HOW WE TESTED: Three prompts were submitted to each platform over several visits, and the best and worst were selected for each gallery:
1) Cat picking daisies; 2) Cat and mouse hanging out together as friends; 3) Cat chasing mouse across a field, with cat on the left side of the image and mouse on the right side. Both cat and mouse are running at top speed.
When I first surveyed free AI image generators in 2023, the technology was in its infancy. The handful of decent-looking AI-generated images were swamped by a sea of bizarre, odd, unintentionally humorous, and downright creepy efforts. Things have changed.
As everyone knows, the creative power of artificial intelligence has grown by leaps and bounds—and today’s AI image generators reflect that overall improvement.
While some of the free AI generation tools I reported on in 2023 did not make the cut for this article, most are performing at a substantially higher level. And a couple of newer tools show great promise.
BEST FREE AI IMAGE GENERATORS
A stripped-down AI image generator that nevertheless is capable of producing some decent images, Bing AI image generator automatically detects if you’re signed into a Microsoft account, making it easy to start creating images right away. Start with 100 credits, then apply rewards points accumulated within your MSN account for more.
Because it doesn’t offer a style menu, users must specify a style within the prompt, e.g.; “create image of a cat picking daisies in the style of a 35 mm camera.” Save, download, or customize your images. The platform applies controls to prevent potentially harmful violent or sexual image generation.
RESULTS: Bing frequently combined all of the prompt elements into a single nonsensical but rather amusing image. “Create image of a cat picking daisies in the style of a 35 mm camera” became a cat emerging from a 35mm camera with daisies in the background and a human operator in the foreground, delicately plucking a daisy from lens. Tweaking the prompts may help with this.
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An easy-to-use site with a clean interface offering more than 100 styles of AI image generation, Deep AI provides an unspecified but generous number of free credits. AI model options consist of “standard,” “HD,” and “genius,” with genius being reserved for premium accounts. Five aspect ratios and two speeds are offered. Free users’ images are saved in their account.
RESULTS: While DeepAI’s images were generally good quality, it had a hard time interpreting the prompt. It often generated images of two cats instead of a cat an a mouse. In other cases, it took the phrase “hanging out” literally. It’s curious that the model didn’t recognize this common colloquialism. A carefully re-worded prompt may mitigate this tendency.
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Freepik offers an easy sign up with your Google or Apple account. Once logged in, free account users can select from three modes of image generation, 10 image aspect ratios, dozens of styles, plus color, camera, and lighting effects. Free users can generate and download 20 AI images daily, while premium features and the number of free credits remaining are clearly displayed. Your masterpieces can be found in the My Creations section.
RESULTS: Freepik’s static renderings were generally fairly good, but it had more difficulty with the action scenes. Like some of the other platforms, it often depicted two cats instead of a cat and a mouse. It also didn’t seem to understand the meaning of “chase,” depicting animals running side by side in stead of one behind the other. Finally, its rendering of “top speed” was especially comical and inept.
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Image FX is one of several cutting-edge Google Lab tools that allow users to create and edit images, videos, and music with the help of AI. It’s easy to sign in with your Google account and start experimenting right away.
The clean uncluttered interface invites users to enter a prompt and select (if desired) one of the many styles. In contrast to most other tools, Image FX doesn’t display every possible image style in one screen. Rather, a handful at a time are revealed, with the option to click the “more” button if desired. Not sure which to choose? Try “I’m feeling lucky.” Additional options include aspect ratio and “seed,” which can be open or locked. A locked seed promotes more uniform results while the unlocked seed enables more variety. Users will quickly find their creations in the My Library link.
Currently, there are no paid subscriptions for Image FX, which means it’s blissfully free of urgent notices to upgrade your account. Nonetheless, there are limits. The Image FX FAQs note that each user is limited to a certain number of daily generations, in order to assure wide access. In my testing, I was able to generate more then 50 images using 18 different prompts without reaching my limit. I suspect the limit is based on demand and therefore flexible. Ideal for students aged 18 and over.
RESULTS: Image FX did an excellent job with the “cat picking daisies” prompt. In fact, it was the only platform that illustrated the action in an anatomically correct way. On the other hand, its depictions of cats chasing mice looked as if the cat and mouse were separately copied and pasted onto the background. But overall, Image FX was a very strong performer and well worth a try.
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ImagineArt’s free account provides 50 tokens every 12 hours, allowing about ten image generations. Users can choose from 11 aspect ratios, 14 styles, plus camera and lighting options while generating 1-4 images for each prompt. One particularly useful option is “text to png,” which generates your image as a .png file with a transparent background.
RESULTS: ImagineArt was at times confused between the cat and the mouse, sometimes depicting two cats or, amusingly, a cat and a rather cat-like mouse. Additionally, the word “mouse” apparently caused it to hallucinate Disney’s Cinderella castle in the background of the chase scenes. Further, it solved the problem of “cat picking daisies” by simply adding a fifth limb. Overall, ImagineArt’s free tools had a hard time producing accurate, well-rendered images.
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Night Cafe is like that goofy friend who’s always doing something annoying but you love them anyway.
With its overly busy interface and frequent banners urging users to “unlock free credits,” Night Cafe nearly didn’t make it onto my list. Still, its unbridled enthusiasm and gamified interface is oddly appealing.
Free users have a choice from among several AI models and even the option to train a particular AI model to produce images in a preferred style. Granted, free users will only be able to generate five images from the custom model, but it’s still an intriguing idea. Other options include five aspect ratios, choice of 1-16 images per prompt, speed of generation and randoms seeding.
Free credits can be earned by simply claiming any daily (five), creating a popular image, creating images two days in a row, and getting likes and comments on your images. Without even trying I accumulated 40 credits in a couple of weeks of occasional use. Daily challenges provide frequent opportunities to flex your creativity while the robust user community gives support, ideas and encouragement.
RESULTS: Night Cafe’s produced several strong images of cats and mice hanging out as friends, as well as a few quite good renderings of the chase prompt. However, it often couldn’t resist adding human-like anatomy to the cats picking daisies. Overall, it’s worth a try, for the fun and the images.
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