AI Lineup
ChatGPT Image / DALL·E
by OpenAI
OpenAI's image generator, built right into ChatGPT. Describe a picture in plain words and it appears, no separate tool needed.
Free + Paidimage
Last checked: 17 August 2026
The details
- What it does
- Generates images from text descriptions, built directly into ChatGPT. Just ask, and it draws.
- Cost
- Free tier available · More on paid ChatGPT plans.
- Open Source?
- No — proprietary (OpenAI)
- Input / Output
- TextImages in · Images out
Best for
- Quick everyday images
- People already using ChatGPT
- Casual creative use
Kevin’s take
“This is the image-maker baked into ChatGPT. You don't go anywhere special — you just ask ChatGPT for a picture and it draws one. Brilliant for quick, casual images: a birthday card, a silly illustration, a rough mock-up. If you already use ChatGPT, you already have this. Most people don't realise it's there.”
— Kevin, formerly of IT Support
Related reading
From the AI Glossary
- DeepfakeA fake image, video, or audio clip made by AI to convincingly show a real person saying or doing something they never did. The technology has improved fast, and the best examples are hard to spot. Not all of it is malicious. Some is used for film and satire. But the same tools can be used to deceive, and that's the part worth paying attention to.
- Diffusion ModelThe kind of AI behind most image generators. It learns by taking real images, adding visual static until they're pure noise, then learning to reverse the process. To make a new picture, it starts from random noise and gradually cleans it into an image that matches your description. Tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion work this way. It sounds backwards, and in a sense it is, but it produces remarkable results.
- LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation)An efficient way to adapt an existing AI model to a specific style or task without retraining the whole thing. Instead of rebuilding a model from scratch, LoRA adds a small, lightweight layer of adjustments on top. It's popular in image generation, where people use it to teach a model a particular character, art style, or look, cheaply and quickly. A small file does what would otherwise take enormous resources.
- OpenAIThe company behind ChatGPT, and one of the most influential names in AI. It started as a research lab and became a household word almost overnight when ChatGPT launched in late 2022. It builds the GPT family of models and has a close, much-discussed relationship with Microsoft. When people picture "an AI company," OpenAI is often the one they have in mind.
- TokenA token is a small chunk of text an AI model reads and writes: sometimes a whole short word, sometimes part of a longer one, plus spaces and punctuation. In English, a useful rule of thumb is that one token is about three-quarters of a word. Tools use token counts to size a conversation's memory, price developer API usage, and, in some products, decide when you've hit a limit. When ChatGPT or another chatbot acts like you've "run out," the wall may be a token limit, a separate plan usage cap, or a feature that burns credits. The words on screen do not always match the engineering term.
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