AI Mindset · Model Cheatsheets

Midjourney

The Art Director Who Thinks in Images

Midjourney’s terms don’t just gate commercial use at $1,000,000 in revenue. They gate ownership. A company over that line, sitting on Basic or Standard, does not own what it makes: you "must be subscribed to a Pro or Mega plan to own Your Assets." Put that in front of legal before the first upload. Past that, V8.2 has been the default since July 24, 2026, and 69 days on there’s no V8.3 and no V9 anywhere. HD is a toggle, not a default. There’s no API, and the terms ban automated access outright. Four tiers, $10 to $120 a month, on the web app or in Discord.

Verified October 1, 2026Ownership gated at $1M revenueV8.2 default since July 24V8.2 HD documented at 2048 pxNo API, and automation is bannedHD is a toggle, not a default

1 / Meet Midjourney

A fast visual collaborator, not a universal assistant

Think of it as an image department with a strong point of view. Give it a clear creative job. Generate enough breadth to make a real choice. Then use references and editing to develop the route you picked.

Personality

Aesthetic, divergent and fast

It throws out visually persuasive options quickly. That makes it excellent for early exploration and dangerous when a team mistakes polish for strategic fit. Midjourney calls the V8.2 look more creative, bold, sophisticated, edgy and fresh, which raises the need for curation rather than lowering it.

Strong default visual taste
Rapid iteration
Best with active human curation

Deploy it for

Seeing possibilities before committing

Campaign territories, product visualization, editorial illustration, environments, style exploration and pre-production frames.

Explore 20 routes, not three
Align stakeholders visually
Spend production budget on selected ideas

Choose it when

The decision is visual

Reach for Midjourney when words stop being enough to judge the idea. The team needs concrete options in front of it.

Taste and mood matter
Consistency matters across assets
A human will own final selection

2 / What’s Current

V8.2 still the default, with published specs and a documented edit model

V8.2 took the default slot on July 24, 2026, the same day V8.0 alpha access ended. 69 days later it’s still the default. No V8.3 and no V9 appears in the Version documentation or in any post since. Two things about that stretch matter more than the continuity does. First, Midjourney now states the V8.2 resolution specifications in its documentation. That page was rewritten to advance the version rather than to add one, and it carries no modification date, so a specification can appear there with no announcement at all. Second, a long gap between versions means a quiet product, right? Not here. Five posts landed in September: two on September 3, one on September 16, and two more on September 24. So watch the updates site as well as the version number.

2048 px

HD output documented for V8.2 by name, with SD at 1024 px

69 days

Since the last default-version change, with no successor announced

26 min

GPU time for one HD video batch of four, about $1.73 at the $4 per hour overage rate

$10 to $120

Monthly plan range, read October 1, 2026

V8.2 Default

Midjourney calls the V8.2 aesthetics "more creative, bold, sophisticated, edgy and fresh," with far fewer unexpectedly low-quality outputs. Personalization draws on a much larger and improved pool of images. And nothing newer than V8.2 exists on any first-party page.
· Version documentation, read October 1, 2026, still states plainly that "V8.2 released as the default version on July 24, 2026."

Default version since July 24, 2026
Fewer weak frames in a batch
Improved personalization behavior

Published resolution specs Documented

HD is 2048 x 2048 px. SD is 1024 x 1024 px. Midjourney puts V8.2 next to those numbers, not 8.1, and it is the only version-specific dimensions sentence on the page. The Version documentation backs it up, marking "HD Images (2048px)" against both V8.1 and V8.2. Here’s the catch, though. That page was rewritten to advance the version rather than to add one, and it carries no modification date, so a specification can land there with no announcement. So re-read the page. Don’t wait for a post to tell you it changed.
· Image Size and Resolution article, one sentence: "Midjourney version 8.2 creates HD images that are 2048 x 2048 pixels (px) and SD images that are 1024 x 1024px."

HD 2048 x 2048 px, SD 1024 x 1024 px
Stated for V8.2 by name
The only remaining resolution gap is the edit model

V8.2 edit model Documented feature

It does three jobs. It edits an image from a plain-language instruction. It generates with up to four reference images "(replacing Omni Reference and Character Reference)". And it drives inpainting and outpainting through the Editor. No first-party post announces a move out of testing, so treat it as documented rather than as a declared general release. Midjourney publishes neither pricing nor output dimensions for it.
· Edit Model article, filed under Using Your Own Images · described as compatible with Midjourney versions 8.1 and 8.2.

