Make Money Selling AI Images From MidJourney

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how I'm generating some (fairly) passive income by selling images made with MidJourney. Watch until the end for a tip that will save you a TON of time.
Note: Please make sure you read Adobe's terms of service because, with rapidly changing landscape of AI, they are likely to change quickly! There is now a checkbox for "generative art" that was not there when I made this video. They now require specifically disclosing AI art. This video was created before the terms were updated. Please read their updated terms here: helpx.adobe.com/stock/contrib...
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Tools Mentioned:
- Adobe Stock: contributor.stock.adobe.com/
- MidJourney: www.futuretools.io/tools/midj...
- Gigapixel Upscaler: www.futuretools.io/tools/giga...
- Free Upscaler: www.futuretools.io/tools/ai-i...
- Wirestock: futuretools.link/wirestock
Outro music generated by Mubert mubert.com/render
#AI #MidJourney #MakeMoneyOnline

[@mreflow]

*Note:* Please make sure you read Adobe's terms of service because, with the rapidly changing landscape of AI, they are likely to change quickly! There is now a checkbox for "generative art" that was not there when I made this video. They now require specifically disclosing AI art. This video was created before the terms were updated. Please read their updated terms here: helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/generative-ai-content.html

[@KarelleDIY]

This comment should be pinned at the top

[@Icedanon]

I love how all these youtubers have one successful day and are immediately like "time to make a youtube video about it."

[@biocykle]

That's their job

[@ells1803]

That’s their job

[@marfclaire3006]

This is awesome, thank you Matt. Question - do you know how I could change my png file to jpg with a maximum size of 45MB and minimum resolution of 4mp. I appears when I try to load my art to Wirestock it tells me that they do not meet the requirements. However, I am using the same files that I loaded into Adobe stock successfully.

[@Braddock1976]

Cool beans, got the hookup with the AI income database. Good info. Stuff I have been working on. Now a lot easier. slow study, so I need the AI second brain to do. Now to hone it down to a 123 and start making some greens for the effort. Thanks guy. Will keep in touch.

[@scottymitch1]

Love that one of your uploaded Adobe Stock images had at least 6 fingers! Aaaaaah AI.

[@ofelipebrasileiro]

Thanks for the tips, Matt! it helped a lot...congratulations for your channel and for the content! success!

[@richhaagenson]

Great video! How long does it take to review images? Mine have been in review for a week

[@quotivation47]

Great stuff. New subscriber. Thanks for all this good info.

[@Jose-gv7ec]

hello! Thank you very much for the video, do you know of any cropping program for mac like the one you used for the borders that is this intuitive and fast? That the option to crop the image is as easy as the one you use. Greetings and thank you!

[@mreflow]

On a Mac you can open an image with the Preview app. Select the section you want to crop. Go up to "Tools" in the menu and select "Crop." It's built into all Macs. :)

[@paganotommaso]

Hello Matt, I've tried uploading some images and they got accepted, the problem is that stock won't accept my image with fake persons faces.. how do I fix it? I obviously can't do any documents for the person because it doesn't exist, I tried to contact Adobe but didn't find any way to contact a real adobe employee that would have helped me out

[@wttepchaine553]

Hello, Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and tips !

[@hammouminator]

Thanks for all the great work you're doing , I'm following almost every step and enjoying every second of it , greetings from overseas

[@ronskiuk]

Thanks for the video. I noticed on Adobe terms it says everything has to be listed as Illustrations even midjourney 'Photos'. "Identify any generative AI art as illustration, even if it looks like a photograph - only content primarily created using a camera can be submitted as photos. "

[@Ricktaka1986]

Hello! Thanks for the tips, i'm based in the UK and i have an adobe account, opened it up on adobe stcok contributor and it looks different to your page and there are no headers with the option for insights? am i in the wrong place?

[@markb4459]

Hi Matt, great vid. Can you please advise what wording in my prompt is needed to get and "overhead view, looking straight down view" of my image? I need different terrains viewed from the sky looking downward. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[@Gotsta]

birds eye view

[@platinumdiapercakes]

I just saw some use "drone view", that might work as well

[@markb4459]

Thank you guys.

