These free AI apps can convert a sentence you type into a realistic painting or image.
Is there anything that artificial intelligence cannot accomplish? Every month, it seems, there is a fascinating new technological breakthrough. The most recent breakthrough is that AI can now convert a sentence you type into a painting or image. And you can get started right away with these free apps.
Google recently unveiled Imagen AI, a tool that converts simple sentences into photorealistic graphic designs. The pictures are terrifyingly good. You can try a small demo on their website, but you will only be able to select from pre-programmed prompts provided by Google. Here are some of the best free AI text-to-image generators for creating AI art from your writing.
1. Nightcafe (Web): The Easiest-to-Use Free Text-to-Image AI Converter
Night Cafe is an excellent example of one of these text-to-image apps that will make your jaw drop when you see the mind-boggling creations AI can produce. Night Cafe will use AI to turn any simple English sentence into a painting.
When creating a new image, you can select from a variety of artistic styles such as cubist, oil painting, matte, surreal, steampunk, and so on. You can also include artists, techniques, and cultural genre modifiers. Then you must select one of two AI styles: artistic or coherent.
You can read about the technical jargon behind each on the website, but there is a key distinction for the average user. The artistic variant is better suited for abstract creations such as depicting skyscrapers or other imaginative sentences. For realistic images with your own customizations, the coherent version is preferable.
You can now choose the aspect ratio, output resolution, and a few other options. Night Cafe will create an original artwork based on your selections in a matter of minutes. Your creations are all saved to your account.
When you sign up for an account, you will receive five free credits as well as five daily credits. The number of changes you can make to an artwork’s settings is determined by its credits. You can also refine an artwork by using it as a basis, which costs more credits. And, yes, you can download your artwork in low resolution for free.
2. Starry AI: Text-to-Image AI Art with Granular Control (Web, Android, and iOS)
Starry AI, like the other apps on this list, converts text into AI artwork images. However, unlike many others, it provides granular control over certain aspects, making the results much more personalized.
You’ll begin by entering a random phrase and selecting one of two AI engines: Altair (which produces dream-like images that are more abstract) and Orion (which produces “unreal reality,” often more cohesive). Then select from 16 art styles, canvas size, or aspect ratio, and optionally include your own custom image as a base. Using a custom image is usually a good idea in these apps.
Extra credits can be used to extend the AI’s runtime, resulting in a better final image. Similarly, you can spend credits to instruct the AI on how closely it should adhere to your text. Finally, once the image has been generated, you can use credits to upscale it and download high-resolution AI artwork.
Furthermore, you are not always required to pay for these credits. Starry AI allows you to earn free credits every day or week by watching advertisements or sharing your creations on various social media platforms.
3. Dall-E Mini (Web): Test out the well-known OpenAI Dall-E.
The AI research facility The Dall-E, the original and most popular AI text-to-image generator, was created by OpenAI. The Dall-E 2 is currently wowing netizens with its ability to convert natural language into images, but it is in closed beta. You can sign up for the waitlist and hopefully get to play with the online app soon.
In the meantime, you can use the Dall-E Mini, an open-source version of the original AI model that is freely available to the public. The machine learns descriptions by reading captions of other images on the internet, which it then applies to whatever phrase you type. You do not need to create an account to sign up, and you have an unlimited number of attempts with your images.
Enter your sentence (be as specific as possible) and press Run. It will take some time, but Dall-E Mini will eventually provide you with nine different images based on your sentence. You have the option of saving any or all of the images to your hard drive. Dall-E Mini, unlike other apps, has no additional enhancements or customizations, but it is the simplest text-to-image AI generator and provides unlimited free trials.
4. Dream by Wombo (Android, iOS): A simple, free, and unlimited AI text-to-image art generator.
Every AI-based text-to-image art generator is either paid, operates on a credit system, or is subject to other constraints. Dream by Wombo overcomes all of these constraints to allow you to create an unlimited number of artworks from your text in a variety of styles.
It’s as easy as setting up an account, writing a sentence, and choosing a style. Ghibli, Dali, Love, Robots, Psychic, Synthwave, Baroque, and Dark Fantasy are some of the current styles. Allow Wombo to create the image, and you can immediately request another or download the one you like.
You can use either the web app or the mobile app, but as our in-depth Dream by Wombo review demonstrates, the mobile app has a few more features. You can, for example, add a base image for the AI to use as a reference, which is always useful in refining to get what you want.
5. Pixray (Web): AI Text to Image Generator with Custom Codes for Geeks

Pixley is a free text-to-art generator that can be run in a browser, on your computer, or via an API. It has a simple interface, but geeks will love it because of its customizable AI engines and extensive documentation for custom codes.
The default interface is straightforward. First, enter your sentence as you would in any other app. Then, in the “drawer,” select one of the AI to render engines: pixel generates pixel art, VQAN generates GAN-images (often trippy or realistic), and clip draw/line sketch generates stroke-based images as if it were a drawing with strokes drawn down. This will result in fantastic images, but the fun part is the last section, Settings.
According to the extensive Pixray documentation, you can change the AI settings in a variety of ways. You can, for example, add artists or styles; define quality, iterations, or scale; and learn how to change your artwork in detail using the drawer, display, filter, video, and image settings. It’s a lot of reading, but no coding is required.
Is Artificial Intelligence Killing Artists?
The various AI text-to-image generators discussed in this article are all impressive in their own right. Indeed, the two most impressive are the ones we can’t yet access: Google’s Imagen and OpenAI’s Dall-E 2. However, they are not yet prepared to take over from artists.
Like AI writing tools, the end product appears “real” enough to be made by a human, but it still lacks some features. Artists can add creativity, emotion, and a distinct style to an artwork, making it unique and personal. Perhaps AI will evolve to that point in the future, but for the time being, artist jobs are safe.