Instruction edits, references, inpaint and outpaint
Compatible with V8.1 and V8.2
No published pricing or resolution figures

Omni Reference V7 only

There’s no pending V8 omni-reference release to wait for. The V8 equivalent already shipped, and it is the edit model. So any workflow parked on V7 for omni-reference reasons should be re-tested, not held.
· Omni Reference documentation, now explicit: "Omni Reference can only be used with Midjourney version 7." V8.X users are pointed at "the Edit Model instead, our improved approach to editing and creating with reference images."

V7 only, by documentation
Edit model is the named replacement
Re-test parked V7 recipes on V8.2

V8.1 Superseded

A launch date and a default window are two different things, and Midjourney tracks them separately. The documentation carries a launch date plus a separate default window. The announcement post dates the switch itself. That’s the context behind the June 10 against June 11 dispute flagged in Watch Outs. Midjourney publishes no page history, so nobody outside can establish whether the April 14 date is new or long-standing.
· Version documentation: V8.1 launched April 14, 2026, with a default window of June 10 to July 23, 2026.

Launched April 14, 2026
Default June 10 to July 23, 2026 in the docs, though the announcement post says June 11
Re-test approved V8.1 routes against V8.2

HD is opt-in Toggle

HD is a setting, not a default. The August 21 changelog backs that up from the other direction, by fixing a case where Vary ran in HD without being asked. Here’s the newer wrinkle. Since September 24, 2026 a default set of parameters can be saved and will stick, so "on" and "off" are now somebody’s saved preference rather than a fresh choice each session.
· Version documentation: "You can turn on HD images in the Version section of the settings panel on web, or by using the --sd and --hd parameters."
· Same page, on cost: "HD costs 1.3 minutes of GPU time, compared to SD which costs 0.8 minutes of GPU time."
· September 23 changelog, published September 24, 2026: you can now "save what’s in your prompt bar" as your defaults, from the Advanced settings panel or a "Set current pills as default" button.

Set it in the web settings panel
Or pass --hd per job
Saved defaults persist, so check them

Alpha changelogs September 3, 16 and 24, 2026

Alpha is no longer a rough draft with one fix in it. The September 16 changelog added Korean language support, editing and prompt-bar improvements, mobile and tablet optimization, hover preview for source images, and an Enhance option replacing Upscale. The September 23 changelog, published September 24, takes Korean live "for all midjourney.com users," adds savable default parameters, and gives the editor "Support for v8.1 and v8.2 edit types, with HD canvas capability." No new model version in any of them.
· September 3 changelog: "the new v8.2 edit model is on alpha, with a new editor built directly into the lightbox". In it you "open any image in the lightbox, edit with plain instructions, attach up to 4 reference images, and see all your session edits in one place".

Lightbox editor with up to four references
Korean now live for all web users
HD canvas in the editor for V8.1 and V8.2

Edits stopped degrading the image September 24, 2026

This is the fix that changes how you work, not just what you click. Repeated local edits used to cost you quality. They don’t now.
· "Making targeted edits to the image will change only the pixels that you’ve selected. This gives you more control, and allows you to make repeated edits without degrading the quality of the image."
· Same post, the only parameter-level change in the window: "We’ve also made tile --tile work better for V8.1/8.2. Previously, you might have seen seams between your tiled images. Now, they blend invisibly from one tile to the next."
· Also shipping: live style previews on alpha, so the Styles sidebar can show your current prompt across styles before you spend on it.

Repeated inpaint and outpaint keeps quality
--tile seams fixed on V8.1 and V8.2
Live style previews for cheap exploration

Two surfaces, both live Web and Discord

Midjourney runs on the website and in Discord, and neither one is marked for retirement. That matters for two reasons. Custom suffixes and option sets work on the web but have to be created in Discord. And a team working in a shared Discord server is exposed by default, because the terms say anything you make in a shared or open space such as a Discord chatroom is viewable by anyone in that chatroom.
· Web vs Discord article: "With your Midjourney subscription, you have the freedom to create images on both our website and Discord." Same page: "Most features and tools are offered on both platforms, but sometimes they might have different names."

