The Midjourney commercial-use status board (July 2026)
This is the citable centerpiece. The table shows what each Midjourney plan actually grants: whether you can sell the output, whether you own your assets, whether generation is private, and whether the plan satisfies the over-$1M revenue rule. All plan data sourced to the on-disk tools.json data layer (last full review verified 2026-06-08) and confirmed against Midjourney's own policy documentation. Legal facts from legal-facts.json.
| Plan | Price (mo / annual) | Can you sell output? | Own your assets? | Private (Stealth)? | IP indemnification? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free trial | $0 When available |
NO Cannot sell; Midjourney owns these images |
NO | NO | NONE |
| Basic | $10 / $8 ~3.3 Fast GPU hrs/mo |
YES Broad commercial-use license |
YES* *Unless your company grosses >$1M/yr |
NO Prompts + images public by default |
NONE |
| Standard | $30 / $24 15 Fast hrs + unlimited Relax |
YES | YES* *Same >$1M rule applies |
NO | NONE |
| Pro | $60 / $48 30 Fast hrs + unlimited Relax |
YES | YES Required minimum tier for >$1M companies |
YES Stealth Mode included |
NONE |
| Mega | $120 / $96 60 Fast hrs + unlimited Relax |
YES | YES Satisfies the >$1M rule |
YES Stealth Mode included |
NONE |
Status board sources: Midjourney Docs: Using Images Commercially · Midjourney Docs: Comparing Plans · terms.law: Midjourney Commercial Use Rights (2026 guide) · CNBC (Thaler, Mar 2026). Annual billing is ~20% cheaper per month; extra Fast GPU hours are $4/hour. Pricing verified July 2026 from Midjourney's plan page.
The three catches, in one glance
The plan table above answers "can I sell it" (yes, on paid). The catches are what turn a simple yes into a risk decision. Here they are before the detail:
The $1M rule
If your company grosses over $1,000,000 per year, Basic and Standard do not let you own your assets. You must be on Pro ($60) or Mega ($120). Below that threshold, any paid tier is fine.
Zero indemnification
No Midjourney tier defends or reimburses you if your image is claimed to infringe. Midjourney disclaims warranties. If a rights-holder comes after an output, you are on your own.
No copyright floor
Pure AI output cannot be copyrighted in the US (Thaler, March 2026). You can sell your image, but you cannot stop anyone from copying and reselling the exact same file.
Catch 1: the $1,000,000 revenue rule
Most guides skip this, and it is the one that bites established businesses. Midjourney's commercial terms grant paid users a broad license, but the ownership grant is tiered by your company's revenue. Per Midjourney's own documentation verified 2026-06-08: a company or individual grossing more than $1,000,000 per year must be subscribed to the Pro or Mega plan to own the assets they create. On Basic or Standard, a company over that threshold does not get full ownership of its generations.
For a solo creator, a freelancer, or a small studio under $1M in revenue, this rule does not apply: Basic at $10/month grants commercial use and ownership. But if you are a funded startup, an agency, or an established brand, budget for Pro at minimum. This is a licensing-compliance line, not a feature preference. Our full Midjourney pricing breakdown maps every tier's Fast-hour metering and what changes at each price.
Q: My company makes $1.2M a year and we are on Standard. Are we in trouble?
You are out of compliance with the ownership grant, not committing a crime. Upgrade to Pro ($60/month, or $48 on annual billing) to bring the images you generate under the ownership terms. If you have already published Standard-tier images while over the threshold, upgrade going forward and consult a lawyer about the back-catalog. This is exactly the kind of fine-print line that Midjourney can enforce through its terms if it ever chooses to.
A broad commercial license is not the same as protection when someone sues.The indemnification gap
Catch 2: Midjourney gives you no indemnification
This is the catch that the Disney lawsuit makes urgent. Indemnification is a promise by the tool to defend and reimburse you if a third party claims your generated content infringes their IP. Per the on-disk tools.json layer verified 2026-06-08, Midjourney offers no IP indemnification on any tier. It disclaims warranties and explicitly does not defend you against infringement claims. So does Suno, Udio, ElevenLabs, and Runway.
The contrast that matters: Adobe Firefly does offer a commercial IP indemnity, because it trains only on Adobe Stock, openly licensed, and public-domain content. That is the entire trade. If your commercial work carries real legal exposure (client deliverables, brand campaigns, anything a large rights-holder might notice), the indemnification column is the one to weigh, not the price. The full cross-tool comparison lives in the AI indemnification matrix.