[@xxwoman]

That Free Upscaler's TOS says this: "You grant to us a royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable and transferable license to use that Content including to reproduce, distribute, create derivative works, display, and perform it for any purpose in connection with the Service and our business, including for the purpose of promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service. This license is perpetual and authorizes us to make your Content available only for personal and non-commercial purposes, and only as permitted by the functionality of the Service."

[@Jackie-pm2gu]

Thank you for this. I've been selling images I created with DAZ 3D on Adobe Stock, but I didn't know they allowed AI. I think some of the other stock photo places don't allow it yet, and I don't want to rock the boat with them. They'll likely change their policies down the road since this looks like the direction the future is travelling.

[@joseph-the-seventh]

No they are deciding to ban it because it’s terrible quality

[@hazard7768]

​@@joseph-the-seventhupscale it using upscale softwares

[@capitolrecords160]

Thank you so much for this substantial information.

[@jeffgerke2162]

This is so cool. Thank you, Matt! Hey, two questions. One, if I upload images to one or more of these sites, can I still use them too? Two, you said Adobe Stock was the only site to let you use AI Generative art, but then you used that wire-thing site to upload to Shutterstock, etc. Do all those sites know it's AI art and are okay with it? (Bonus question: Did you have to create an account on all those other sites first?) Thanks again!

[@mreflow]

1. Yes - You can still use the images that you generate for yourself 2. When you use Wirestock, they disclose that it's AI art in the description. It's up to the stock photo site to approve or deny it. Although, personally, I'm just going to stick to Adobe Stock for the most part (based on comments in this video's thread) just to avoid issues. 3. I didn't have to create accounts on all of those platforms. Wirestock uses their account and sells on your behalf (at least that's how I believe it works)

[@SoundChaser_]

@@mreflow how to tell Wirestock to upload my photos to Adobe ? Where I should to configure it ?

[@dustmicks1]

super refreshing! someone who has really tried something they are talking about and showing real results. not this make a million dollars a day using ai. Thank you for the video

[@GolpokothokRaktim]

I used so many AI tools. As a new graphic designer my most favourite one is BlueWillow. I created amazing images with BlueWillow and it's super cool and most importantly completely free

[@lkane9346]

I love your videos!Very instructive.You’re great!✌️

[@alas2dust]

Thanks for the video! Would you recommend Adobe Stock or Wirestock at this point, or both?

[@mreflow]

I'd just use Adobe Stock personally. There's too much of a grey area around the other platforms that Wirestock submits to.

[@alas2dust]

@@mreflow Thanks for your response man! How's it going with Adobe Stock for you today, if I may ask?

[@AlexAlcyone]

I tried a ton of the image upscalers and settled on the exact same ones as you, upscale media for free and gigapixel for paid. For the free one I got best results by doing 2x with enhance and then 2x without. Great tutorial TY

[@silvermushroom-gamifyevery6430]

Newbie here, why not just vectorize an image with Adobe illustratior, if you have access to that?

[@TehBananaBread]

@@silvermushroom-gamifyevery6430 Thats not how it works at all.

[@extended_e]

@@TehBananaBread IF image has clear edges and solid colors(eg vectorised well) vectorisation allows unlimited scaling. So he ha a point

[@aeit999]

@@extended_e no he dont, you loose too much detail and it's too much hand tweaking. Time consuming. Time = money

[@aeit999]

W tf are you paying for some shitty software that uses free open source models that are available for anyone on git xD

[@marcusguimaraes1701]

Thanks for another great video, detailed, transparent and informative ✌️ Keep posting pls

[@mreflow]

Thank you. A lot more on the way. :)

[@MechanicallyInclinedSprinkler]

How much does adobe charge for stock photos and what percent do you get from the sell? Do you have to remove any watermarks?

[@LuckyDogBreaks]

How do you make specific aspect ratios for images in topaz? Was wondering how to make 4:5 or 1:1 aspect ratios

[@mreflow]

I always crop to the proper size using the process I showed in the video before upscaling.

