What Does It Cost to Keep Your AI Image Generations Private?
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The assumption behind every “just upgrade to a paid plan” answer is that paying makes your generations private. At two of these tools it does. At one of them you can pay for two consecutive tiers and still have every image land in a public feed. This post prices the cheapest plan at each tool that actually turns privacy on.
The Short Answer
- Leonardo.Ai — Leonardo.Ai turns privacy on at $12/mo, its cheapest paid plan, because every paid tier lists Creations access as Private.
- Ideogram — Ideogram turns privacy on at $15/mo billed annually, the cheapest of its three paid tiers, all of which check the Private generations row.
- Midjourney — Midjourney costs $60/mo for private generations, because Stealth Mode is a Pro-tier feature — six times its own $10/mo entry plan, whose output is public.
- Adobe Firefly — Adobe Firefly publishes no public-versus-private plan distinction we could confirm, so we are not putting a privacy price next to it.
| Model | Best for | From | Free | Free-tier privacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leonardo.Ai | Cheapest Private Plan | $12/mo | Yes | Public by default |
| Ideogram | Private on Every Paid Tier | $15/mo (annual) | Yes | Public by default |
| Midjourney | Cheapest to Enter, Priciest to Go Private | $8/mo (annual) | No | No free tier to evaluate |
| Adobe Firefly | No Public/Private Line We Could Verify | $9.99/mo | Yes | — |
What we priced
For each tool we found the cheapest plan whose own pricing page or plan documentation states that generations are private, and recorded what that plan costs. That is deliberately not the same as the cheapest paid plan — at one tool here the two are two tiers and $50/mo apart. Where a vendor doesn’t publish a public-versus-private plan distinction at all, we leave the price out rather than infer one. Which tools make free-tier generations public in the first place is the subject of our free-tier privacy review, read on 2026-08-05.
Cheapest Private Plan
1. Leonardo.Ai — Cheapest Private Plan
Leonardo.Ai draws the line at the first paid tier and nowhere else. Its pricing table lists free-plan Creations access as Public and every paid tier as Private, so Essential at $12/mo is both the cheapest way in and the cheapest way to privacy — there’s no premium privacy upsell above it. Leonardo publishes no annual rate, so $12/mo is the number either way.
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
Private on Every Paid Tier
2. Ideogram — Private on Every Paid Tier
Ideogram has the same structure and costs $3/mo more. Its plan comparison table leaves the “Private generations” row blank for Free and checks it for all three paid tiers, so the cheapest of those — Plus at $15/mo — buys privacy. One catch worth knowing before you compare it to Leonardo: Ideogram publishes that $15 as an annual rate, so it’s a year’s commitment, not a month-to-month price.
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
Cheapest to Enter, Priciest to Go Private
3. Midjourney — Cheapest to Enter, Priciest to Go Private
Midjourney is the reason this post exists. It has the cheapest entry price of the three tools we could price — Basic at $10/mo, or $8/mo annually — and the most expensive privacy, because Stealth Mode is a Pro and Mega feature rather than a paid-plan feature. Basic and Standard subscribers are paying customers whose generations are still public. Privacy starts at Pro: $60/mo, or $48/mo annually. That’s six times Midjourney’s own entry price, and five times what Leonardo charges for the same outcome.
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
No Public/Private Line We Could Verify
4. Adobe Firefly — No Public/Private Line We Could Verify
Adobe Firefly doesn’t publish the plan row the other three do, so we have nothing to price. Its free tier gives limited daily generations with no card, and Adobe’s own generative-credits FAQ confirms commercial use is permitted on free-plan output for non-beta features. What paid plans add, per that same FAQ, is IP indemnification — legal backing if your usage is challenged. That is a real difference and a real reason to pay; it just isn’t a privacy difference, so it doesn’t belong in this comparison’s column.
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
More in this category
The prerequisite question — which tools put free-tier generations in a public feed at all — is answered tool by tool in the other review in our AI image models category. The same “what does the cheap tier actually get you” question drives our other categories: for SEO tools it’s what a client-ready report really costs once export is priced in, and for presentation tools it’s what a PowerPoint file costs once you notice the advertised rate is the annual one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest way to generate AI images privately?
Of the four tools we priced, Leonardo.Ai's Essential plan at $12/mo is the cheapest verified path, because privacy comes with any paid tier there. Ideogram is $15/mo on annual billing for the same reason. Midjourney is the outlier at $60/mo, since it treats privacy as a premium feature rather than a paid-plan feature.
Does paying for Midjourney make my images private?
Not on the cheaper plans. Midjourney's own plan documentation puts Stealth Mode on Pro and Mega only, so generations on Basic ($10/mo) and Standard ($30/mo) are public by default despite being paid. Privacy starts at Pro, $60/mo monthly or $48/mo billed annually — six times the entry price.
Is Midjourney or Leonardo.Ai cheaper?
It depends entirely on whether you need privacy, and the ranking flips. To simply start generating, Midjourney is cheaper: $10/mo Basic, or $8/mo annually, against Leonardo's $12/mo Essential. To generate privately, Leonardo is five times cheaper: $12/mo against Midjourney's $60/mo Pro.
Can I use free-plan images commercially even if they're public?
Sometimes, and public is a separate question from commercial. Leonardo's help center confirms free-plan images may be used commercially while remaining publicly viewable and remixable. Adobe permits commercial use on free-plan outputs for non-beta features. For Ideogram we found conflicting secondary claims and could not confirm it from Ideogram's own terms, so we don't assert either answer.
Why isn't Adobe Firefly given a privacy price?
Because we could not confirm one. Leonardo and Ideogram both publish a plan row that says free is public and paid is private; Adobe publishes no equivalent distinction we could verify. What Adobe's own FAQ does state is a different paid-tier benefit — IP indemnification, which free-plan outputs don't carry. That's a legal difference, not a privacy one, so it doesn't belong in this column.
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.
- 2026-08-06 — First published. Plan prices and privacy tiering re-read from each vendor's own pricing or plan documentation on 2026-08-05 and priced here on 2026-08-06.