Niji Journey has shocked anime enthusiasts worldwide with its dazzling AI-generated anime art. After trying it for a few days, we're completely hooked. But is Niji Journey free to use?
Unfortunately, Niji Journey (stylized niji • journey) is not free and our growing addiction will be quite costly (there's a $10/mo plan, a $30/mo plan & a new $60/mo plan. Details below).
Niji Journey does come with a free trial of 25 generations, which you can use immediately upon joining the Discord.
You should also know that Niji Journey and Midjourney are a 2-in-1 package deal. A single subscription will allow you do use both.
If you are only interested in one of the two, there is no current way to purchase an individual subscription.
In this article we'll run through the Niji Journey subscription options. We'll also talk about how you can save money when you use Niji Journey.
Is Niji Journey Free?
You might have heard from others that Niji Journey is free.
This is a misunderstanding - the Niji Journey closed beta was free to use, however now that Niji Journey has been released publicly, you must purchase a subscription to use it.
Related: Getting Started in Niji Journey: How to Create Better Images
After you join the Discord you can go to any channel and type "/imagine", followed by what you want to generate. Here's a simple example:
/imagine Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion eating a hamburger
How do I purchase a subscription?
Type "/subscribe" in any channel in the Niji Journey Discord. The bot will send you a private link that only you can see:
Click on this link, and you will be directed to the nijijourney.com website, on which you can purchase a plan. You do not have to register account, because the website will use your Discord to authenticate (so if you have multiple Discord accounts, make sure you are using the same Discord account that you want to use Niji Journey with).
Niji Journey Tiers and Pricing
Niji Journey has two modes for image generation, “fast” and “relax”. Fast tries to give you a GPU to generate your image instantly. “Relax” puts you in a queue behind others, with priority being given to those who have used the service less.
A note on commercial use: You're pretty free to use the generated images to make money with.
All plans come with the Private Messaging feature:
Here are the pricing tiers and how much usage they give you:
Basic Plan
- Cost: $10/month
- Fast GPU hours: 200 minutes/month
- Relaxed GPU hours: Not Available
What does 200 minutes mean? Generating an image, upscaling it, or creating variations of it all roughly use 1 minute, so think 200 actions. These go by much faster than you realize!
Standard Plan
- Cost: $30/month
- Fast GPU hours: 15 hours/month
- Relaxed GPU hours: Unlimited
This is the plan we recommend for most people. With this plan, you get around 900 actions, and when you use these up, you can switch to "relax" mode and use Niji Journey to generate images infinitely.
Relax mode takes anywhere between 1 minute and 20 minutes to give you your generation, depending on how much the service is being used and your priority level in the queue.
Pro Plan
This plan was released mid-December 2022, due to popular demand.
- Cost: $60/month
- Fast GPU Hours: 30 hours/month
- Relaxed GPU hours: Unlimited
- Additional Features: access to
/stealthmode, which allows you to hide your images on the Midjourney gallery website. You cannot do this with the lower plans.
This is the plan you want if you will using Niji Journey extensively, or need to keep your generations private for some particular reason.
Adding Fast Time
No matter which plan you are on, you can add fast GPU minutes if you run out.
When you run out of fast GPU time, Niji Journey will give you several options to purchase more. The bot will send you a message that looks like this:
The hours that you buy will roll over at the end of the month. You won't lose them when your billing cycle renews.
Recommendation: Save Your Money and Use Relax Mode
We recommend you switch to Relax mode after you've used all your fast hours.
Type "/relax" and you will switch modes.
You can go back to Fast mode anytime with the command "/fast".
As mentioned before, the $10/mo Basic plan does not come with Relax more. You will have to get the $30/mo Standard plan or the $60/mo Pro plan.
The cool part is that you can use Relax mode for infinite generations without additional costs, and it isn't actually much slower than Fast mode.
The Niji Journey team reports that it can take anywhere between 1 and 20 minutes, but we haven't had a single generation go over 5 minutes yet.
However, the more you use Relax mode, the lower priority you will be given for future generations.
Our guess is the "20 minute generation time" applies only to extreme power users.
Wrap-up
We recommend the $30/month Standard Plan for most people who want to use Niji Journey. It's a bit more expensive than the basic plan, but the infinite generations on relax mode is worth it.
If you're a hardcore fan, you can consider the $60/month Pro Plan, but we don't think the extra fast hours are worth it, since relax mode is not that slow.
Stealth mode should be your main reason for getting this plan.
Another alternative: enable relax mode at the very beginning, and only use fast mode when you are doing time-sensitive work.
Related: Anime Prompt Styles to Try in Niji Journey
Frequently Asked Questions
It's simple: it doesn't matter where you purchase the subscription from.
You will be able to use both services with any subscription.
Your fast GPU hours are used up by both services. So if you are on the Standard plan are you use half of your fast hours with Niji Journey (7.5 hrs out of 15 hrs), you will only have half left (7.5 hrs) to use in either Midjourney and Niji Journey.
The Midjourney bot will let you use Niji Journey, however the Niji Journey bot will not let you use Midjourney.
To use Niji Journey within the Midjourney Bot, append "--niji" to the prompts you give the Midjourney Bot.