[@AlexAlcyone]

I did this, made and uploaded 89 images to Adobe stock... all 89 were approved (and I thought they were damn good). I got 5 sales in 7 weeks..... made $4.47. Feel like it was a huge waste of time.

[@Lily-yg4dl]

Subscribed! Very insightful.thanks.

[@WanderFilledWorldofMelee]

Good general info outside of stock photo selling

[@aktechhubspot2035]

"The difference between art masterpiece and garbage is of a mistake". ~AK

[@bernadettblummer108]

If you start with a generative art but do some post work on it in Photoshop or Illustrator, would that still require the AI art tag? Or could you opt for mixed media or whatever you wish...?

[@Jaysunn]

It would technically still require it. But who would know, you know?

[@Hainesi]

Yes

[@sdvidpix]

done. Got my first 3 images approved and listed on Adobe Stock. Thanks for the awesome video!

[@shrv-pro]

Some earnings?

[@siddplayzz1477]

@@shrv-pro prolly not from 3, u prolly need a couple hundred to start making some real money after some months

[@greyhoundgamer9621]

through midjourney?

[@dieauferstehung]

@@siddplayzz1477 noone getting rich from this bs because why should someone pay for stuff they can get fo free

[@peeptbgod7047]

how did this go

[@yarinamiroshnichenko5897]

Hey !!What plan did you buy from Topaz Labs ?

[@scuffedcomedy4819]

Great video! Keep em coming!

[@maddiem5921]

Lots of great tips here, thank you. Be careful uploading these to different stock sites however, because their rules for AI are all different. Shutterstock and iStock both prohibit the sale of AI generated art currently, so if you are an existing contributor it's not worth risking your account. Also I noticed that Adobe's policy for AI states that contributors must clearly label their AI art as AI generated. This is from their website: 'AI-generated content is offered under the same licensing terms as other sources of content. Our policy asks our contributors to proactively label their generative AI content; we’ll soon add more features to make this content even more transparent.' Adobe provide an example of a stock image clearly labelled as AI generated art, which has the following title: 'Crystals and minerals. Healing, spirituality. Generative AI.'

[@WhereIsTheSpartan]

In my opinion it makes no sense prohibiting AI art. If so then post processing with tools like Photoshop must be prohibited as well. AI is just another tool like Photoshop is. As Photoshop was new back then photos and art pictures weren't marked with a label "done by PS" as well. In my eyes this is paranoia from several plattforms.

[@mobilefreelancer3831]

Thank some youtubers think and mislead us, if we added its AI art no chance they will sell or be downloaded! so pointless video really glad i read this message before using watching this pointless video lol

[@maddiem5921]

@@WhereIsTheSpartan I agree that is where things are going. I don't think all sites are banning AI images because they are against it, but are just trying to cover themselves until the legal landscape is clearer. Shutterstock did accept AI images for a while, then got spooked because of intellectual property issues and stopped allowing contributors to submit them for now. I can see why, honestly, as many midjourney images reproduce watermarks and there are legal cases in the works that might be costly to the sites that are early adopters. Shutterstock has partnered with OpenAI, and many platforms are building AI image generators into their services and offering them directly to customers. It's very interesting watching the stages of the AI revolution unfold.

[@mreflow]

The terms of service were updated on their site after the creation and publication of this video. I've pinned a comment to the top, reminding people to read the most recent terms. helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/generative-ai-content.html

[@quadfour9007]

​@@WhereIsTheSpartan As always they do and will lock down avenues for people to create extra revenue and as such create loops for creators who generate content either images, text, video so as they are forced to pay a montly subscription to some saas platform or from generated revenue take a percentage of the generated revenue as yt has done in the recent past.

[@BrunoMonteiroBR]

Useful video. I have learned something new. Thank you for sharing.

[@RavenGhostwisperer]

You also need a midjourney commercial license to sell the images generated there. Otherwise they fall under the Creative Commons Noncommercial 4.0 Attribution International License (the “Asset License”).

[@mistamichal]

@@_Ai_Angel Same here in Australia - but we generally follow UK law so not surprising really :p

[@lazar2949]

Thats only if you are generating images with a free plan. If you are a paid member you are free to sell it.

