The 2024 Ultimate Guide to AI Image Generators

A hands-on test of the most popular tools

Voiceover narrated by the carrot-loving author, Ken Herron

TL;DR? 

The winner for the best fast/easy/free AI image generator tool for the prompt I used for this test was Microsoft Copilot.

What? I can now generate any image from a text prompt? Cool!

Wait?! I have to register, pay, and wait (and sign myself up for more junk emails)? Not so cool.

For those of us who require a never-ending stream of great visuals, we are constantly on the hunt for high-quality, compelling images. Oh, and we want these images to be unique and we need them to be free for commercial use. 

I humbly present to you, the 2024 Ultimate Guide to AI Image Generators. In alphabetical order, I tested the 20 most popular AI tools with image generation capabilities, including the [subjectively] best image each of them generated from my text prompt, “Create a happy toaster mushroom bunny holding three orange carrots in a large field of colorful wildflowers.” I used each tool’s default settings and did one generation. 

I focused on the tools’ results, not their prices, but it’s important to note that price had no correlation to the image quality. I want a usable image – fast. I know if I have to pay for a tool I have never used, have a bad experience trying to use the tool for the first time, or it simply takes me too long to learn to use the tool, I will use a different tool.

I encourage everyone to share their good and bad experiences with text-to-image generators in the comments. Please tell me what tools I missed and I will add them to this list. Note that I excluded Midjourney and Stable Diffusion because they are not generally available right now to all users worldwide. I listed the tools that wouldn’t allow me create an image for free at the bottom of the article.

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123RF AI Image Generator

https://www.123rf.com/ai-image-generator/

Do I have to register?

Yes.

Do I have to pay?

No.

Rating/Comments

3/10 🥕 – It’s not awful (obviously, the bunny ate the three carrots), but it’s not good. The mushroom cap is fine, but where’s the toaster? Note that the tool would not let me download the image, so I screencapped it.

Would I use this image?

No.

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Adobe Express Mobile Beta

https://helpx.adobe.com/express/using/express-mobile-beta.html

Do I have to register?

Yes.

Do I have to pay?

No.

Rating/Comments

4/10 🥕 – Can an image be both fun and frightening? No toaster, no mushroom, but arguably the three carrots and a lot of enthusiasm.

Would I use this image?

No.

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Adobe Firefly

https://firefly.adobe.com/inspire/images

Do I have to register?

Yes.

Do I have to pay?

No.

Rating/Comments

7/10 🥕 – This is a tool that makes me think that if I had the time to generate multiple images, it could have come up with something amazing. Two carrots instead of three, but they’re sprouting wildflowers.

Would I use this image?

Yes.

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Aitubo

https://aitubo.ai/

Do I have to register?

Yes.

Do I have to pay?

No. 

Rating/Comments

5/10 🥕 – It’s not a toaster mushroom bunny, but it’s high-quality and he is proud of his carrot toast.

Would I use this image?

No.

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Canva

https://www.canva.com/ai-image-generator/

Do I have to register?

Yes.

Do I have to pay?

You can try it for free. You get 50 credits, and each image you generate uses one credit. The pricing is here.

Rating/Comments

2/10 🥕 – Several of the images I generated had the “mutant AI” vibe. This was one of them. It is still hard for some AI to render appropriate facial expressions (and number of arms!). I couldn’t find a download button, so I screencapped the image.

Would I use this image?

No.

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Chooch

https://imagechatweb.chooch.ai/home

Do I have to register?

Yes.

Do I have to pay?

No.

Rating/Comments

4/10 🥕 – A toast-colored bunny holding a piece of (orange??) toast. Ignoring the mutant carrot and lack of mushrooms, it’s not what I asked for, but it’s not bad compared to some of the others on this list.

Would I use this image?

No.

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⭐️WINNER⭐️