Midjourney's --quality parameter explained, with examples

The --quality (or --q) parameter changes how much time Midjourney spends generating an image.

Increasing the quality will produce more detailed images, but will cost more GPU hours and take longer.

If you are exploring an idea, it's better to set quality to the lowest setting so you can iterate quickly, and consume less GPU hours. Once you have finalized your prompt, you can increase the quality to create your final image.

The quality setting does not impact resolution.

• The default --q value is 1.
• --q accepts values between 0.25 and 5.
• --q only influences the initial image generation, not upscales
• --q works with all versions: v1, v2, v3, v4, v5 and niji.

You can set the default quality by typing /settings.

• Half quality adds --q 0.5 to all prompts
• Base quality adds --q 1 to all prompts
• High quality (2x cost) adds --q 2 to all prompts

Examples

Higher --quality settings aren't always better. Sometimes a lower --quality settings can produce better results—depending on the image you're trying to create.

Midjourney V5

a close up of Lotus leaf and Lotus flower in summer, by Otake Chikuha, featured on pixiv, muted colors with minimalism, irina nordsol kuzmina, hazy memory, connectedness, luminous --ar 9:16 --seed 239834775

Above --q 2 you won't notice any differences.

However, --q 0.25 will often yield interesting results:

Some more examples:

Niji V5

handsome boy, pixiv, movie style, waiting for the train to come, sunlight, highest quality, pastel color, sideview, facing far away, wind, blue sky, japanese station, anime style, 16k --ar 4:3 --seed 1185232234 --niji 5