[@victorhugo3952]

Fuck that. The AI learning process is about stealing others people's art, so why not steal their stealing

[@pastoryoda2789]

@@victorhugo3952 lol my friend steals other peoples art from mid journey after his free trial ended 😂

[@aeit999]

Use custom SD model not this shitty journey xD

[@vahidnuralizada]

Hi Matt , Thanks for great video. I have 1 question. 23 Downloads - $47.78 is great money. But I watched other contributors' videos. They also share their dashboard. No one gain this money, Maximum $1 per download. How you did? Are you a US citizen? I think money is depend on your country.

[@vitorferreira4910]

The amount paid per image depends on the plan used by the user who made the download.

[@olmos2803]

Good question. I am also very surprised by Matt's earnings. For me, Adobe Images pays $0.33 for each sold image.

[@vitorferreira4910]

For me, the amounts received per download have been between $0.30 and $1. Interestingly, the amount varies by day, too. For example, downloads that pay $1 on some days earn me $1.07 and $0.93 on others.

[@codytan7333]

solid small additional side i/c, Matt!

[@nahiddotai]

Thanks for the detailed walkthrough, mate! I love creating AI Art so may as well try make some dollars with it. I'm sure overtime it will add up

[@BreathFitness]

Super cool. Thanks for all the info! I’ll use all your affiliate links

[@TomorrowThrive]

The maximum I'm able to generate is 1.5MB photos that are not allowed for Adobe Stock. How you make the photos to be more than 1.5MB?

[@YogaBlissDance]

Thank you. All one has to do is read TOS and comply and his video is still an AWESOME METHOD, now being an artist helps...not just the generative AI. One needs some sense of good composition, etc. So there's hope.

[@ali.alshadadi]

You are a legend. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for explaining the wonderful and clarifying all the points

[@berkjust]

do you know best alternate for outpainting like dall-e ? and can it get close to dall-e level

[@LumaUruguay]

Gracias por tanta data bien ordenada!

[@rerguti14]

Thanks a lot for sharing 🐺

[@konsevdi]

Quick question if anyone knows: How is the pricing determined on these illustrations? Do you set your own or does Adobe and the other ones which accept AI generated images decide?

[@WeirdNsGamingYT]

adobe decides the pricing , youll get 30% percent

[@gurutruecrimeguru1405]

Do you have to wait until someone buys them from adobe to be paid or does adobe buy them?

[@WeirdNsGamingYT]

@@gurutruecrimeguru1405 yes , we've to wait till someone buys them , once your account performs better your all unsold images will be bought by adobe for 5$ each and also those pictures will be permanently sold to them so you cant resell them .

[@abidlive8367]

Others will use midjourney like you and they won't buy product that they can themselves get it easily as you do.

[@WeirdNsGamingYT]

@@abidlive8367 that depends on person to person no? If i fulfil someone's requirement why would that person will buy midjourney subscription .

[@garagec8]

Definitely you are my go-to guy. Thanks!!

[@PonderDuke]

Do you have any experience of upscaling with video?

[@ljfrancovisuals]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience! Could you share information about the program you use to cut the images, it looks easy and fast. Thank you and congratulations for the good content!🔥🔥🔥👏🏻

[@agansa9693]

It's called Microsoft Photos and the standard App to display images on windows. you probably already use it

[@zhafranhafizhizdiharriyadi5886]

after my image got approved should i hit the releases button before it can get sell?

[@MrReubenTishkoff]

If you upload to multiple places through wirestock, how do you collect revenue? Do you have to go to each one? Or does wirestock also do that for you?

[@YogaBlissDance]

Google?

[@stationfire1984]

Great video. Can you do an update on your progress with Wirestock?

[@rabiahayatofficial2575]

Its just amazing... You really helped me a lot!!. May God bless u!!!!

[@blacktempo77]

Fresh Idea...Thank You 🙂

[@juliamac515]

Thanks for all your brilliant content and Future Tools! Do you use a free photo editor (shown in this video)? If so which one?

[@jj-iu1fm]

yes i'm curious to know the name of the application as well.

