Can I use AI-generated images commercially? What each platform actually allows

A platform's commercial rights grant answers whether you can use the images. Copyright law determines whether those images are legally yours in a way you can enforce. These are different questions with different answers.

• US copyright and AI-generated images — the US Copyright Office has established that purely AI-generated images without significant human creative input are not copyrightable. You can use them commercially under the platform's ToS; you cannot necessarily prevent others from using identical or similar outputs, or register a copyright in the AI-generated output itself.
• Logos and brand marks — AI-generated logos present a specific problem: if the output isn't copyrightable, your logo may not be protectable intellectual property. Trademark registration can protect a logo regardless of how it was created, but the AI-generated output itself carries copyright uncertainty.
• Style reference legal risk — prompting with references to a living artist's recognizable style can produce outputs that raise infringement questions regardless of what the platform's ToS says about commercial use. Platform ToS don't indemnify against third-party IP claims.
• No content indemnification — no major AI image platform indemnifies users against copyright claims arising from generated content. If someone claims your AI-generated image infringes their copyright, you bear the legal exposure regardless of the commercial rights grant.
• Trademark clearance — AI tools don't check whether generated imagery resembles existing trademarked logos or designs. For commercial logo and brand work, trademark search is a legal necessity that AI commercial rights grants don't cover.

Midjourney has the strongest artistic output for commercial creative work — advertising imagery, editorial illustration, concept art — but the revenue threshold requirement means high-revenue companies need Pro ($60/month) rather than Basic ($10/month). The publicly visible community gallery on Basic and Standard plans is a consideration for client work where confidentiality matters.

Leonardo AI has no revenue threshold requirement, private generation from $12/month, and clear commercial rights documentation — making it a lower-friction choice for commercial asset production than Midjourney for agencies and companies of any size.

Ideogram at $7/month provides commercial rights and private generation at the lowest paid entry point in the category. The conflicting sources on free tier commercial rights make direct ToS verification necessary for free tier use; paid tiers are clearly documented.

For legally sensitive commercial use

For brand marks, logos, and assets where IP exclusivity matters — consult IP counsel before committing to AI-generated imagery in commercial brand identity. The copyright uncertainty around AI-generated output is a real consideration that a platform's commercial rights grant doesn't resolve. Human-created elements incorporated into the design, or significant human creative transformation of AI output, changes the copyright analysis.