Midjourney V7: Faster, smarter, more realistic
Midjourney has unveiled its long-awaited V7 image generation model – its first major upgrade in over a year. Now available in public alpha, V7 introduces significant enhancements in both visual quality and user functionality, signaling a bold new phase for one of the most widely-used AI image tools on the web.
V7 features a completely rebuilt architecture, delivering much sharper results with vastly improved detail, texture realism, and object coherence. One of the most noticeable improvements is how well it renders complex body parts like hands and fingers – long-time challenges for AI image generators. Materials like fabric, skin, and ceramics also appear more realistic, offering creators better tools for artistic expression.
A standout feature of V7 is Draft Mode, which allows users to rapidly iterate on visual concepts. Draft Mode renders images 10 times faster and at half the cost of standard jobs, making it ideal for creative brainstorming. While images in Draft Mode are lower quality, they can be easily enhanced to full resolution with a click.
Another major addition is personalization by default. Upon starting with V7, users are asked to rate around 200 images to build a custom aesthetic profile. This enables the model to better understand individual preferences and generate visuals aligned with each user’s style. Personalization can be toggled on or off at any time.
Midjourney’s CEO David Holz describes V7 as “a totally different architecture” with smarter text prompt interpretation and significantly improved visual coherence.
The model launches in two modes:
- Turbo: Offers fast, high-quality results at double the cost.
- Relax: Slower but cost-efficient rendering for less time-sensitive projects.
Some features – like upscaling, retexturing, and editing – currently fall back to V6, but updates are expected soon. The company also teased a major upcoming feature: a character and object reference tool for V7, likely to arrive within the next two months.
Midjourney, once solely available via Discord, now has a modern web app interface, making it more accessible to new users. Despite ongoing legal debates about AI training on copyrighted content, the platform remains a central tool in digital art, concept design, and even AI video creation workflows.