Neither surface is deprecated
Custom suffixes must be created in Discord
Shared Discord rooms expose work to the room

Roadmap input: the voting session is overdue September 3, 2026

Midjourney is asking for feature ideas directly, at midjourney.com/ideas. Then it promised a formal voting session inside a week or two. The outer bound of that window was September 17. As of October 1, 2026 it’s two weeks past the outer edge of the window Midjourney promised, and nothing has been published either way: no vote, no result, no reschedule, no withdrawal. Treat it as pending and overdue rather than dropped. Got a blocking gap? The ideas page is still a cheap way to put it in front of the vendor. Just don’t plan around a voting date.
· September 3 post: "submit your ideas here and we will do a formal voting session in the next week or two."

Ideas collected at midjourney.com/ideas
Outer bound of the promise expired September 17
No first-party page records a vote either way

First acquisition July 23, 2026

Midjourney bought Co-Star. Midjourney says Co-Star stays entirely under founder Banu’s control and direction, and will help build a broader organization around Product and Design.

David Holz frames Midjourney as "a very unusual research lab"
Half a dozen similarly ambitious projects teased in July for the following six months
Midjourney Medical is already underway

V8.0 Alpha Withdrawn July 24, 2026

That’s a hard end date, and it lands on the same day V8.2 became the default. V8.0 isn’t available anywhere now.
· Version documentation: V8.0 was "Launched March 17, 2026; available until July 24, 2026" on the Midjourney Alpha website.

Available March 17 to July 24, 2026 only
Do not plan any workflow around alpha access
Re-test archived alpha recipes in V8.2

Video generation

Midjourney turns a still into a five-second clip and returns four options by default. You get low and high motion, loop, end-frame and batch controls. Clips extend in four-second steps, up to four extensions, for a maximum length of 21 seconds. So a 21-second clip is five generations of spend, not one.
· Video documentation, the budgeting line that matters: "Extending a video costs the same amount of GPU time as an initial video generation."

Five seconds initially, 21 seconds maximum
Up to four extensions of four seconds each
Each extension costs a full generation

Four core tiers

Basic, Standard, Pro and Mega are the core subscription tiers. What separates them is Fast time, Relax access, privacy and concurrency. Note what the plan table does not encode: it lists "General Commercial Terms" against all four tiers, so the $1,000,000 ownership condition lives in the terms and the help article, not in the plan comparison.
· Comparing Midjourney Plans article, read October 1, 2026.

Standard adds unlimited Relax images
Pro and Mega add SD Relax video and Stealth
Extra GPU time is $4 an hour on every tier

3 / Image System

Consistency comes from references and curation, not longer prompts

When output drifts, the instinct is a longer prompt, right? That’s not the answer. V8.2 is bolder by default and pulls personalization from a larger image pool, but control still comes from a deliberate reference system, documented settings and a human choosing. The edit model adds instruction-based editing and a four-image reference slot to the control surface. That doesn’t change the principle.

Instruction

Natural-language brief

Describe subject, scene, visual language and use. The V8 line is designed to read detailed prompts more coherently than earlier versions.

Adherence

Raw mode

Turn down Midjourney’s default styling when the brief or the reference should lead. Useful when the V8.2 default look is stronger than the brand allows.

Taste

Personalization

Rate images to pull output toward one person’s or one team’s visual preference. Personalization is documented as compatible with versions 6 and later, and V8.2 draws on a much larger pool of images. Mind the one-way rule. A Global V7 profile works in V8.1 and V8.2, but V8 profiles are not compatible with V7.

Style

Style references

Carry a visual language across a set without trying to describe every aesthetic property in words.

Direction

Moodboards

Build a curated visual world that informs several prompts and campaign routes.

Variation

Remix and variants

Change the prompt or the settings while keeping useful structure from the selected generation. As of August 21, 2026, Vary respects your settings instead of quietly running in HD.

Local edit

Vary region, inpaint, outpaint

Fix one area instead of throwing away a strong composition. On V8.X, inpainting and outpainting now use the edit model, so a masked fix and an instruction edit run through the same system. Since September 24, 2026 a targeted edit changes only the pixels you selected, which means you can edit the same frame repeatedly without grinding the quality down.
· Editor documentation, plus the September 24, 2026 edit updates post.

