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The use of AI to generate weird and wonderful imagery is definitely my favorite application of the cutting-edge tech.

I’ve tested out AI writing tools and AI productivity tools, but putting the host of AI image generators through their paces was hands-down the most fun I’ve had in testing tools in ages (and I love testing tools). 

As with other AI tools, there’s no shortage of artificial intelligence image generators in the market. I’m sure by the time this article is published, about 35 more will have just launched that I’ll need to test.

By now, we all know that AI image generators can come up with all sorts of fantastical, eclectic imagery. But since you’re reading the Buffer blog, I’m going to be presumptuous and assume you’re either in marketing, a small business owner, or a creator — and you’re probably looking for a tool that can do something you can actually use in your work. 

Which is a lot like mine. I write content about creators and influencers for this blog and spend a good chunk of my day hunting through free stock photo sites for photos to use as featured images for these articles. So, I compared every tool with the same text prompt for an image I often need to find: 

“Generate an image of a photo-realistic young, Gen-Z social media influencer filming a video with their phone in selfie mode.” 

In fairness, this is a tough prompt — AI notoriously struggles with human fingers, teeth, and screens. But there’s a reason the platforms on this list are the most popular and talked-about AI image generators of 2024. Of all the ones I tested, these consistently generated the highest-quality images. (I've included some of the best in this article.)

Here are my favorite AI image generators and how they stack up with one prompt in particular.

Best AI image generators

1. Adobe Firefly

Adobe’s answer to generative AI, Adobe Firefly, is baked into its suite of tools, including Photoshop, but there is a free web version available. 

What’s great about Firefly (aside from the quality of the tool) is that the images generated with it are safe for commercial use. “Trained on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and public domain content, Firefly is designed to be safe for commercial use,” Adobe says. 

The free web version of Firefly, found at firefly.adobe.com, is remarkably easy to use. When you enter your prompt, you can choose aspect ratio, content type (art or photo), and one of hundreds of trending art style reference images (watercolor, studio photography, you name it!). You can even specify the angle of the image and depth of field (close-ups, wide angles, macro photography, etc.), color and tone (pastel, monochrome, muted, and more), and some really fun special effects. 

After that, click ‘Generate,’ and Adobe’s AI technology will deliver four new images for you to choose from. Clicking a drop-down arrow on each image will allow you to generate something similar, use it as a style reference for a new prompt, or edit it in Adobe Express (Adobe’s answer to Canva).

My results with Firefly were consistently excellent, with very few Edward Scissorhands fingers. I found that playing around with the various art styles and effects pre-generated really helped me fine-tune my ask. Another strong point in Firefly’s favor was the realism in the human faces in my AI photo — there was none of that creepy Uncanny Valley effect I got with many of the other tools.

Adobe Firefly pricing: Free for the web version (25 generative credits monthly, images with watermarks). Plans start at $5.74 monthly. 

2. Midjourney

Midjourney has long been one of my favorite text-to-image generators, but it took some getting used to. The tool is housed in Discord, which is a strange interface for this kind of work, especially if you haven’t used the voice and text messaging platform before.

To get started with Midjourney, you’ll need to sign up on their website and then log in to their Discord server. I’d suggest poking around all the channels to see how things work before you prompt. From there, go