What is Microsoft Image Creator?

Microsoft Image Creator is Microsoft's AI image generation tool, now powered by MAI-Image-2, the company's latest image model. It is available free through Bing and Microsoft Copilot, and it has quietly become one of the most capable AI image generators available anywhere. Independent benchmarks now rank MAI-Image-2 third globally, behind only the paid tiers of Midjourney and Adobe Firefly.

That is a significant shift. For a long time, Microsoft's image tools were serviceable but not standout. MAI-Image-2 changes that picture considerably.

The big differentiator: readable text in images

Most AI image generators fail badly at one specific task: putting readable text inside an image. Ask Midjourney to generate a poster with "Grand Opening" written across it and you will likely get something that looks vaguely like letters but is garbled and unusable. It has been a known weakness of AI image generation for years.

Microsoft Image Creator is genuinely strong at this. MAI-Image-2 can produce images containing readable, properly spelled text as part of the visual. This makes it particularly useful for:

Social media graphics with captions or slogans
Marketing banners and promotional images
Event flyers and announcements
Product labels and packaging mockups

For business owners creating marketing materials, this is not a small thing. It means you can generate a finished, usable graphic rather than something you still need to take into Canva or Photoshop to fix.

How it compares

Midjourney produces the highest quality artistic images available from any AI tool. If you need photorealistic portraits, dramatic landscapes, or stylised illustrations with a distinctive aesthetic, Midjourney is still the gold standard. It costs from $10/month and takes some effort to learn. It also cannot reliably produce readable text.

Canva AI is the easiest option for non-designers. If you are already in Canva building social posts or presentations, the built-in AI image tools work well enough without any learning curve. But the output quality does not match dedicated image generation tools, and text in images remains unreliable.

Microsoft Image Creator sits in an interesting middle ground. It is free, it is fast, it is integrated into tools millions of people already use, and it handles text in images better than either of the above. For UK businesses that need quick, usable graphics without a subscription, it is the most practical choice available right now.

Integration with Copilot and Microsoft 365

Microsoft Image Creator is built directly into Microsoft Copilot. If you use Copilot in Windows 11, Microsoft Edge, or the Copilot web app, you can generate images without going anywhere else. For Microsoft 365 subscribers, this integration will become increasingly seamless as Microsoft continues to embed Copilot across its suite of tools.

You do not need to be a Microsoft 365 user to access Image Creator. Anyone with a free Microsoft account can use it at bing.com/images/create.

What it is not good for

Microsoft Image Creator is not the right choice if you need highly stylised artistic output or consistent characters across multiple images. Midjourney leads on pure image quality, and tools like Stable Diffusion offer more control for advanced users. For straightforward business graphics, though, it competes at the top of the market.

How to get set up

Go to bing.com/images/create or open Microsoft Copilot
Sign in with a free Microsoft account (or create one if you do not have one)
Type a description of the image you want in the text box and press Enter
Choose from the generated options and download the one you want

Cost: Free Time to get started: Under 2 minutes

Microsoft Image Creator