Is Midjourney or PaintTool SAI better?

Neither clearly leads. Midjourney starts at $10/month and PaintTool SAI at 5500/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Midjourney or PaintTool SAI?

Midjourney starts at $10/month and PaintTool SAI at 5500/month.

Does Midjourney or PaintTool SAI run on more platforms?

Midjourney runs on Discord, Web. PaintTool SAI runs on windows.

What is Midjourney best used for?

Midjourney is most often used for ai tools management, workflow automation, reporting. Of those, ai tools management and workflow automation are not what PaintTool SAI is typically brought in for.

What can Midjourney do that PaintTool SAI cannot?

Midjourney covers Text-to-image, Style transfer, Image upscaling, Variation generation. PaintTool SAI covers Pressure-Sensitive Tablet Support, Anti-Aliased Brushes, 16-bit ARGB Color Channels, Lightweight Performance.

Social Media & Content · head to head

Midjourney vs PaintTool SAI

Midjourney

Social Media & Content

AI image generation with artistic excellence

From: $10/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

PaintTool SAI

Design Tools

Lightweight digital painting and illustration software for Windows

From: 5500/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Midjourney subscription tiers as captured 29 December 2023 ranged from $10/month (3.3 Fast GPU hours) to $120/month (60 Fast GPU hours), with extra GPU time at $4/hour, and companies earning over $1,000,000/year in gross revenue were required to use the Pro plan; PaintTool SAI windows-only software with no native Mac or Linux version.
They diverge on capability: Midjourney covers Text-to-image, PaintTool SAI covers Pressure-Sensitive Tablet Support.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Midjourney and PaintTool SAI actually diverge.

Attributes where Midjourney and PaintTool SAI differ
Attribute	Midjourney	PaintTool SAI
Starting price	$10/month	5500/month
Pricing model	subscription	one-time
Platforms	Discord, Web	windows
Category	Social Media & Content	Design Tools
Founded	2021	Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Midjourney

Text-to-image
Style transfer
Image upscaling
Variation generation
Discord
Web interface
Discord support
Web support

Only in PaintTool SAI

Pressure-Sensitive Tablet Support
Anti-Aliased Brushes
16-bit ARGB Color Channels
Lightweight Performance
Crash Data Protection

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Midjourney

ai tools managementnot PaintTool SAI
Workflow automationnot PaintTool SAI
Reportingnot PaintTool SAI

PaintTool SAI

Digital illustration and manga artnot Midjourney
Line art and inking with pressure-sensitive pensnot Midjourney
Lightweight painting on lower-spec computersnot Midjourney
Character and concept art sketchingnot Midjourney

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Midjourney

Subscription tiers as captured 29 December 2023 ranged from $10/month (3.3 Fast GPU hours) to $120/month (60 Fast GPU hours), with extra GPU time at $4/hour, and companies earning over $1,000,000/year in gross revenue were required to use the Pro plan

PaintTool SAI

Windows-only software with no native Mac or Linux version.
Only supports 32-bit operation, lacking modern 64-bit performance benefits.
Lacks the advanced brush engine customization and layer effects found in tools like Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint.
No cloud sync or mobile app, unlike many modern illustration tools.

Pricing, plan by plan

Midjourney

$10/month

Basic$10/month
- 200 generations/month
- General commercial terms
Standard$30/month
- 15 GPU hours
- Unlimited relaxed
Pro$60/month
- 30 GPU hours
- Stealth mode

PaintTool SAI

5500/month

Standard License$5500/month
- Perpetual license
- All 1.x.x minor updates
- Free upgrade path to version 2

Which should you pick?

Choose Midjourney if

You need text-to-image.
You work on Discord, Web.
You also want style transfer.

Midjourney review

Choose PaintTool SAI if

You need pressure-sensitive tablet support.
You work on windows.
You also want anti-aliased brushes.

PaintTool SAI review

Questions people ask

Is Midjourney or PaintTool SAI better?: Neither clearly leads. Midjourney starts at $10/month and PaintTool SAI at 5500/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Midjourney or PaintTool SAI?: Midjourney starts at $10/month and PaintTool SAI at 5500/month.
Does Midjourney or PaintTool SAI run on more platforms?: Midjourney runs on Discord, Web. PaintTool SAI runs on windows.
What is Midjourney best used for?: Midjourney is most often used for ai tools management, workflow automation, reporting. Of those, ai tools management and workflow automation are not what PaintTool SAI is typically brought in for.
What can Midjourney do that PaintTool SAI cannot?: Midjourney covers Text-to-image, Style transfer, Image upscaling, Variation generation. PaintTool SAI covers Pressure-Sensitive Tablet Support, Anti-Aliased Brushes, 16-bit ARGB Color Channels, Lightweight Performance.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

PaintTool SAI: Is there a free trial for PaintTool SAI?

Yes, PaintTool SAI offers a 31-day free trial with full functionality before requiring purchase of a license.

Source

PaintTool SAI: What does the license cover?

The one-time 5,500 JPY purchase provides a perpetual license covering all minor updates within version 1.x.x; a major version 2 upgrade is offered for free.

Source

PaintTool SAI: What operating systems are supported?

PaintTool SAI runs on Windows XP through Windows 11, but only in 32-bit mode, requiring at least a 450MHz Pentium processor and 256MB of RAM.

Source

Midjourney vs PaintTool SAI

Midjourney

PaintTool SAI

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Midjourney

Only in PaintTool SAI

What people use each for

Midjourney

PaintTool SAI

Where each one falls short

Midjourney

PaintTool SAI

Pricing, plan by plan

Midjourney

PaintTool SAI

Which should you pick?

Choose Midjourney if

Choose PaintTool SAI if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Midjourney

More on PaintTool SAI

Keep looking

Other head to heads