How Much Money Can You Actually Make Selling Midjourney Art?

Midjourney is more than just an avenue for your creativity. With this AI model, you can easily turn your ideas into profit. But how exactly? And, more importantly, how much can you make out of it? It's going to take a lot of time, but if this is a path you want to go down it can pay back tenfold.

John Angelo Yap

Updated November 2, 2023

Reading Time: 8 minutes

I haven’t been able to stop using Midjourney since its release. There’s just something about turning my ideas into tangible art that’s so addicting. But lately, I’ve been thinking:

Can I turn my ideas into money with Midjourney?

On the surface, selling AI-generated art might seem like easy money. You type in a few words, let the machine work its magic, then put the image up for sale. But the reality is much more complicated. There’s a lot of things to consider, including how and where you’ll make your money.

Even then, earnings may start slowly. But with persistence, Midjourney can become a viable income stream. In this article, I’ll be talking about some of the ways I’ve found to monetize your ideas and prompts, and — most importantly — how much money you should expect.

How Can You Make Money With Midjourney Art

Midjourney As A Service

Midjourney has an accessible price, which means almost anyone can make AI art. However, only a select few are good enough to sell their services as a Midjourney artist. If you’re one of them, you can make bank with this method.

But first, where?

The easiest method is through service marketplaces such as Upwork and Fiverr. You can also use social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter to advertise your work.

Instagram Midjourney

I also found luck just by posting my personal creations in the official Midjourney subreddit. This is an insanely easy way to build your reputation within the community.

Once people become aware of your skills, they’re likely to seek you out, even if you’re not advertising your service.

Reddit Midjourney

You can also make your own platform to sell AI art. However, I advise picking a niche and building a portfolio first. This would help broaden your audience to include people who aren’t looking for Midjourney artists specifically. Take Ulises for example.

Own Platform For Midjourney

This design studio focuses on architecture and interior design. Doing so helps establish their expertise in the subject matter and builds trust with potential customers.

So, how much money can you make with this method?

The best thing about this is that you set your own price! Just make sure that you can walk the talk. There are also other factors to consider, such as the complexity of the project and the niche, but these are the usual prices for marketplaces:

  • Fiverr. Starts at around $15 per task. Professional services can reach upwards of $250, depending on the use case. (Median: $15 to $20)
  • Upwork. $5 to $250 per hour, depending on your expertise and niche. (Median: $20 per hour)

Print On Demand

Once you have a portfolio of your Midjourney art, you can also sell prints and merchandise online. There are many print-on-demand services that make it easy to sell your art without worrying about inventory and fulfillment. 

Print-on-demand is one of the most profitable services out there, and it’s only becoming more popular by the second. There are many print-on-demand platforms out there, but I suggest using sites such as Redbubble, Printify, Etsy, and Teelaunch because of their loyal user base.

Print On Demand: Redbubble & Midjourney

Apart from creating, tweaking, and advertising your Midjourney artwork, this is largely passive income — which makes it an awesome and profitable side gig for busy people. All it takes is an hour of your day in exchange for profit.

So, how much money can you make with this method?

Your profits heavily depend on what you’re selling. These are the standard product prices for Midjourney-based products on Redbubble and Etsy:

  • Mugs: $5 to $20
  • Shirts: $15 to $40
  • Stickers: $1 to $3
  • Posters: $12 to $30
  • Pillow Cases: $5 to $15
  • Phone Cases: $12 to $25
  • Postcards and Greeting Cards: $0.5 to $3

Selling NFTs

NFTs are a relatively new way to own and sell digital art, but they’re still pretty controversial. Many cite issues such as environmental concerns and lack of utility as the primary reasons why people shouldn’t buy or promote NFTs. There’s also a lack of regulation within the space, which makes them prone to fraud and market manipulation.

However, if you do your due diligence in research, selling your Midjourney art as NFTs could also be effective and high-value. Platforms such as OpenSea and Rarible still have a strong community.

OpenSea

This comes with some downsides though, including the complexity of minting and promoting your NFTs. Your sales also rests on your reputation in the NFT & Cryptocurrency space, which is notoriously hard to penetrate.

So, how much money can you make with this method?

NFTs are known to be extremely volatile, so you shouldn’t expect consistent profits. However, you can expect around $150 per NFT in OpenSea and Nifty when the prices are converted from ETH.

