Midjourney released V7 on April 3, 2025, and made it the default model on June 17, 2025. It is still the current model as of this writing. The old question of whether it beats real photos is the wrong one. The useful questions are what changed from V6.1 and which plan makes sense.
The biggest change is personalization. Before V7 will run, you rate roughly 200 images so it can build a profile of your taste, and that profile is switched on by default. For someone with a consistent visual style, that is a real time saver. For someone who needs neutral, predictable output for clients, it is one more setting to remember to turn off.
The second change is Draft Mode. Midjourney says drafts render about ten times faster at about half the GPU cost. The idea is to explore cheaply and only spend full renders on the ideas worth keeping. That matters more than it sounds, because every plan is metered in GPU time.
Omni Reference arrived in May 2025, letting you point the model at a person or object in one image and carry it into new ones. Midjourney also added its first video model in June 2025, which animates still images. Neither makes V7 a photo replacement, but both widen what one subscription covers.
Pricing has not moved. Basic is $10 a month with about 3.3 hours of fast GPU time. Standard is $30 with 15 fast hours and unlimited Relax mode. Pro is $60 with 30 fast hours and Stealth mode, which keeps your images out of the public gallery. Mega is $120 with 60 fast hours. Paying annually takes 20 percent off each tier.
Basic is the trap. With no Relax mode, the fast hours are all you get, and they go quickly once you start iterating. Standard is where the product stops rationing you. Pro only earns its price if you do client work that should not appear in a public feed, or if you run out of fast hours every month.
The short version: V7 is a better Midjourney, not a new category. If you make images every week, Standard at $30 a month is the plan to buy. If you need privacy for client work, go to Pro. If you only want to try it, one month of Basic will tell you whether you like the look, and then you should move up or cancel.
