What used to be a buzzword is now the central element of design and marketing: artificial intelligence. The rise of AI-powered design is short of being unstoppable. Beyond aesthetics, it's now about efficiency, scalability, and staying competitive in this visual-first digital landscape. If you want to refresh your brand or launch a new campaign, here are the top 10 AI art and image generation tools designers are now using:
Midjourney One of the most iconic AI art generation tools in 2025, Midjourney is a favorite among many designers, entrepreneurs, and marketers. It possesses a strong ability to generate cinematic and emotionally rich images, similar to those found in movie trailers or luxury ad campaigns. It was initially launched on Discord but has now evolved into a more accessible web-based interface.
Midjourney's key features include artistic control, fast rendering, and modes such as the anime-focused "Niji" and "Face Transfer." Its pricing plans start at $10 per month.
OpenAI DALL·E 3 (via ChatGPT Vision) If you're looking to create photorealistic images, brand-safe illustrations, and product concepts, OpenAI DALL·E 3 (via ChatGPT Vision) is your best bet. It integrates smoothly into ChatGPT Vision, which means you can describe your image and the tool will refine and generate it in real-time.
This AI art and image-generating tool features advanced capabilities, including natural language editing, inpainting and expansion, and prompt fidelity, among others. This tool is included at no extra cost when you subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, which is $20 per month.
Canva AI Image Generator Powered by Magic Media™ suite and Dream Lab, Canva AI Image Generator is a go-to design solution for many entrepreneurs and marketers. It has become a favorite, thanks to its ability to craft fast and stylish visuals without a high learning curve. With just your simple text prompts, you'll get polished graphics, illustrations, and short videos in an instant.
Canva's AI image generator tool features include text-to-image with style control, reference-based generation, and text-to-graphic video tools. It offers a free tier plan, but for more features, its pricing plan starts at $14.99 per month.
Krea AI Offering real-time image generation and editing, Krea AI is the ideal AI design tool for agile teams. It is built on advanced models FLUX.1 and WAN 2.2, delivering photorealistic textures, zero visible artifacts, and instant feedback loops. Its key features include live canvas editing, a prompt builder, style transfer, motion transfer, lip-syncing, and more.
Krea AI offers free access and three premium plans, with pricing starting at $10 per month.
Adobe Firefly The most suitable AI art and image generation tool for branded content, commercial-safe assets, and integrated design workflows is Adobe Firefly . It is a full-spectrum creative AI platform that can generate images, videos, and vector graphics within Adobe's trusted ecosystem. Its key features include Firefly boards, text-to-image and text-to-video, and vector generation.
Adobe Firefly is available for free with its limited generations, while its Creative Cloud Pro plan is priced at $29.99 per month.
Recraft Offering unmatched control over raster and vector image generation is powerhouse Recraft . While many AI tools are focused on photorealism, this tool is designed for brand consistency, editable outputs, and professional-grade visual assets. This makes it a go-to AI image generator for many marketers, production teams, and creative directors.
Recraft's key features include text-to-vector and raster generation, a style consistency engine, a mockup generator, a background remover, and many more. Like many on this list, it offers a free tier, but for those who want to enjoy more of its features, there are two pricing plans with fees starting at $12 per month.
Seedream 4.0 (ByteDance) Fast becoming a standout in the AI image generation landscape, Seedream 4.0 (ByteDance) offers speed, precision, and the ability to master multiple images. Its lightning-fast rendering, multi-reference capabilities, and unified generation-editing architecture make it a top contender for Google's top-tier models. It produces 2K images in under 2 seconds, among its many amazing features.
Seedream 4.0 offers two pricing plans: the Standard rate, which costs $30 per 1,000 generations on platforms such as Fal.ai. On the other hand, its Enterprise Access is available to corporate clients at undisclosed pricing.
Ideogram We often see many AI image generators struggling with legible text. With Ideogram , this has changed as it has become a favorite among many marketers and designers, thanks to its typographic precision. Built by a team of former Google Brain researchers, this AI tool efficiently blends text and visuals. This makes it an ideal tool for branded content, promotional graphics, and digital signage.
Ideogram lets you try out its tool with a free plan. However, if you need advanced features, it offers three premium plans, with pricing starting at $8 per month.
ClipGen (Bonus: Video + Image) For all your short-form videos, animated images, and branded multimedia content, there's ClipGen . This multi-modal AI platform enables you to create social media ads, explainer videos, and various fast-turnaround content from simple text prompts or uploaded visuals. It has a template library, voice-over and lip-sync tools, and brand asset management capabilities, among its many features.
ClipGen allows you to create five clips for free and offers three premium plans, with pricing starting at $5 per month.
Text2Pixel Promising to "turn words into stunning visuals in seconds," Text2Pixel is an excellent AI image generation tool. It has a focus on mobile-first designs and instant image, making it an ideal option for on-the-go content creation. It is available on the iPhone and iPad; this design tool quickly transforms your natural language prompts into high-quality visuals.
Text2Pixel's key features include an instant image generator, a style selector, a magic edit and upscale tool, as well as numerous other customization tools. It offers three plans, consisting of a forever-free plan and two paid plans, with pricing starting at $19 per month.
Conclusion 2025 has seen the emergence of a wide array of AI art and image generation tools, making selection a significant challenge. Whether you're a designer, an entrepreneur, or a marketer, this list of the top 10 will help you make an informed decision.
Cover image credit: Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash
