What is Stable Diffusion
“Stable Diffusion” is a deep learning text-to-image model released in 2022. It is primarily used to generate detailed images based on text descriptions, although it can also be applied to other tasks such as repairing images, extending images, and generating image-to-image transformations guided by text prompts. It was developed by the CompVis group at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and researchers at Runway, with computational donations provided by Stability AI, and uses training data from non-profit organizations.
Stable Diffusion is a latent diffusion model, a type of deep generative artificial neural network. Its code and model weights have been publicly released and can run on most consumer hardware equipped with at least 8GB of VRAM. This marks a departure from previous proprietary text-to-image models (such as DALL-E and Midjourney) that could only be accessed via cloud services.
Stable Diffusion vs. Midjourney: Which Is Better
Midjourney employs a proprietary machine learning model, while Stable Diffusion’s source code is freely available. You can download and run Stable Diffusion on your own computer, provided it meets the requirements, whereas Midjourney can only be used with an internet connection. Midjourney can only be accessed through the Discord chat app, while Stable Diffusion can be used via a variety of online and offline apps.
The minimum cost for Midjourney is $10 per month, with limited image generations. You can run Stable Diffusion on your own hardware for free or pay a nominal fee for online services. You can use Stable Diffusion to fill or modify only certain parts of an image. As of June 2023, Midjourney has also gained inpainting and outpainting via the Zoom Out button.
Stable Diffusion supports thousands of downloadable custom models, while you only have a handful to choose from with Midjourney. Midjourney may seem easier to use since it offers fewer settings compared to Stable Diffusion. However, the latter offers many more advanced features and customization options.
The pricing of Midjourney and Stable Diffusion is completely opposite. Midjourney, as a for-profit company, unsurprisingly imposes some limitations on how often you can use it. Even with a paid Midjourney subscription, you only get a limited amount of free image generation hours each month. The $30 and higher plans do offer unlimited hours of relaxed mode, but that means you’ll have to wait several minutes for each task. Moreover, there’s no free tier or trial whatsoever.
Where to download and use stable diffusion
Stable diffusion official website
https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release
stable diffusion github
https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui
stable diffusion online
https://stablediffusionweb.com/