Midjourney prompts you can copy and paste

How to prompt Midjourney

Midjourney makes images from a text description on its website and in Discord. It is strongest at style, mood and composition, and it uses parameters at the end of the prompt.

Latest version

Midjourney V8.2

Best for

Concept art and illustration · Moody, stylised photography · Posters and backgrounds without text · Exploring many looks fast

Prompt formula

Subject + setting + style + light + composition + parameters (--ar, --stylize, --sref)

Tips that make the biggest difference

• Lead with the subject. Words at the start carry the most weight. "A lighthouse on a cliff in a storm" first, style and lighting after.
• Use parameters instead of sentences. Set the shape with --ar (for example --ar 16:9), how artistic it gets with --stylize, and what to leave out with --no (for example --no text).
• Borrow a look with --sref. Add --sref and an image link to copy the style of that image, without copying its content.
• Keep it short and concrete. Midjourney is not a chatbot. Drop polite phrases and instructions like "please create", and list what should be in the picture.

Weak vs strong prompt

Please make a beautiful picture of a cabin.

Small red wooden cabin by a frozen lake under green northern lights, snowy pines, warm window light, long exposure night photography, deep teal and orange, wide shot --ar 16:9 --stylize 200 --no text, people

Common mistakes

• Long conversational prompts
• Asking for long readable text (use Ideogram or ChatGPT for text-heavy designs)
• Forgetting --ar, so every image comes out square

Guide checked against the current Midjourney release in September 2026.

What Midjourney does differently

• Settings live in parameters. --ar sets the shape, --stylize how artistic it gets, --chaos how different the four results are from each other, and --no what to leave out.
• --no, not "without". Writing "no people" inside the sentence can still add people, because the word is in the prompt. Put exclusions in --no people instead.
• Style references. Add --sref and an image link to borrow the look of that image without its content. --sw sets how strongly the style is applied.
• Four images per prompt. Each run gives a grid of four. Vary or upscale the closest one instead of rewriting the whole prompt.

If Midjourney gets it wrong

• Every image is square. Add --ar 16:9 (or 9:16, 4:5) at the very end of the prompt.
• Things you did not ask for keep appearing. Move them into --no, for example --no text, people, watermark.
• It ignores half the prompt. Cut it down. Lead with the subject and drop words that change nothing, such as "beautiful" or "high quality".
• Everything looks too polished. Add --raw or lower --stylize for a plainer, more literal picture.
• Words in the image come out wrong. Keep text to a word or two in quotes. For a poster with real copy, use the Ideogram prompts.