Q: Does "no indemnification" mean Midjourney images are unsafe to sell?
No. It means the risk sits with you. A generic image (an abstract background, a fictional landscape, an original character you designed) carries very low infringement risk. The exposure spikes when you generate recognizable protected material: a named franchise character, a real celebrity's face, a trademarked logo. Those were always risky. "No indemnification" just means that if that risk lands, Midjourney will not pay your legal bill. For low-risk generic work, it rarely matters; for anything touching known IP, it matters a lot.
Catch 3: you cannot copyright the output
No, and the Supreme Court just locked that in. On March 2, 2026, the Supreme Court declined certiorari in Thaler v. Perlmutter verified 2026-06-08, leaving in place the D.C. Circuit rule that the Copyright Act requires a human author. Pure AI output from prompts alone cannot be registered. Anyone can legally copy and resell what you generate.
What this means for a Midjourney seller:
- You can sell your Midjourney image, but you cannot sue someone who copies that exact file and sells it too.
- Copyright can attach to the human-authored parts: substantial editing, composition, the arrangement of the image inside a larger design, or original elements you added by hand.
- Midjourney's license grants your right to use and sell the output. It does not, and cannot, grant you copyright, because copyright requires human authorship that a prompt alone does not supply.
The practical takeaway: your defensible value is in what you do around the raw output, not in owning the pixels. Why no tool can grant copyright is explained in full at is AI image output copyrightable?, and the cross-modality rule (image, video, music) is covered in the general AI content checker.
What the license gives you
A right to use and sell, on paid plans
You can distribute and monetize the output.
What the license cannot give you
The gaps no plan closes
Others can copy it, and you defend any claim alone.
What the Disney/Universal/Warner lawsuit actually changes
Litigation live: Disney, Universal & Warner Bros. v. Midjourney
Three of the largest studios sued Midjourney over training on and generating their copyrighted characters. As of July 2026 the case is in discovery with no trial date set. A June 2026 magistrate order limited Midjourney's ability to probe the studios' own AI use to "consumer-facing" applications; Midjourney filed a motion to overturn that. We update this page the day a material ruling or docket event is reported. Subscribe below for the alert.
The suit, filed in the Central District of California, is about whether Midjourney's model reproduces protected characters (Marvel heroes, Minions, and other franchises) in ways that infringe. It is not a case about your generic, non-infringing images, and it does not ban Midjourney or your right to sell your own original work. Midjourney has claimed fair use and argued the studios engage in similar AI practices, which is why the discovery fight over the studios' internal AI use matters to its defense.
Why it belongs on a "can I use this commercially" page: the lawsuit is the concrete illustration of Catch 2. If a court eventually finds that generating recognizable studio characters infringes, the exposure lands on whoever generated and used the image, and Midjourney's terms mean it will not defend you. The safe operating rule is unchanged by the suit but underlined by it: do not generate recognizable copyrighted characters, trademarks, or real people for commercial use. Original, generic, or clearly transformative work is where the low-risk lane sits.
Q: Should I stop using Midjourney until the lawsuit resolves?
No, if you generate original, non-infringing work. The case targets outputs that reproduce specific protected characters, not the tool's existence or your generic images. What it should change is your prompting discipline: avoid named franchises, celebrity likenesses, and trademarked logos in anything you plan to sell. If your business model depends on generating recognizable IP, that was already legally fragile, and this suit is why. Watch this page for the ruling; the outcome could reshape the whole training-data question for image tools.
The AI image-rights change feed (newest first)
The events that moved this board in the past year. Sourced to the policy-changes.json and legal-facts.json data layers. For all platforms and modalities, see the live policy tracker.
Midjourney moves to overturn a discovery limit in the Disney, Universal & Warner Bros. case, seeking to compel the studios to disclose their internal AI use. Case remains in discovery, no trial date. Variety
Magistrate limits Midjourney's discovery of the studios' AI use to consumer-facing applications, prompting Midjourney's appeal. ARTnews
SCOTUS denies cert in Thaler v. Perlmutter, locking in the human-authorship rule. Pure AI output has no US copyright. CNBC
Disney and Universal sue Midjourney over AI training and character reproduction; Warner Bros. later joins the action. ArentFox Schiff
Get the AI Commercial-Safety Kit + Midjourney ruling alert
The one-page commercial-use checklist (which plan for your revenue, the no-generate list that keeps you in the low-risk lane, and the indemnification cheat-sheet across the major tools). Plus one alert the moment the Disney/Universal/Warner ruling drops or Midjourney changes its commercial terms. These move fast.