Resolution

HD and SD switch

Set HD in the Version section of the web settings panel, or pass --hd or --sd on the job. Neither one is automatic. V8.2 HD is documented at 2048 x 2048 px and SD at 1024 x 1024 px.

4 / Video

Lock the still before you pay to animate it

Motion is the expensive part, right? So the still has to be right first. Midjourney video works as a second-stage motion tool: it extends an approved image into a short clip. It’s not a substitute for storyboarding or post-production. Midjourney publishes exact output dimensions, exact per-batch GPU minutes and a flat $4 an hour for extra GPU time. So you can put a dollar figure on a clip before you generate it.

Aspect ratio	SD output	HD output
1:1	624 x 624 px	960 x 960 px
16:9	832 x 464 px	1280 x 720 px
4:3	720 x 544 px	1104 x 832 px
2:3	512 x 768 px	784 x 1168 px
1:2	448 x 880 px	672 x 1360 px

Batch size	SD GPU minutes	HD GPU minutes	HD cost at $4 per hour of overage
Four videos	8 minutes	26 minutes	about $1.73
Two videos	4 minutes	13 minutes	about $0.87
One video	2 minutes	7 minutes	about $0.47

Low motion

Use it for ambient movement, gentle camera shifts and image-preserving animation.

Editorial loops
Subtle social assets
Lower risk of warping

High motion

Use it when dynamic subject or camera movement is central to the idea and some instability is acceptable.

Action and transformation
More physics stress
Review subject consistency

Loop and end frame

Use explicit loop or ending control when the channel or the sequence needs continuity.

Plan the transition
Check the first and last frame
Do not rely on accidental loops

SD video

SD video is 624 x 624 px at 1:1 and 832 x 464 px at 16:9. On Basic and Standard, every video frame comes out of Fast time.
· Video documentation, precise about who can run it: "All plan tiers can generate videos in Fast Mode, but only Pro and Mega plans can generate videos in Relax Mode."

8 GPU minutes for a batch of four
Fast Mode on every tier
Relax video is Pro and Mega only

HD video

HD video is 960 x 960 px at 1:1 and 1280 x 720 px at 16:9. It runs on Standard, Pro and Mega, in Fast mode only. One batch of four costs 26 GPU minutes. On Standard, the lowest tier that can run it, that is just under 3 percent of the 15 monthly Fast hours. Which is why HD video belongs after the motion direction is approved.

26 GPU minutes for a batch of four
7 minutes for a single video
Use after motion direction is approved

Batch size

Current video generation returns four outputs by default and supports video-specific batch controls. Dropping to a batch of two cuts SD from 8 GPU minutes to 4 and HD from 26 to 13. Dropping to one cuts them to 2 and 7. That is the cheapest dial on the page, and most teams never touch it.

Compare motion outcomes
Do not select from the thumbnail alone
Track the cost per approved clip

5 / Prompt Lab

Write a creative brief, not a keyword inventory

Stop collecting keywords. The V8 line rewards coherent natural language. The best prompt says what the asset must communicate and how the frame should behave. Piling up aesthetic tokens does none of that.

Campaign hero

Campaign hero for a report about overconfidence in AI: one executive at the edge of a brightly lit stage, the audience receding into darkness, restrained corporate realism, generous negative space at upper left for headline, 16:9.

Product visualization

Premium matte-black travel speaker, exact cylindrical proportions from the reference image, on a pale stone table in a modern hotel room at dawn, soft side light revealing material texture, three-quarter hero angle, no extra controls or logos.

Editorial metaphor

Editorial illustration about hidden automation risk: a pristine office tower whose foundation is a dense, tangled network of cables, authoritative geometric composition, screen-print texture, navy and controlled orange palette, vertical magazine opener.

Edit instruction

Using the approved frame, change only the lighting to late-afternoon side light and extend the canvas to the left for headline space. Keep the subject, wardrobe, product geometry and color palette identical.

Motion brief

Animate this approved still: subject remains nearly motionless; papers lift gently in the ventilation; camera makes a slow three-percent push-in; low motion; no face change; seamless five-second loop.

6 / Plans

Choose by throughput, privacy and video, not aspiration

Pick the plan on behavior, not ambition. How much Fast time does the team burn? Can it wait for Relax? Does the work have to be private? Is video part of the normal week? And is the company over $1,000,000 in revenue, because above that line the plan decides whether you own the output at all.

