artworks and visualize written text prompts. Upload an image or add a text description like "a rainy day in Paris" and choose from a wide selection of artistic filters like oil painting, watercolor, and pencil sketch.

Advanced users can fine tune the AI stylistic process by controlling color themes, saturation, contrast, and content weight. NightCafe provides high resolution downloads so you can print museum-quality art for your home or office.

Pros: Numerous artistic filters, great for converting photos to art
Cons: Requires subscriptions for full access, text-to-image has limitations

![An impressionist oil painting of an astronaut riding a horse on Mars]

WOMBO Dream

Created by: WOMBO

Key Capabilities: Animated videos from audio, meme creation

Use Cases: Music videos, social posts, digital greetings

Pricing: Free – $9.99 per month

WOMBO Dream specializes in AI-generated animation. Upload or record an audio track, and WOMBO will generate a short animated video synchronized to the sounds and lyrics. Customize the art style – anything from stick figures to vibrant psychedelia.

In addition to music videos, WOMBO can create animated meme templates by converting famous quotes and sayings into shareable social graphics.

While WOMBO won‘t output complex narratives, it provides an accessible and amusing way to integrate animation into your digital projects and content.

Pros: Great for music videos and memes, easy to use animation generator
Cons: Limited generative capabilities beyond short audio clips

![A cartoon animation of an astronaut riding a horse on Mars with audio overlay]

Deep Dream Generator

Created by: Deep Dream Generator

Key Capabilities: Stylization filters, iterative image generation, video conversion

Use Cases: Abstract art, music visualizers, video filters

Pricing: Free – $99 per month

Deep Dream Generator uses neural networks to apply trippy and abstract filters to your images, videos, and animations. Bring your wildest artistic visions to life by iteratively enhancing patterns, colors, and textures.

Convert your snaps into paintings, drawings, or visual music reactive to audio. Deep Dream can also animate still photos and paintings for a dynamic effect.

The platform is beginner friendly but provides advanced customization for more experienced digital creators. If you‘re looking to imbue your art with a psychedelic flair, Deep Dream Generator has you covered.

Pros: Great for surreal, abstract styles. Numerous output options
Cons: Results can be hit or miss depending on prompt

![A psychedelic distorted image of an astronaut riding a horse]

Lensa

Created by: Prisma Labs

Key Capabilities: Photo editing, avatar generation, magic effects

Use Cases: Profile images, stylized portraits

Pricing: Free – $7.99 per month

Lensa operates both a popular photo editing app and an AI avatar generator. Users praise the app for its selection of filters, lighting effects, and quick fix touch up tools. Subscribers can access premium templates, fonts, and other content.

The avatar generator blew up recently by allowing users to transform selfies into stylized magical portraits and anime characters. While controversies over stolen art impacted Lensa, it remains one of the most viral arts apps available.

Pros: Fun avatars, easy to use mobile editor
Cons: Limited generative art capabilities, stolen training data concerns

![A stylized avatar portrait of an astronaut riding a horse]

Prisma

Created by: Prisma Labs

Key Capabilities: Photo and video filters, portrait editing

Use Cases: Social media, filtered photos

Pricing: Free – $4.99 per month

Prisma offers a photo and video editor with a massive library of artistic filters powered by AI neural networks. Transform your selfies into paintings, sketches, graphic prints, and more with just a tap.

In addition to still photos, Prisma can apply filters to live videos. The platform also provides portrait editing features – change your hair color and style to try on different looks.

While the results may not match other generators in originality, Prisma provides effortless fun effects for your social content.

Pros: Huge range of art filters, video and portrait support
Cons: Limited generative capabilities, style options locked behind subscriptions

![A pop art filter applied to a photo of an astronaut riding a horse]

Craiyon

Created by: Anthropic

Key Capabilities: Text-to-image generation, creative writing tool

Use Cases: Illustrating stories, concepting ideas

Pricing: Free

Previously known as DALL-E mini, Craiyon provides free text-to-image generation with decent quality. While the outputs aren‘t as polished as DALL-E 2, Craiyon can illustrate characters, locales, and situations described in text prompts.

