Which AI Image Models Keep Your Free-Tier Generations Private?
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If you’re generating images on a free plan, two different questions get conflated: can you use the result commercially, and can anyone else see it first? They’re not the same question, and vendors don’t always answer both. We checked what each vendor’s own pages say.
The Short Answer
- Adobe Firefly — Adobe's own FAQ confirms commercial use is permitted on the free plan, though only paid plans carry IP indemnification if that use is challenged.
- Leonardo.Ai — Leonardo's own pricing table lists free-plan creations as Public — private generation requires a paid plan.
- Ideogram — Ideogram's own comparison table shows Private generations unchecked on the Free plan and checked on every paid tier.
- Midjourney — Midjourney has no free tier at all, and even its cheapest paid plan doesn't include private generation — that needs Pro or higher.
| Model | Best for | From | Free | Free-tier privacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Firefly | Commercial Use Confirmed on Free Plan | $9.99/mo | Yes | — |
| Leonardo.Ai | Free Means Public | $12/mo | Yes | Public by default |
| Ideogram | Free Means Public, Too | $15/mo (annual) | Yes | Public by default |
| Midjourney | No Free Plan | $8/mo (annual) | No | No free tier to evaluate |
What we checked
For each model, we read the vendor’s own pricing page (and, where it existed, a dedicated FAQ or help-center article) for three things: plan prices under monthly and annual billing, what the free tier includes, and whether generations are private by default or public unless you pay. We did not create an account with any of these tools — everything here comes from what each vendor publishes.
Commercial Use Confirmed on Free Plan
1. Adobe Firefly — Commercial Use Confirmed on Free Plan
Firefly’s free plan gives you limited daily generations with no card required, and — unlike some of the ambiguity we ran into elsewhere — Adobe’s own generative-credits FAQ directly confirms commercial use is permitted on free-plan outputs for released (non-beta) features, the same as paid plans. The real gap between free and paid isn’t permission, it’s protection: paid (“qualifying”) plans carry IP indemnification if your use of a generated image is ever legally challenged, and the free plan does not.
From $9.99/mo. Free plan: Limited free daily generations across standard and premium features, no card required.
- Standard — $9.99/mo
Free-tier privacy Not confirmed — We could not confirm a structural public/private distinction for the free plan the way Leonardo and Ideogram publish one. What Adobe's own generative-credits FAQ does confirm: commercial use is permitted on free-plan outputs for non-beta features, same as paid plans — the difference paid plans add is IP indemnification (legal backing if your usage is challenged), which free-plan outputs do not carry.
Pros
- Commercial use is confirmed on the free plan itself, not held back for paid tiers, per Adobe's own generative-credits FAQ
- No card required to start
Skip it if
- Free-plan outputs are not covered by Adobe's IP indemnification — only 'qualifying' paid plans get that legal backing
Free Means Public
2. Leonardo.Ai — Free Means Public
Leonardo’s own pricing table is direct about this: the free plan’s row for “Creations access” reads Public, and every paid tier’s reads Private. Leonardo’s help center confirms free-plan images can still be used commercially, but they’re visible to other Leonardo users, who can view and remix them, and Leonardo itself retains broad rights to reuse what’s shared publicly. Full private ownership starts at the Essential plan, $12/mo.
From $12/mo. Free plan: 150 fast tokens/day, 150 token bank, public creations, 1 personal collection.
- Essential — $12/mo
- Premium — $30/mo
- Ultimate — $60/mo
Free-tier privacy Public by default — Leonardo's own pricing table lists free-plan "Creations access" as Public; every paid tier lists it as Private. Leonardo's own help center confirms free-plan images can be used commercially, but they remain publicly viewable and remixable by other users, and Leonardo retains broad rights to reuse publicly shared content — full private ownership requires a paid plan.
Pros
- Commercial use is technically permitted on the free plan
Skip it if
- Free-plan images are public by Leonardo's own pricing table — other users can view and remix them, and you don't get exclusive private ownership until you pay
Free Means Public, Too
3. Ideogram — Free Means Public, Too
Ideogram’s plan comparison table follows the same shape as Leonardo’s: “Private generations” is unchecked for Free and checked for every paid tier, so free-plan images land in the public Explore feed by default. Where we stopped short: secondary sources disagreed with each other on whether free-plan commercial use is permitted at all, and we could not settle it against Ideogram’s own terms directly, so we’re not asserting an answer on that specific question.