[@andriedible5067]

nice work, izin download. thanks

[@Bigred7642]

This is a great video. However, I am having a problem. When I upscale my images they are coming only coming out as 96 DPI, which is not great for people that would want to print the image. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong or if you might know how to fix this issue.

[@lenagadanski5421]

You can easily change it to 300dpi in Photoshop. Open image in Photoshop, go to Image -> Image size, uncheck Resample tick box and then change Resolution from 96 to 300. You don't lose any quality.

[@thelaughinghydra]

I love how the AI community comes up with this stuff. great vid!

[@marketiio]

Super tutorial - as a digital creator it come very handy to be able to sell my work!

[@Bajkopisarz_z_zawodu]

Hey! And how its going with income? Isnt resolution too small for stock? I will try it out, thx for your video!

[@Bajkopisarz_z_zawodu]

ah ok i see this upscaling tool

[@gamerharry8905]

Very Good bro your doing good job i try this steps thanks :)

[@carolcross_aiexperiement]

Love your channel BTW! Can you use a prompt that would reference the style of a deceased artist. Such as, create a brain in the style of Picasso with books and . . . would that be a usage infringement? Thanks, Carol

[@RipCurl808]

Use a prompt referencing one of his paintings or the type of art style (pointilsim, impressionism, Suprematism)

[@happilydesigning]

Brilliant, Thanks. I will try this. Do Shutterstock also approve these?

[@mreflow]

Seems like Shutterstock doesn't like them because they have their own AI generator built-in now.

[@happilydesigning]

@@mreflow thanks for your response, I have uploaded 5 designs and will upload more in coming days

[@Copratra]

As the legal things are so confusing to a layman like me, I have understood that you can only sell images created by the lisenced/paid version of MidJourney. How about BlueWillow, which creates quite different style pictures? Any knowledge of that?

[@cyborgchristina]

BlueWillow also has a paid plan. Same as Midjourney.

[@ometosky]

I could not see the upscale button, do you need to be a pro package to have the upscale function.

[@travelwell6049]

Does Adobe stock images still only give you 20% of the sale of your picture?

[@Shirtagency]

Honestly this just shows how scared businesses like adobe Stock should be of AI images. I am sure in the next few years they will shift to generating their own images automatically just from the searches.

[@explore464]

I think you are right

[@Valorian]

How are your stats now? How many elements have you uploaded by now?

[@athena_111]

saw this video and immediately started. uploaded 8 within an hour. gonna generate more every day.

[@festermann]

Very cool content - well done - thx a lot! Bang On : ) !

[@Spaceface2010]

brilliant video... i've made over 22,000 MJ images and most are very 'strong' images of weirdness and i sold one print to the customer, for like £50, images of juxtaposition of style, like an alien inside a pyramid, or a glass ghost etc etc etc...... this video opened up so many new possibilities,,, instaed of doing art to order. do mundane clip art and sell to 1000's without actually doing anything but typing..,....

[@ANM21985]

how long did it take to generate over 22k MJ images??, are you using a bot or something because that's insane!

[@fargnbastage]

What photos app are you using?

[@altafrai686]

You select the file type as Illustration ... but these are JPG images .... why ? if user download it and realize this is only a JPG than what ? Please clear this confusion ... waiting for your reply

[@gaminginanities]

any updates on this as of today?

[@MkVarietype]

I would be careful with wirestock because I also sell stock and know that almost all providers forbid ki and ai. Only Adobe is currently ready, I'm curious for how long. And you have to watch out for the money you earn because you gave up your rights to MidJourney's AI if I read that correctly. You can claim all the money you earn with the created pictures is in the rules or did I misunderstand? I hope the AI ​​stays because I don't see it as competition but even then it promotes real nature pictures again in the future and the program is a lot of fun. Greetings, what do you say to that?

[@flickwtchr]

Midjourney is NOT going to claim any money you make for sales if you are submitting AI generated images to stock, or selling them on other platforms that allow it, as long as you are a paid subscriber. They explicitly say that you own the assets you (along with AI) generate. Yes, they do retain ultimate rights over the images for the reasons they cite, but that doesn't mean they are going to be selling your images or demanding that you cut them in if you sell the images you "create".

