Midjourney Prompt Basics and Parameters: Turn Words Into Images
A prompt is your creative starting point in Midjourney—the text you send with /imagine to tell the AI what to draw. Learning prompt basics and a few parameters will help you get more consistent and interesting results.
How Prompts Work
You type /imagine (or use the create box on the web), then your description. For example:
- “a cozy coffee shop at night, warm lighting, rainy window”
- “portrait of a robot, cyberpunk, neon lights, 8k”
Short, clear descriptions often work well. You can add style words (oil painting, photorealistic, anime), lighting (soft light, dramatic sunset), and composition (wide shot, close-up). The Art of Prompting guide in the docs has more ideas.
Essential Parameters
Parameters go at the end of your prompt, after the main description.
| Parameter | Example | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| —ar or —aspect | --ar 16:9 | Aspect ratio (default is square). Use 16:9 for landscape, 3:2 for photo, 9:16 for portrait. |
| —s or —stylize | --s 100 | How much Midjourney “interprets” your prompt (stylization). Higher = more artistic. |
| —chaos or —c | --chaos 30 | More variation among the four results (0–100). |
| —q or —quality | --q 2 | GPU time / detail level (not output resolution). Affects speed and cost. |
| —no | --no text, watermark | Things you don’t want in the image. |
Example full prompt:
a mountain cabin in snow, smoke from chimney, dusk --ar 16:9 --s 150For the full list, see the official Parameter List.
Image Size and Resolution
Midjourney starts from a square and can output at different aspect ratios with --ar. Final resolution depends on the model and upscaler (e.g. 1× or 2× upscale). The docs explain this in Image Size & Resolution. So --q controls detail/quality, not pixel dimensions; size is mainly from aspect ratio and upscaling.
Modifying Your Creations
After you get four previews, you can:
- U1–U4 — Upscale that panel for higher resolution.
- V1–V4 — Create four new variations based on that panel.
- 🔄 — Re-roll for a new set of four.
You can also remix by editing your prompt and regenerating. The guide Modifying Your Creations has more detail.
Multi-Prompts and Weights
You can split the prompt into parts with :: and give parts different weights so the AI emphasizes certain ideas. Example:
forest :: river :: moonlight :: 0.5Weights are advanced; see Multi-Prompts & Weights in the docs.