DALL·E 3 vs Midjourney vs Imagen — three image models, three jobs
These three are usually compared on image quality alone, which is the least useful axis. What decides the choice in practice is whether the image needs text in it, whether it has to be generated by an API, and which subscription you already pay for.
AI Tools Hub Editorial · published · updated
Choose by output
| What you are making | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mood boards, concept art, brand visuals | Midjourney | Texture and composition still lead |
| Banners and anything with legible text | DALL·E 3 | Text rendering is far more reliable |
| Images inside a Google Workspace flow | Imagen | It is where the rest of your work is |
| Automated generation in a product | DALL·E 3 or Imagen | Midjourney has no official API |
| Client work with licensing scrutiny | Adobe Firefly | Different tool, but the right answer to that question |
The API question
Midjourney has no official API. Unofficial Discord wrappers exist and put you outside the terms of service, which rules them out for anything commercial. If your pipeline is automated, this single fact decides the comparison before quality enters it.
Cost in practice
DALL·E 3 comes with ChatGPT Plus, so for anyone already paying for that, trying it costs nothing. Midjourney starts at $10 and needs the Standard plan for commercial use. Imagen is bundled into Google's offerings. For a professional producing visuals daily, keeping two of these is normal rather than extravagant.
Which is best for Japanese text in images?
None of them reliably. Japanese characters inside generated images remain unreliable across all three. Composite the text afterwards rather than generating it.
Is Midjourney still ahead on quality?
On texture and composition for illustrative and artistic work, yes. The gap has narrowed and on photorealism the others are competitive.
Related
More articles
Opinion
Why AI rollouts fail in Japanese companies — four structural reasons
For business
Enterprise AI rollout checklist — SOC 2, ISO 27001, DPAs and personal data
For business
Japanese-developed LLMs for business — ELYZA, Sakana AI, NTT tsuzumi and PLaMo
Comparison
AI coding tools compared — Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, Windsurf and Codeium