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How to use Midjourney commercially and stay in the safe lane
Five steps that keep you compliant and low-risk. None of them require a lawyer for ordinary generic work, though anything touching known IP does.
- Be on a paid plan before you sell anything. Free-trial images cannot be sold and belong to Midjourney. Basic at $10/month (or $8 on annual) is the entry point for commercial rights.
- Match the plan to your revenue. Under $1M gross: any paid tier owns your assets. Over $1M gross: you must be on Pro ($60) or Mega ($120).
- Do not generate protected material. No named franchise characters, no celebrity faces, no trademarked logos in commercial work. This is the single biggest infringement lever, and it is the exact subject of the Disney suit.
- Add human authorship if you need protection. Pure output is uncopyrightable. Meaningful editing, composition, and arrangement create a protectable human layer around the AI image.
- Turn on Stealth for confidential work. Generations are public by default. Client work under NDA needs Pro or Mega for private generation.
The safe lane is original work on a paid plan, not recognizable IP.The operating rule
Bottom line: can you use Midjourney commercially?
Yes. On any paid plan, Midjourney grants a broad commercial-use license, and for the vast majority of creators (solo, freelance, small studio, under $1M revenue) that is a clean yes: subscribe to Basic or higher, generate original work, sell it. The three catches only escalate as your situation gets bigger or riskier.
The compact decision:
1. Under $1M revenue, generic original work: any paid plan, low risk, sell freely.
2. Over $1M revenue: you must be on Pro or Mega to own your assets.
3. Anything touching known IP, real people, or high legal exposure: remember there is zero indemnification, the output has no copyright, and the Disney/Universal/Warner suit is the live warning shot. Stay in the original-work lane, or budget for legal review.
The full cross-tool picture (which creative tools indemnify, which grant copyright-adjacent terms, and how each modality's rules differ) lives at the general AI content checker and the indemnification matrix. For alerts across every platform's AI rules, the live policy tracker covers the whole matrix.
Frequently asked questions
Can you use Midjourney images commercially in 2026?
Yes, on any paid plan (Basic $10/month, Standard $30, Pro $60, Mega $120). Paid subscribers get a broad commercial-use license covering images they generate. Free-trial images cannot be sold and are owned by Midjourney. One catch: a company grossing over $1,000,000 per year must be on Pro or Mega to own its assets.
Does Midjourney indemnify you against copyright claims?
No. Midjourney offers no IP indemnification on any tier. It disclaims warranties and will not defend or reimburse you if a third party claims your generated image infringes. Adobe Firefly, by contrast, offers a commercial IP indemnity because it trains only on licensed and public-domain content.
Can you copyright a Midjourney image?
No. The Supreme Court declined Thaler v. Perlmutter on March 2, 2026, leaving in place the rule that pure AI output has no US copyright. You can sell a Midjourney image but cannot stop others from copying it. Copyright attaches only to substantial human creative additions such as meaningful editing, composition, or arrangement.
Does the Disney and Universal lawsuit affect my right to sell Midjourney images?
Not directly, and not today. Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. sued Midjourney over training and outputs that reproduce their copyrighted characters. As of July 2026 the case is in discovery with no trial date. It does not ban your generic, non-infringing images. The real risk it highlights is generating recognizable protected characters, which was always a copyright risk and which Midjourney will not indemnify.
Are your Midjourney generations private?
No, not by default. Generations are visible on Midjourney's public gallery unless you use Stealth Mode, which is included only on the Pro and Mega plans. On Basic and Standard, both your prompts and your images are public.
What is the cheapest way to use Midjourney commercially?
The Basic plan at $10/month, or $8/month on annual billing ($96/year), is the cheapest tier that grants a commercial-use license. It gives roughly 3.3 Fast GPU hours per month with no Relax mode, so it runs out quickly for heavy use. If you generate volume, Standard ($30) adds unlimited Relax-mode generations. Free-trial images cannot be sold.
This article is educational information, not legal advice. Laws and platform policies change; we date and source every fact and re-verify monthly, but always confirm against the linked primary source and consult a lawyer for your situation. Last full review: July 10, 2026. Next scheduled review: August 10, 2026.