Midjourney Announces V7 in the Wake of OpenAI’s Native Image Generation Frenzy

Midjourney, an AI-enabled image generation platform, has announced a new V7 image model. The company is now allowing the community to test the alpha version of this latest model. 

The model reportedly enhances image quality, showcasing “beautiful textures, bodies, hands, and objects of all types” with significantly greater coherence. 

Mijourney is also announcing a ‘Draft Mode’, which renders images 10 times faster, with half the cost. “It’s so fast that we change the prompt bar to a ‘conversational mode’ when you’re using it on web. Tell it to swap out a cat with an owl or make it night time, and it will automatically manipulate the prompt and start a new job,” the company stated. 

A user on X tested the new model and compared it with its predecessor in real time. As stated, the V7 model was able to produce results of superior quality. 

A majestic barn owl perched on an ancient, moss-covered tree branch, surrounded by the misty forest. The scene is bathed in soft light filtering through the dense foliage, creating a magical and ethereal atmosphere. Photorealistic style with attention to detail of the feathers… pic.twitter.com/PkZTWzgbh7

— Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats) April 4, 2025

Moreover, the V7 model is the first version to have personalisation enabled by default. This feature allows users to use a customised Midjourney model tailored to their individual aesthetic preferences. Currently, Midjourney starts at $10 per month for the basic plan. 

Recently, AI-enabled image generation has swept across the internet, thanks to OpenAI. The company unveiled native image generation capabilities in GPT-4o earlier this week, making it possible for GPT-4o to generate and edit a variety of images, such as infographics, comic strips, signboards, graphics, menus, memes, street signs, and more. This feature is also available for free version users. 

Shortly after the release, several users shared images generated by GPT-4o, with a significant portion of these being in the Studio Ghibli style. 

OpenAI announced its news after Google’s introduction of native image generation capabilities in the Gemini 2.0 Flash model. Initially introduced to trusted testers in December, this feature is now available in all regions supported by Google AI Studio.

Midjourney’s latest release is undoubtedly an effort to remain competitive, as the platform has frequently been regarded as a state-of-the-art image generation model. 

Fascinated by OpenAI being able to ship a state of the art image model. After previous image/video models like dalle & Sora were just okay, but behind competitors like Midjourney/Runway I kinda figured they wouldn’t be able to catch up. Makes me wonder how much cross over…

— Nick Dobos (@NickADobos) March 28, 2025

Last year, it was reported that Midjourney reached $200 million in ARR with just 11 employees.