AI Image Generators for Beginners — A No-Jargon Guide

You've seen AI-generated images everywhere — on social media, in articles, even in ads. Maybe you want to try making your own but don't know where to start. Maybe the whole thing seems complicated or intimidating.

Good news: it's not. If you can type a sentence, you can make AI images. Let's walk through everything from scratch.

How AI Image Generation Works (Simple Version)

You type a description of what you want. The AI generates an image based on that description. That's it.

The description you type is called a "prompt." It can be as simple as "a cat sitting on a rainbow" or as detailed as "a watercolor painting of a tabby cat sitting on a rainbow, soft lighting, whimsical style, pastel colors."

The AI has been trained on millions of images and has learned patterns — what cats look like, what rainbows look like, what watercolor paintings look like. It combines those patterns based on your prompt to create something new.

You don't need to understand the technical details. You just need to describe what you want.

Choosing Your First Tool

There are dozens of AI image generators. As a beginner, you want something that's:

1. Browser-based (no software to install)
2. Simple interface (not 50 buttons and sliders)
3. Affordable to experiment with (you'll make a lot of throwaway images while learning)

Here are the best starting points:

Myjourney

This is our tool, so bias acknowledged — but we genuinely built it with beginners in mind. You open the generator, type a prompt, and get an image. That's the entire workflow.

It costs $0.03 per image, which means you can experiment with 30+ prompts for about a dollar. No subscription means you're not committed to anything. If you try it once and forget about it for three months, you haven't wasted any money.

Bing Image Creator

Free with a Microsoft account. Uses DALL-E 3, which is good at understanding plain English descriptions. The content filter can be overly strict (it'll reject some harmless prompts), but for basic use it's a solid free option.

ChatGPT (with DALL-E)

If you already have ChatGPT, you can ask it to generate images right in the conversation. The nice part is you can describe what you want conversationally — "make me a logo for a coffee shop called Bean There" — and it'll handle the prompt engineering.

Leonardo AI

Has a free tier with daily credits. More options than you need as a beginner, but the interface guides you through the basics. Good for people who want to graduate to more advanced features later.

Writing Your First Prompt

The prompt is everything. Here's how to think about it:

Start Simple

Your first prompt should be dead simple. Try:

A golden retriever wearing sunglasses at the beach

That's it. Don't overthink it. See what comes out.

Add Details Gradually

Once you see the basic result, start adding specifics:

A golden retriever wearing aviator sunglasses at a tropical beach, sunset lighting, photographed with a DSLR, shallow depth of field

Each detail nudges the image in a direction. Sunset lighting changes the color palette. "DSLR" and "shallow depth of field" push it toward photorealism.

Describe the Style

The biggest lever you have is style. Compare:

• "A castle on a hill" → generic, could look like anything
• "A castle on a hill, Studio Ghibli style" → animated, whimsical
• "A castle on a hill, dark fantasy oil painting" → dramatic, painterly
• "A castle on a hill, minimalist vector illustration" → clean, graphic

Same subject, totally different images.

Common Beginner Mistakes

Being too vague. "Something cool" gives the AI nothing to work with. Be specific about what you want to see.

Being too wordy. You don't need to write a paragraph. The AI handles 10-20 well-chosen words better than 100 rambling ones.

Expecting perfection on the first try. Even experienced users generate 3-5 images before getting one they love. Iteration is normal. At $0.03/image on Myjourney, five attempts costs fifteen cents — that's fine.

Forgetting about composition. Telling the AI where things are in the frame helps: "close-up portrait," "wide landscape shot," "bird's eye view," "centered composition."

What AI Image Generators Are Good At

• Concept art and illustrations. Brainstorming visual ideas quickly.
• Social media content. Unique images for posts, stories, thumbnails.
• Mood boards. Generating visual references for projects.
• Fun and experimentation. "What would a Victorian robot tea party look like?"
• Product mockups. Rough visual concepts before investing in real photography.

What They're NOT Good At (Yet)

Being honest here because nobody else seems to be:

• Text in images. AI still struggles with readable text. Letters get mangled, words get misspelled. It's gotten better but it's not reliable.
• Exact specifications. "Put exactly 5 red apples on the table" might give you 4, or 6, or 5 with one that's orange. AI doesn't count well.
• Consistent characters. Getting the same character to look identical across multiple images is tricky. Some tools are working on this, but it's not solved.
• Hands. The meme is real. AI hands have gotten much better in 2025-2026, but they still occasionally produce extra fingers or weird poses.

These limitations matter less than you'd think for most uses. But don't expect pixel-perfect control.

Getting Started Today

Here's a five-minute path to your first AI image:

1. Go to Myjourney (or any tool from the list above)
2. Type a simple prompt: "A cozy coffee shop interior on a rainy day, warm lighting, watercolor style"
3. Hit generate and wait — usually 10-30 seconds
4. Look at the result. Like it? Download it. Don't like it? Tweak the prompt and try again.
5. Experiment. Change the style. Add details. Remove details. See how each change affects the output.

That's genuinely all there is to it. The learning curve is in writing better prompts, and that just comes with practice.

Beyond the Basics

Once you're comfortable generating images, you'll naturally want to explore:

• Different models — each AI model has different strengths. Some are better at photorealism, others at illustration.
• Aspect ratios — landscape, portrait, square. Matters a lot for the composition.
• Video generation — some tools (including Myjourney at $0.50/clip) now generate short video clips from text prompts.
• Image-to-image — using an existing image as a starting point and modifying it with AI.

But none of that matters on day one. Start with text-to-image, learn what works, and expand from there.

Browse our community gallery for inspiration — seeing what other people create (and the prompts they used) is the fastest way to level up your own work.

The best prompt is the one you actually type. Go make something.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need technical skills for AI image generation?

No. Modern AI image generators are designed for anyone to use. On Myjourney, you simply type a text description of what you want and the AI creates the image — no coding, no design experience, no software installation needed. You'll get better results as you learn prompting techniques, but your first usable image is literally 60 seconds away. Browse our community gallery to see prompts others have used for inspiration.

What's the best AI image generator for beginners?

Myjourney is ideal for beginners thanks to its simple interface, no-subscription pay-per-use model (you won't waste money while learning), and access to multiple top models so you can experiment. Other beginner-friendly options include Microsoft Designer (free, integrated with Bing) and Leonardo AI (generous free tier with guided creation). Avoid complex local setups like Stable Diffusion until you're comfortable with prompting basics.

How much does AI image generation cost?

It ranges from completely free to about $0.03-0.20 per image on most platforms. Myjourney offers 100 free credits at signup, then pay-per-use at roughly $0.03 per image — a $5 credit pack gets you about 165 images. Subscription services like MidJourney cost $10-60/month. Running Stable Diffusion locally is free after the initial GPU investment ($300-1000+). For beginners, start with free credits to learn, then decide if pay-per-use or subscription fits your volume. See our full pricing breakdown.