[@MkVarietype]

@@flickwtchr Ok thannks for your help :) i buy a abo and than i can work :) thanks good day

[@carsloversintherealandgami8116]

@@flickwtchr how about if i subscribe for 1 month and unsubscribe after they give us the right for that photos that i have create before ?

[@user-dd3lw2pq9v]

At the rate that you can generate stock photos through AI you might just be able to create your own stock photo site. This AI revolution is amazing. So many new opportunities.

[@thepoisonprison7391]

Could become a behemoth the size of Pinterest?

[@bb_homealone8686]

It was usefull info! Thank you!

[@andrastolgyes4062]

Do I have to pay a monthly fee for adobe stock if I only want to upload and sell my own images?

[@QuickFitHacks]

No its free, You paying Adobe only if you want to use their software.

[@luxurycardstore]

THIS VIDEO IS FREAKING AWESOME. I learned a lot. I'd like to give you a tip to return the favor. When uploading to Wirestock, skip Getty Images when it asks where you want to upload. Getty Images has announced that they will not accept AI images. Apparently they're too good for us peasants and our AI "art" 🤣 Thank you for this fantastic tutorial.

[@randome14]

thank you for this greate simple video

[@PhissanuChaiyasit-bl3xg]

Nice video Thank you.

[@WarMeta2654]

Any idea why adobe stock is taking about 2 weeks to approve about 12 of my images. I thought it would be much quicker.

[@jobhodes6183]

Use it for print on demand!

[@juncal230975]

What kind of account you have on midjourney? I got the basic one and playing around went empty pretty quickly 😢😂

[@tim-tron]

If you use the command /relax, it takes a little longer but doesnt use your hours. Go back to fast mode anytime using /fast

[@chillingwithjai6351]

Thanks for this video. Would u need a model Release for an ai generated person Hope adobe stock doesn't ban ur account if midjourney creates problems regarding rights

[@mreflow]

It's strange. I've submitted AI generated people and they got accepted and I've had others say they required a model release. As of now, I'm staying within Adobe's terms but, if they change, I'll adjust accordingly. Luckily, it's just a side-hustle and I'm not reliant on stock photo income. Just something fun to play around with. :)

[@chillingwithjai6351]

@@mreflow thanks matt donyou have to be on membershipnplan of midjourney to sell on adobe stock what happens if u cancel membership next month on midjourney do u still retain rights of selling

[@flickwtchr]

@@mreflow Model release is for AI generated art that is prompted with a specific person's name and is recognizable as such, or created with an image prompt that is a photograph of a real person, or even an output that uses none of those techniques but is clearly a representation of a recognizable person intentional or not. A property release is any AI generation not fitting into the model release category that has humans depicted.

[@RobbiAllah]

Do I need a subscription midjourney account for selling ai images on Adobe stock?

[@thephotoshopdude4016]

Can we sale the images generated by Leonardo AI? because leonardo ai says we can use the images commercially created by them... @Matt Wolfe

[@topmusicon0505]

How to get money from iStock/ Adobe Stock or they send money to our account directly?

[@carsloversintherealandgami8116]

bro after the last update can we work in stock adobe using ai midjourny photos please help me i am poor and i wanna make some money

[@digressoire]

thanks for sharing!

[@JockJutManhwaRecap]

how do i do the border thing im very new to all this

[@stancnet]

We all know the real way to make money, KZbin!

[@Anti-HyperLink]

I use a lot of the same prompts over and over again and have gotten vastly different results. So even if you have very different images, if they came from the same prompt, you can't make money off of them? I should've known there'd be a catch.

[@nateg7100]

How much are you making with this now? Thanks

[@freshmaker4o]

Imagine watching this video being the person who bought those images on Adobe Stock

[@felixinit]

Great ideas for Portfolio on Adobe

[@technocobraa9279]

I want to know about who is audience buying art. I want to just sell but can't get that audience part

[@SoundChaser_]

can I upload images I've made in UnrealEngine ?