Midjourney FAQ: Image Generation Permissions, Stealth Mode, and Commercial Licensing

When using Midjourney, the questions people ask most often aren’t “How do I write prompts?” but “Why can’t I generate images?”, “Where do I turn on privacy mode?”, and “Can the images I generate be used commercially?” This article consolidates the most common, easy-to-misstep points in Midjourney, and provides an actionable self-check path to help you quickly get back to normal use.

Abnormal generation permissions: What to do if you can log in but can’t generate

Midjourney generates images in Discord. If permissions are acting up, don’t rush to reinstall or switch accounts—first confirm that you’re operating in the correct server/channel and that the bot is online. If you’re using Midjourney in a private server, check whether the bot has been kicked, or whether channel permissions prevent it from speaking or reading message history.

Next, check your account status: use “/info” in Discord to see whether Midjourney detects your subscription and remaining quota. If you can’t even pull up “/info”, it’s usually a permissions or bot-status issue. If “/info” shows no plan or unavailable, then go to the account page on the Midjourney website to confirm you’re logged into the same account and that the subscription is actually bound to that account.

Paid subscription but not active: the two most common causes

Most cases where Midjourney “seems not to be active” come down to two things: you’re on the wrong account, or the subscription plan doesn’t match your expectations. Many people log into the website with one email but use a different identity in Discord, causing Midjourney not to recognize the subscription. It’s recommended to verify the username and linked information on both the website and Discord.

Also distinguish between “quota used up” and “subscription expired”: Midjourney may queue jobs during peak times, but queuing doesn’t mean it isn’t active. When Fast hours run out, generation speed and available modes change, which can easily be mistaken for a malfunction. Use the plan and usage shown in “/info” as the source of truth, then decide whether you need to upgrade or wait for the refresh cycle.

How to enable Privacy Mode (Stealth): why you can’t find it

Midjourney’s privacy mode isn’t included with every plan; generally only higher-tier plans provide Stealth (private generation). If you can still see your work publicly displayed in your gallery or the community, it’s likely your current plan doesn’t support it, or you’re still in Public mode.

In Discord, you can usually toggle with “/stealth” and “/public” (provided your Midjourney plan supports it). When using the web interface, also check whether there are corresponding privacy/display settings. After switching, it’s recommended to generate a new image to verify; whether older works are publicly displayed depends on the mode at the time and the platform’s display logic.

Can Midjourney-generated images be used commercially: how to understand the licensing boundaries

Whether Midjourney can be used commercially depends primarily on whether your account is on a paid plan and your account status at the time of generation; paid users generally receive clearer commercial-use terms. For real-world use, it’s recommended to keep “subscription screenshots/billing records” and “generation records” so you can prove the source during delivery or legal review.

Note: Midjourney grants you a license to use the “generated results”, but that doesn’t mean you automatically own rights to any third-party materials. If your prompts deliberately imitate specific brands, characters, or protected content, commercial use may still carry risk. A safer approach is to use your own elements and general descriptions, and run copyright and compliance checks for important projects.

Can’t see images in the gallery / loading is slow: do these three checks first

Occasional slow loading in the Midjourney web gallery is mostly related to network conditions, browser cache, or extension/plugin blocking. First try a different browser or incognito mode, disable ad-blocking extensions, then clear the site cache and log back into Midjourney.

If generation works normally in Discord but the web gallery doesn’t display, treat the generation messages as the source of truth; the web gallery is a presentation layer and may sync with delay. If it’s still unstable, check Midjourney’s official status page for service fluctuation notices, then decide whether to wait for recovery or download from the Discord side instead.