Plan	Monthly	Annual	Fast GPU	Relax	Privacy
Basic	$10	$96, i.e. $8/month	3.3 hr/month (200 minutes)	None	Public workflow
Standard	$30	$288, i.e. $24/month	15 hr/month	Unlimited images	Public workflow
Pro	$60	$576, i.e. $48/month	30 hr/month	Unlimited images + SD video	Stealth Mode
Mega	$120	$1,152, i.e. $96/month	60 hr/month	Unlimited images + SD video	Stealth Mode

You own the output, with exceptions

You own what you make, right? Mostly. And ownership does not lapse when the subscription does. But read the next sentence of the contract, not just the first one. The ownership clause does not end where the quote usually ends.
· Terms of Service, effective May 27, 2026: "You own all Assets You create with the Services to the fullest extent possible under applicable law." The same sentence continues: "There are some exceptions."
· The commercial-use article adds the part buyers actually ask about: "With Midjourney, you own all the images and videos you create, even if you decide to cancel your subscription."
· Plan table and prices on this tab: Comparing Midjourney Plans article, read October 1, 2026, the canonical pricing citation. The midjourney.com/pricing marketing page renders only a JavaScript shell, so it carries no readable figures.

Ownership stated in the terms
Survives cancellation
The terms name exceptions, including a revenue one

The license you grant back

Ownership is not exclusivity. You grant a license back to Midjourney, and it covers your inputs as well as your outputs. Working for a regulated client, or under a confidentiality clause? That’s the sentence to put in front of legal before the first upload.
· The same terms have you grant Midjourney "a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicensable no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license."

Perpetual and irrevocable
Covers prompts and reference uploads
Sublicensable by Midjourney

Public work can be remixed

On any plan without Stealth Mode, remixable is the default condition of the work. Not an edge case. Stealth is available only on Pro and Mega.
· Midjourney describes itself in the terms as "an open community which allows others to use and remix Your Content whenever they are posted in a public setting."

Public posts are remixable by others
Stealth Mode on Pro and Mega only
Decide privacy before the first client brief

Upscaling is not authorship

Anything pulled from the public feed and finished in-house is somebody else’s asset. However much work went into the finish.
· The commercial-use article is direct: "If you upscale an image that another user created, that image belongs to the original creator, not you."

Upscaling grants no ownership
Check provenance before production
Keep a source record per asset

The $1M condition is an ownership rule

This is the sentence to put in front of legal first. It is not a commercial-use permission. It is a condition on ownership itself, and the plan you are on decides it. A $1,000,000 company sitting on Basic or Standard does not own what its people generate. The threshold is company revenue, not Midjourney spend, so a two-person team inside a large business is already over it.
· Terms of Service, effective May 27, 2026: "If you are a company or any employee of a company with more than $1,000,000 USD a year in revenue, you must be subscribed to a 'Pro' or 'Mega' plan to own Your Assets."
· Worth knowing before counsel finds it: the two first-party pages word the test differently. The commercial-use article says "a business grossing more than $1,000,000 USD a year," while the terms say only "more than $1,000,000 USD a year in revenue," with no qualifier at all. Assume the broader reading until Midjourney says otherwise.

Ownership, not just commercial permission
Pro or Mega required above the line
The terms and the help article word it differently

One account per person

A shared studio login is a contract breach, not a cost saving. The terms are flat about it, and teams assume the opposite on a Pro or Mega seat because the allowances look big enough to share.
· Terms of Service, effective May 27, 2026: "Only one user may use the Services per registered account. Each user of the Services may only have one account."

One person per account, both directions
Budget a seat per creator
Shared credentials are not a plan tier

Extra GPU time is $4 an hour

Same price on every tier. That is what turns a GPU minute into a number you can put in a quote. An HD video batch of four is 26 minutes, so about $1.73. A full 21-second HD clip is five generations, so about $8.67. An HD image costs 1.3 minutes against 0.8 for SD, which is under a dime either way.
· Comparing Midjourney Plans article, "Purchase Extra GPU Time" row, read October 1, 2026.