From $15/mo (annual). Free plan: 10 slow credits/week, 2 canvases, 1 concurrent generation.
- Plus — $15/mo billed annually
- Pro — $42/mo billed annually
- Team — $20/mo billed annually · 1 seat
Free-tier privacy Public by default — Ideogram's own plan comparison table shows the "Private generations" row blank for the Free plan and checked for every paid tier — free-plan images appear in the public Explore feed by default.
Skip it if
- Free-plan generations are public in the community feed by default, per Ideogram's own comparison table
- We found conflicting secondary claims about whether free-plan commercial use is permitted at all — we could not confirm this directly from Ideogram's own terms and are not asserting either answer
No Free Plan
4. Midjourney — No Free Plan
Midjourney doesn’t give us a free tier to check this question against — its cheapest plan, Basic, is $10/mo. What its own plan-comparison page does make clear is that commercial usage terms are identical across all four tiers, but Stealth Mode (private generation) is gated to the Pro plan ($60/mo) and above. On Basic or Standard, what you generate is public by default, paid or not.
From $8/mo (annual). No free plan.
- Basic — $10/mo, or $8/mo billed annually
- Standard — $30/mo, or $24/mo billed annually
- Pro — $60/mo, or $48/mo billed annually
- Mega — $120/mo, or $96/mo billed annually
Free-tier privacy No free tier to evaluate — No free plan at any price. Every paid tier, including the cheapest ($10/mo Basic), carries the same General Commercial Terms — but Stealth Mode (private generations) is a Pro/Mega-only feature, so Basic and Standard generations are public by default.
Pros
- Commercial usage rights are identical across all four tiers — you don't need the most expensive plan to use images commercially, only if your company makes over $1M/year in gross revenue
Skip it if
- No free tier at all to try before paying
- Private generation (Stealth Mode) requires the Pro plan ($60/mo) or higher — Basic and Standard users' generations are public
More in this category
This review asks whether free-tier generations stay private; its companion asks the follow-on question — what the cheapest plan that actually turns privacy on costs, where Midjourney’s answer is six times its own entry price. Both live in the AI image models category. The same “what does the cheap tier actually let you walk away with” question drives our other categories too — for SEO tools it’s whether report export is bundled or an add-on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are free-plan AI image generations public by default?
For two of the four models we checked — Leonardo.Ai and Ideogram — yes, confirmed directly from each vendor's own pricing comparison table. Both explicitly mark 'private generations' as a paid-only feature. Adobe Firefly's structure is less clear to us; Midjourney has no free plan to evaluate this question against.
Can you use free-plan AI images commercially?
It varies, and the fine print matters more than the headline. Adobe Firefly's own FAQ confirms commercial use is allowed on the free plan, just without the legal indemnification paid plans get. Leonardo.Ai's help center confirms commercial use is allowed too, but free images stay public. We found conflicting claims about Ideogram specifically and are not asserting an answer either way.
Why does Midjourney have no free plan?
We don't know their reasoning — only that their own plan comparison page lists four paid tiers starting at $10/mo with no free option, unlike three of the other tools we checked here.
What does 'private generation' actually protect against?
Based on how Leonardo and Ideogram describe it, a public generation is visible to other users in a community feed and can be viewed or remixed by them. It's a visibility setting, not necessarily a copyright transfer — but if confidentiality matters for what you're generating, a public-by-default free plan is worth knowing about before you start.
Which of these tools has the strongest commercial-use guarantee?
Of the four, Adobe Firefly's is the most directly documented — the commercial-use permission is stated in Adobe's own generative-credits FAQ, not inferred from a pricing table. That said, we have not confirmed its free-tier privacy structure, so this isn't a complete picture on its own.
How We Keep This Updated
We re-check pricing and re-run the PPTX export test on every tool in this list. Every change is logged here. Our full procedure is on the methodology page, and if anything above is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will re-check it.
- 2026-08-05 — First published. Pricing and privacy-tier details read from each vendor's own pricing or documentation page on this date.