The system acts as an aid for writers and brainstorming by bringing the visual world alive from words alone. You can also further refine images by adding or removing text elements.

As a free alternative, Craiyon is an easy way to experiment with AI art generation capabilities.

Pros: Free to use, helpful for storyboarding and ideation
Cons: Image quality and coherence lags behind paid competitors

![A simple digital illustration of an astronaut riding a horse on Mars]

Neuralblender

Created by: Anthropic

Key Capabilities: Photo manipulation, seamless edits

Use Cases: Removing objects/blemishes, adding concepts to images

Pricing: Free

Neuralblender provides free AI-powered photo editing tools for making seamless alterations. Remove unwanted objects and blemishes simply by selecting them – no need for manual brushwork.

You can also paste visual concepts into the frame to insert new elements into an existing image. The results integrate realistically as if they were part of the original scene.

For quick photo touch-ups and composite concepts, Neuralblender delivers convenience over more robust generators focused on original creations.

Pros: Convenient photo editor, easy object removal
Cons: Limited generative capabilities beyond editing existing images

![An astronaut riding a horse seamlessly pasted into a Mars landscape photo]

Hotpot AI

Created by: Anthropic

Key Capabilities: Responsive image generation, creative assistant

Use Cases: Iterating on visual concepts, moodboards

Pricing: Currently in limited beta

Hotpot AI sets itself apart through conversational interactivity. Whereas most generators create a single image from one prompt, Hotpot leverages dialog to continuously refine and evolve an idea.

By chatting with the system, you can guide edits and receive feedback on suggestions for improvement. Concepts emerge gradually through collaboration.

Early testing indicates Hotpot AI could become an invaluable creative partner for developing compelling visual narratives and works.

Pros: Responsive collaboration, great for refinement
Cons: Currently limited access, capabilities still in early stages

![A simple concept sketch of an astronaut riding a horse, with notes for improvement]

Anthropic‘s Claude

Created by: Anthropic

Key Capabilities: Photorealistic generation, conversational interaction

Use Cases: Illustrations, advertisements, concept art

Pricing: Currently in private beta

Claude comes from the makers of Hotpot AI and Neuralblender. While not yet publicly accessible, initial reviews suggest Claude generates images with greater visual fidelity than any current system.

Early examples showcase photoreal faces, landscapes, still life studies, and abstract concepts. Claude asks clarifying questions for a more guided generation process than typical text-to-image prompts.

Once publicly released, Claude aims to set a new high bar for AI art quality, creativity, and user experience.

Pros: Early results show promise for extremely high visual quality
Cons: Very limited access during private beta, full capabilities uncertain

![A highly realistic digital portrait of an astronaut riding a horse on Mars]

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing an AI Art Generator

With this overview of top options, how do you select the right AI art generator for your needs? Here are some key factors to weigh:

• Intended use case – Pick a generator optimized for your desired art style and medium. Need a book cover? DALL-E 2 excels at illustrative realism. Creating animation? Consider WOMBO.

• Output quality and resolution – If you plan to print or sell your art, prioritize tools like DALL-E 2 and Midjourney that offer high resolution outputs.

• Pricing – Balance subscription costs against factors like output limits and feature access. Craiyon provides a free entry point.

• Ease of use – Beginners may prefer simpler apps like NightCafe, Lensa, and Prisma to quickly generate images.

• Customization – Look for versatility if you‘ll need to fine tune styles and elements for polished results.

• Community – Engaged user communities like Midjourney‘s can provide helpful co-creation and feedback.

The Future of AI Art Generation Holds Unlimited Possibilities

This guide only scratches the surface of today‘s rapid AI art innovation. As researchers continue refining algorithms and training data, image generators will keep ascending toward new creative heights.

While no tool can replicate human imagination and vision just yet, coupling artificial intelligence with an inspired human mind can unlock wondrous new potential. We have only begun to glimpse what might be possible at the intersection of technology and creativity.

If you found this guide helpful, feel free to share it with fellow artists and creators deciding on their weapon of choice in the brave new world of AI art generation. The horizon ahead is boundless.