$4 per hour on Basic, Standard, Pro and Mega
HD video batch of four, about $1.73
Price the clip before you brief it

There is no API, and no automating around it

No API. No waitlist. No partner program. Fourteen months on from the one exploratory survey, there is no follow-up post. And here is the part that closes the obvious workaround: the terms prohibit automating the web app at all. So plan integration around people using the product, not around a script that drives it.
· Terms of Service, effective May 27, 2026: "You may not use automated tools to access, interact with, or generate Assets through the Services." The same restrictions list bars reverse engineering the Services or the Assets, reselling or redistributing access, and using the Services to develop or offer competing products.
· Enterprise API Survey, July 16, 2025, the only first-party artifact: Midjourney is "starting to investigate opening up an Enterprise API," and it points at an application form.
· On the absence itself: a site-restricted search surfaced no first-party API page and the Getting Started Guide names none. The help-center category index is not fetchable, so the absence rests on those checks plus the contractual ban, not on reading an index.

No endpoint, no waitlist, no partners
Automated access is contractually prohibited
Confirm before promising any automation

7 / Behavior Playbook

Eight habits that turn Midjourney into a production system

The model is not what separates good work from bad here. The team is. Better briefs, consistent references, documented selection, deliberate spend. That’s the advantage, and it holds.

Name the visual job

Define the audience, the channel and the communication goal before you describe the scene.

Explore real breadth

Generate conceptually different routes rather than twenty cosmetic variants.

Curate against strategy

Choose the idea that works, not the image that looks expensive.

Build a reference system

Use style references, moodboards and personalization consistently across a campaign. Check version compatibility before you standardize on a profile.

Change one variable

Make iteration legible by changing composition, style or subject on purpose.

Edit locally

Protect a strong composition by fixing the smallest wrong region. Midjourney publishes no resolution or pricing figures for the edit model, so benchmark it against your own work before it carries a client deadline.

Spend after approval

Switch HD on and generate video only once the route is selected. One HD video batch is 26 GPU minutes, about $1.73 at the $4 an hour overage rate.

Archive the recipe

Store prompt, version, seed, references, parameters and final asset together. Record whether HD was on, whether a saved default put it there, and whether the edit model touched the frame.

8 / Watch Outs

Beautiful output can still be strategically, factually or legally wrong

A beautiful image hides a wrong one, right? Visual persuasion is efficient that way. So review has to go past whether the image looks good, and you need to know which published figures exist and which do not.

The edit model has no numbers

Dimensions are published for V8.2. The edit model is the exception. Neither the Edit Model article nor the Editor article carries an output dimension, a GPU-minute figure or a price. So measure your own edit output before you write it into a delivery spec. No first-party post declares the feature out of testing either, so it is documented rather than formally released.

A V7-only reference path

Omni Reference is documented as working only with version 7, and Midjourney names the edit model as its V8.X replacement. So a recipe held on V7 to keep omni-reference behavior is parked on a superseded path, not waiting for a promised upgrade. Re-test those reference sets on V8.2.

Personalization runs one way

A Global V7 profile works in V8.1 and V8.2, but V8 profiles are not compatible with V7. Build a V8 profile, then need to reproduce a V7 asset, and you can’t carry the profile backward. So record which version a profile was built in, alongside the prompt and the seed.

Editor gating is unstated

The Editor documentation does not say which plan tiers may use it. The plan comparison table covers Fast time, Relax, privacy and concurrency, and it isn’t a safe proxy for editor access. Confirm with Midjourney before you promise it on a Basic or Standard seat.

First-party dates disagree

Midjourney’s own sources give two dates for the V8.1 default. Anchor to June 11, because that is the dated artifact while the docs page is an undated rolling reference. Cite carefully in anything contractual.
· The dated announcement post is published June 11, 2026. The Version documentation says V8.1 was the default from June 10, with a launch date of April 14, 2026.

HD assumptions

Don’t assume HD is on. It is a toggle in the web settings panel, or the --hd and --sd parameters, and a budget model built on an assumed default will be wrong. The August 21 changelog fixed a case where Vary ran in HD without being asked, which is exactly the kind of silent cost the assumption produces. And since September 24, 2026 a default set of parameters can be saved and stays saved, so someone else’s preference can now be running on your job.

Ownership has a revenue condition

The headline is that you own your output. The contract qualifies it. A company with more than $1,000,000 USD a year in revenue, or an employee of one, must be on Pro or Mega to own its assets, and the ownership clause itself says there are exceptions. The plan comparison table does not carry this condition, so a procurement review that reads only the plan page will miss it. Check the revenue test against the terms, not the help center.

