AI image generation compared: Copilot vs Firefly vs Midjourney vs DALL-E

AI image generation has matured significantly in the past 12 months. What used to feel like a gimmick, slightly blurry faces and impossible hands, has become a genuinely useful tool for business marketing. But not all image generators are equal, and choosing the wrong one wastes time and money.

This guide compares four tools that matter for UK businesses in 2026: Microsoft Image Creator (Copilot), Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, and DALL-E via ChatGPT. Each has a distinct strength, and the right choice depends on what you are actually trying to produce.

Microsoft Image Creator (powered by MAI-Image-2)

What it is best at: General business graphics, social media images, and, critically, images that include readable text.

Most AI image generators fail at text. Ask them to create a promotional banner with words on it and you get something that looks vaguely letter-shaped but is garbled and unusable. Microsoft's MAI-Image-2 model solves this. It can produce images with properly spelled, readable text as part of the visual, which makes it far more practical for marketing materials than most of its competitors.

Independent benchmarks now rank MAI-Image-2 third globally among image generation models. For a free tool, that is a remarkable position.

What it costs: Free with a Microsoft account. No subscription required.

Who it is for: Any business that needs quick, usable marketing graphics without spending money. Particularly useful for social media posts, promotional images, and anything that needs text baked into the image. Also the obvious choice if you are already using Microsoft 365 or Copilot.

Limitations: Not the strongest for highly stylised or artistic output. Consistent characters across multiple images is difficult. If you need a specific aesthetic or photorealistic portraits, look elsewhere.

Adobe Firefly

What it is best at: Commercially safe images for business use, and seamless integration with Adobe Creative Cloud.

Firefly is the only major AI image generator trained exclusively on licensed and public domain content. That matters for businesses. If you use an image generated by Midjourney or DALL-E in a commercial context, you are in uncertain legal territory regarding copyright. Adobe has designed Firefly from the ground up to be safe for commercial use, and they offer an indemnity to enterprise customers who use Firefly-generated content.

If you already use Photoshop, Illustrator, or Adobe Express, Firefly is built directly into your existing workflow. You can generate images, edit them, extend backgrounds, and remove objects all within the same tool.

What it costs: Included in most Adobe Creative Cloud plans. Standalone access via Adobe Express, which has a free tier with limited credits and a paid plan from around £10/month.

Who it is for: Businesses already using Adobe tools. Anyone who needs commercially safe images and wants peace of mind about copyright. Graphic designers and marketing teams who work in Creative Cloud every day.

Limitations: The output quality is strong but not quite at the artistic peak of Midjourney. It is also only compelling if you are in the Adobe ecosystem. For businesses not already paying for Creative Cloud, it adds cost rather than convenience.

Midjourney

What it is best at: The highest quality, most visually striking images of any AI tool available.

Midjourney is still the benchmark for image quality. If you need a photorealistic product render, a dramatic lifestyle image, a stylised illustration with a specific aesthetic, or anything that needs to look genuinely impressive, Midjourney is the tool. Nothing else consistently matches it for pure visual quality.

It has a steeper learning curve than the other tools on this list. You access it through Discord, which is unusual for a business tool, and getting the best results requires learning how to write effective prompts. There is a reasonably active community and plenty of guides available.

What it costs: From $10/month for 200 image generations. The $30/month plan removes usage limits. Prices are in dollars, roughly £8 and £24/month at current exchange rates.

Who it is for: Businesses that need genuinely high-quality images for campaigns, brand materials, or anything where visual impact matters. Worth the learning curve if your marketing relies on compelling visuals. Not the right choice if you just need quick functional graphics, the free tools handle that more efficiently.

Limitations: No free tier. Requires Discord. Text in images is unreliable. Images are generated in public channels unless you pay for a private plan.

DALL-E (via ChatGPT)

What it is best at: Convenience, and getting an image done without leaving your ChatGPT workflow.

DALL-E is OpenAI's image generation model, available through ChatGPT. If you are already using ChatGPT Plus for writing, research, and analysis, generating an image is simply a matter of asking. You do not switch tabs or log in to another tool. You type "create an image of X" and it appears in the conversation.

The quality is solid rather than exceptional. DALL-E produces clean, usable images that are good enough for most business purposes. It handles a range of styles reasonably well.

What it costs: Included in ChatGPT Plus at £20/month. If you are already subscribed for the AI features, DALL-E comes with it at no extra cost.

Who it is for: ChatGPT Plus subscribers who occasionally need images and want the path of least resistance. If you are paying for Plus anyway, using DALL-E for images is a sensible way to get more value from the subscription.

Limitations: Not at the quality level of Midjourney. Text in images is unreliable. Not worth paying for ChatGPT Plus solely for the image generation when free alternatives produce comparable results.

Quick decision guide

If you need the highest quality artistic images: Use Midjourney.

If you need commercially safe images for business use: Use Adobe Firefly.

If you need images with readable text, or want something free: Use Microsoft Image Creator.

If you already use ChatGPT Plus and just need a quick image: Use DALL-E.

If you are starting from scratch and want to spend nothing: Start with Microsoft Image Creator. It is genuinely good, it is free, and it handles the most common business use case, social media graphics with text, better than any of the paid alternatives.

A note on the legal landscape

The copyright status of AI-generated images remains unsettled in UK law. The current position is that AI-generated images may not attract copyright protection in the same way human-created work does. Adobe Firefly is the safest commercial choice specifically because of how it was trained. If you are using AI images in campaigns, branding, or commercial materials, it is worth understanding the tool you are using and what its terms of service say about commercial rights. This is an area where the rules are still being written.