As Stock Photos

The stock photo industry is a multi-billion dollar market that you can take advantage of with Midjourney. Similar to print-on-demand, this method is also mostly passive. No need for marketing, you just need to use the proper keywords so people can find your assets.

The perfect marketplace for Midjourney stock images is Adobe Stock. Its direct integration with Adobe products such as Photoshop, Premiere, and Illustrator makes your assets accessible to graphic designers and content creators everywhere. They’re also very inclusive of AI art, as long as they’re properly labeled.

ADobe Stock

It’s important to note that not all stock websites allow AI art, like Shutterstock and Getty Images. So make sure you read their terms and agreements first before you upload to avoid getting banned.

So, how much money can you make with this method?

Adobe Stock has a 33% royalty rate, which is a percentage of the net price of the license. This means that your earnings depend on the asset type and the customer's subscription plan. To be more specific, here’s an estimate of what you’ll earn with them:

Licensee's Adobe Stock Plan

Your Earnings Per Download

3 Credits Per Month

Monthly Subscriber

$3.30

10 Credits Per Month

Monthly Subscriber

$1.65

10 Credits Per Month

Annual Subscriber

$0.99

25 Credits Per Month

Monthly Subscriber

$0.92

25 Credits Per Month

Annual Subscriber

$0.66

40 Credits Per Month

Monthly Subscriber

$0.82

40 Credits Per Month

Annual Subscriber

$0.66

350 Credits Per Month

$0.33 to $0.40

Minimum Guaranteed

Extended License

On Demand

$26.40

Extended License

Subscription

$21.12

Offer Your Midjourney Expertise

There’s lots of ways you can monetize your Midjourney expertise, but I’ll be focusing on these three:

Sell Prompts

You don’t even need to directly sell Midjourney artworks. Some buyers seek high quality prompts because of its potential. PromptBase is the most popular marketplace for prompts, with more than 11,000 potential buyers as of December 2022.

So, how much money can you make with this method?

The cost of prompts in PromptBase hovers around $1.99 to $9.99.

Make A Promptbook

There’s a growing demand for prompt engineering because of AI’s stubbornness.

Mastering Midjourney takes a lot of time and practice, something that some people can’t afford. Creating and selling a promptbook could be tiresome at first but, once it’s on Amazon or any other marketplace, you can expect a steady stream of income with little to no effort.

Amazon Promptbooks

So, how much money can you make with this method?

  • Digital Copy: $5.99 to $12.99.
  • Paperback: $12.99 to $39.99.
  • Hardbound: $14.99 to $49.99

Create Midjourney Courses

If you’re confident in your skills, you can also create beginner and intermediate courses to show how you’re fully utilizing Midjourney. This is possibly the hardest method of them all, but it’s also the most rewarding. You need to create a lesson plan, content, and even exercises in some cases. 

But always keep these two things in mind: People are willing to pay for information and word gets around. Once you’ve established your reputation as an expert Midjourney teacher, you’re always going to have a customer. Some of them even tip well. Really well.

So, how much money can you make with this method?

In Udemy, Midjourney courses usually range from $49.99 to $79.99 without promos and referral links. As for the revenue share, you can receive 97% of all profits if the buyer used a referral link or 37% if the buyer purchased your course by browsing the Udemy marketplace.

The Bottom Line

There’s a lot of money to be made in Midjourney. You just need to know where to look.

But you can’t get there without a decent portfolio. Midjourney isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. My biggest advice is to create as many Midjourney artworks as you can and curate them. Promote your art everywhere, especially on Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit. Join contests if you can.

Once you’re well-known in the Midjourney space, I promise you that the money will come, no matter which method you pick above. You just have to get really good at using it and then tailor it in a direction that people will want to pay for.

Oh, and one more thing: Prices listed here are mostly estimates from publicly available information. You also have to consider other factors such as outliers and platform royalties (and the time cost you're putting into all of this!).

Once you’re fully aware of all these, you’re all set to make money with Midjourney. Good luck!

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Written by John Angelo Yap

Hi, I'm Angelo. I'm currently an undergraduate student studying Software Engineering. Now, you might be wondering, what is a computer science student doing writing for Gold Penguin? I took up studying computer science because it was practical and because I was good at it. But, if I had the chance, I'd be writing for a career. Building worlds and adjectivizing nouns for no other reason other than they sound good. And that's why I'm here.

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