Default drift

The default model changed twice in roughly six weeks: V8.1 on June 11, V8.2 on July 24. It is now 69 days since that last change, with no V8.3 or V9 on any first-party page, so the gap between versions has stretched while the product keeps moving in other ways. Prompts approved under V8.1 may still render differently under V8.2. So pin and re-test the workflows that matter.

Public creation

Most plans do not provide Stealth Mode, and Midjourney describes itself in its terms as an open community where public content can be used and remixed by others. Discord compounds it, because the terms warn that anything made in a shared or open space such as a Discord chatroom is viewable by anyone in that chatroom. That exposure is independent of your plan. Confirm privacy, and the room, before you use client references or unreleased products.

Product hallucination

Generated products can change controls, labels, proportions or materials while still looking photorealistic.

Text accuracy

The V8 line improves rendering, but generated packaging, UI and copy still need inspection and often manual replacement.

Likeness and rights

You own your outputs under the terms effective May 27, 2026, subject to the revenue condition above. You also grant Midjourney a perpetual, sublicensable, irrevocable license over your inputs and outputs. And ownership does not remove trademark, likeness, confidentiality or sector-specific risk. Instruction-based editing of an existing image raises the question of whose image it was in the first place, and upscaling another user’s image doesn’t make it yours.

Brand drift

A strong aesthetic isn’t automatically the organization’s aesthetic, and V8.2 is described as bolder and edgier by default. References and curation have to carry the brand.

GPU waste

High-resolution generation and video eat capacity fast when the creative decision is still open. One HD video batch is 26 GPU minutes, and every four-second extension costs as much as the original generation.

Stakeholder bias

Polished images close discussion too early. Present routes with the strategic rationale, not as finished answers.

Company focus

Midjourney describes itself as a research lab and teased half a dozen ambitious projects in July for the following six months, with Midjourney Medical already underway. So roadmap attention may not sit entirely with image generation.

9 / Sources

Where these facts come from

These Midjourney documentation and update pages anchor the model, specification, plan, video, rights and corporate details, and all of them were read on October 1, 2026. Three things about the list are worth stating plainly. First, no article on docs.midjourney.com prints a modification date, because the help center does not expose one. So every documentation citation here is a dated reading rather than a dated page. The text on any of these pages can be rewritten with no post, no version note and no visible timestamp, and the only way to know is to open the page again. The Terms of Service is the single exception, carrying an effective date of May 27, 2026. Second, Midjourney’s recent activity sits on the updates site rather than in a version release. Five posts landed there in September 2026: two on September 3, one on September 16 and two on September 24, and all five are cited below. Two dated update posts remain stated exceptions rather than citations: the August 21, 2026 changelog, which is the source of the Vary settings fix, and the August 29, 2026 edit quality note. Both were read on the update site and neither is cited here as a separate article. So confirm either one directly on updates.midjourney.com if a claim resting on it matters to you. Third, one absence claim is weaker than the rest. The help-center category index could not be fetched and its search endpoint refuses automated requests, so the finding that no API documentation exists rests on a site-restricted search, the Getting Started Guide and the terms themselves, not on reading an index.

Evidence note

Model, specification, timing, plan, video, rights and corporate claims come from Midjourney. V8.2 pixel dimensions are published for the version by name and are cited that way. Five things are still open and are stated as such above, not resolved in the vendor’s direction. Midjourney publishes no resolution or pricing figures for the edit model, and no first-party post declares it out of testing, so it is described as documented rather than released. The Editor documentation does not state plan gating, and the plans table is not a safe substitute. The formal voting session promised on September 3, 2026 for "the next week or two" has not been published, rescheduled or withdrawn. As of October 1, 2026 that is two weeks past the outer edge of the window Midjourney promised, so it is reported as pending and overdue. The absence of API documentation rests on a site-restricted search, the Getting Started Guide and the contractual ban on automated access, because the help-center category index and its search endpoint are not fetchable. And documentation pages on docs.midjourney.com carry no modification date, so they are cited as dated readings, with the Terms of Service the single exception. Where Midjourney’s own sources disagree, as they do on the V8.1 default date and on the wording of the $1,000,000 revenue test, the gap is stated rather than settled quietly. The visual-production workflow and behavior guidance are AI Mindset interpretation.

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