Is there a free version of Midjourney or Leonardo AI?

Leonardo AI has a genuinely usable free tier: 150 fast tokens per day, which is roughly 10-15 images daily on its own models. Midjourney has nothing free — it killed its trial back in March 2023, so the entry point is a paid subscription.

Can I pay for Leonardo AI on the web instead of through the app?

Yes, and you probably should. Leonardo sells subscriptions on its own site via Stripe checkout (leonardo.ai/pricing, checked August 2026), where the Essential tier lists at $12/month before tax. Our app-store rows show Apple billing at $16/month in the US storefront — the app route costs more because of the platform cut.

Does Midjourney offer any regional or local-currency pricing?

No. As of August 2026, Midjourney sells only through midjourney.com in US dollars, at the same list price worldwide: Basic $10, Standard $30, Pro $60, Mega $120 per month. There is no country-specific price list to exploit, unlike most streaming and app-store services we track.

How much does annual billing save on each service?

Both discount roughly 20% for paying yearly. Midjourney drops Standard from $30 to $24 per month effective ($288 billed upfront). Leonardo advertises up to 20% off each solo plan on annual billing too.

Which Midjourney plan matches Leonardo Essential closest?

Nothing matches exactly because they meter differently — Midjourney sells GPU time, Leonardo sells tokens. If you want the closest workload fit, Midjourney Standard ($30) sits against Leonardo Premium ($30 on the web), while Leonardo Essential ($12 web, $16 in-app) is the budget rung with no Midjourney equivalent below $10 Basic.

Do both services let me keep my images private?

Not by default. Leonardo's free-tier creations are public and private generation starts on paid plans. Midjourney publishes your work to its community gallery unless you pay for Stealth Mode, which requires Pro ($60/month) or Mega.

How often do these prices actually change?

More than you would think. Leonardo repriced and renamed its plan ladder during 2025-2026, and app-store prices shift whenever Apple adjusts regional storefront tiers. Midjourney has held its four-tier dollar list steady since 2023. We re-verify all 42 storefronts monthly; every number on this page carries its check date.

Midjourney vs Leonardo price 2026

Q: Which is cheaper, Midjourney or Leonardo AI?

Leonardo AI is cheaper in USD on the dated flagship rows: Leonardo AI Nigeria $5.84 versus Midjourney United States $30. Rank only these SKUs.

Short answer, checked August 29, 2026: Leonardo AI is far cheaper if you subscribe from the right country — Nigeria pays 7,900 naira for the Essential plan, about $5.84, versus Midjourney’s single worldwide price of $30/month for Standard in the US. But that headline hides the real story: these two services bill in completely different ways, and once you understand why, the “which is cheaper” question gets a more useful answer.

The side-by-side board lives at Midjourney vs Leonardo. This page explains what the numbers mean.

Which is cheaper, Midjourney or Leonardo AI?

Cheapest verified rows per service, checked Aug 29, 2026:

Service	Plan	Cheapest country	Local price	USD
Leonardo AI	Essential	Nigeria	₦7,900	$5.84 (-63% vs its own US row)
Midjourney	Standard	United States (only row)	$30	$30

That looks like a landslide, and on pure USD it is. But notice the second line: Midjourney’s cheapest country is the United States, because there is no cheaper country.

Full proof tables: Midjourney and Leonardo AI.

The real difference: one bills globally, one prices by country

This matchup is not a normal geo-arbitrage story, and treating it like one will mislead you.

Midjourney abandoned regional pricing entirely. During its Discord era you could find community reports of odd regional rates, but those days are gone. Today Midjourney sells subscriptions only on midjourney.com, in US dollars, at one global list: Basic $10, Standard $30, Pro $60, Mega $120 monthly (annual billing takes ~20% off). A subscriber in Lagos, Tokyo, or Berlin pays exactly what someone in New York pays. There is no cheap country to route around — the map is flat.

Leonardo AI prices per app-store storefront, so the same Essential plan ranges from ₦7,900 in Nigeria ($5.84) to zł89.99 in Poland ($24.15) across the 41 storefronts we verified on Aug 29, 2026. That spread exists because Apple sets regional price tiers, not because Leonardo runs a clever emerging-markets strategy.

So the honest comparison is:

Question	Midjourney	Leonardo AI
Cheaper if you live somewhere rich?	No lever exists	Only slightly — many storefronts cost more than the US
Cheaper via another country’s storefront?	Not possible	Yes, dramatically (Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt)
Free tier?	None since March 2023	Yes, 150 tokens/day

Leonardo’s cheapest countries, ranked

Top of the verified list, Aug 29, 2026:

Country	Local price	USD	vs its US row
Nigeria	₦7,900	$5.84	-63%
Turkey	₺399.99	$8.34	-48%
Egypt	E£499.99	$9.92	-38%
Japan	¥2,200	$13.83	-14%
Canada	C$19.99	$14.41	-10%
Philippines	₱899	$14.54	-9%
United States	$15.99	$15.99	baseline

Worth knowing: several European storefronts sit well above the US — Germany, France, Italy, Spain all pay €17.99 (~$20.88), and Poland tops the table at $24.15. Being in Europe makes Leonardo more expensive, not less.

The App Store markup almost nobody mentions

Here’s a detail competitor comparisons skip: Leonardo’s own website undercuts its app price. On leonardo.ai/pricing (checked August 2026), the Essential tier lists at $12/month billed via Stripe. Our verified US App Store row is $15.99. That gap is the platform fee — buying in-app hands Apple roughly 30%.

If you’re paying full US-style prices anyway, subscribe on the website and pocket the difference. The app-store route only wins when a specific storefront’s local tiers undercut the dollar web price — Nigeria’s ₦7,900 works out to less than half of $12, for example. Note that Leonardo also renamed its plan ladder during 2026 (the web tiers now read Free / Essential / Premium / Ultimate); our storefront data tracks them under the current Essential name.

Will a VPN alone get you the Nigerian price?

For Midjourney: irrelevant. One global dollar price means there is nowhere cheaper to appear to be.

For Leonardo: a VPN is necessary but nowhere near sufficient. The app-store price follows your Apple ID’s country, not your IP — so you’d need an account registered to the target storefront plus a payment method that storefront accepts (a local card, or Apple ID credit bought with an Apple gift card for that region). Apple gift cards are region-locked, so a US card code won’t fund a Nigerian account. This is a terms-of-service gray zone: Apple’s and Leonardo’s policies tie billing to your actual region, and mismatched accounts can lose access to purchases. We rank verified prices; we don’t recommend faking residency to get them.

How we verify: methodology.

Are they even the same kind of product?

Barely, and it matters for value. Midjourney is a pro-grade image generator that meters GPU time — Standard buys 15 fast hours monthly plus unlimited slow-mode images. Leonardo is a freemium creative suite (images, video, model training, an editor) that meters tokens, throws in 150 free tokens daily forever, and starts charging at $12. If you generate casually, Leonardo’s free tier may cover you at $0. If you need top-tier photorealistic output and don’t mind paying for it wherever you live, that’s what Midjourney’s flat $30 buys.