Midjourney vs ChatGPT
Side-by-side comparison of the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of Midjourney and ChatGPT.
Midjourney offers meaningful user rights like asset ownership, deletion/access/portability tools, payment-card minimization, and notice of law-enforcement requests where allowed. But these are offset by a perpetual content license, public-by-default sharing, mandatory arbitration, broad unilateral service changes, nonrefundable subscription periods, advertising-related sharing, and sweeping liability limitations.
Midjourney’s terms are mixed: users generally own creations, but the service takes a perpetual license to user content and makes content public/remixable by default. The company reserves broad control over service changes, suspensions, pricing, and refunds. Its privacy policy is relatively transparent and offers access, deletion, portability, and some opt-out controls, especially for EEA/UK/Swiss and California users, but it collects broad usage and content data and uses advertising cookies.
Points of interest
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negative ●●●●● termsPerpetual license to content
Even if you own your creations, you give Midjourney an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, display, modify, sublicense, and distribute your inputs and outputs forever. This survives account termination.
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negative ●●●●● termsPublic and remixable by default
Your prompts and creations are generally public and can be remixed by others unless you use paid stealth features. Even then, content shared in places like Discord chatrooms may still be visible to others.
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negative ●●●●○ termsMandatory arbitration clause
Disputes must go to binding arbitration in Santa Clara County instead of court, and you waive jury trial rights. This usually makes it harder to bring claims in a public court.
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negative ●●●●○ termsCan change or end service
Midjourney can modify features, algorithms, pricing, or discontinue the service at any time, and continued use means acceptance of updated terms. This creates uncertainty if you rely on specific tools or policies.
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negative ●●●●○ termsBroad liability limits
The service is provided as-is, with broad warranty disclaimers, and Midjourney caps its liability to fees paid in the prior 12 months. Users also agree to indemnify the company for third-party claims related to their use.
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positive ●●●●○ termsUsers generally own outputs
Midjourney says you own assets you create, which is a significant user benefit compared with some AI services. However, larger companies need a higher-tier plan to keep that ownership.
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positive ●●●●○ privacyAccess, deletion, portability rights
The privacy policy offers account-based ways to access, delete, correct, restrict, object to processing, and port data for certain regions, with California rights too. That gives users meaningful control over their information.
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negative ●●●○○ termsNonrefundable current period
You can cancel anytime, but Midjourney says you will not get a refund for the current subscription period. That can matter if the service changes, disappoints, or your account is terminated mid-cycle.
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negative ●●●○○ privacyBroad data use and sharing
Midjourney collects prompts, uploads, IP address, usage data, cookies, and some third-party data, and may share data with service providers, analytics and advertising partners, and in business transfers. This is broader than a minimal-data service.
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positive ●●●○○ privacyDoesn't store card details
Midjourney says payment cards are handled by third-party processors and it keeps only payment confirmation. That reduces the amount of sensitive financial data held directly by Midjourney.
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positive ●●●○○ privacyLaw-enforcement notice promise
If law enforcement requests your personal data, Midjourney says it will promptly notify you and provide a copy unless legally prohibited. That is a useful transparency commitment not all services make.
Documents
The documents provide strong consumer rights for covered users, including local-court dispute resolution, preserved statutory rights, meaningful privacy controls, deletion/export tools, and a training opt-out. Main concerns are broad data collection, model-training use by default, auto-renewal, admin access for work accounts, and retention exceptions.
ChatGPT’s EEA/UK/Switzerland terms are relatively consumer-protective compared with many online services: users keep input ownership and generally own output, can go to local courts, and get clear account controls such as deletion, export, training opt-out, and temporary chats. At the same time, OpenAI collects broad usage and content data, may use content to improve models unless you opt out, auto-renews paid plans, and reserves rights to suspend accounts and retain some data for safety, legal, and business reasons.
Points of interest
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positive ●●●●● privacyStrong deletion and export controls
Users can delete chats, delete accounts, export data, use temporary chats, and manage memory settings. Deleted personal data is generally removed within 30 days unless an exception applies.
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negative ●●●●○ termsContent used to improve models
OpenAI can use your prompts, uploads, and outputs to develop and improve services, including model training, unless you opt out. This creates a meaningful privacy tradeoff for sensitive chats.
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positive ●●●●○ termsNo forced arbitration
Disputes can go to your local courts, which is more user-friendly than mandatory arbitration or class-action waivers. EEA users also get access to an EU dispute resolution platform.
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positive ●●●●○ termsStatutory rights preserved
The terms explicitly say consumer rights under applicable law are not waived. This helps protect users against overbroad contract terms.
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positive ●●●●○ termsYou own input and output
Users retain ownership of their input and, where legally permitted, own the output assigned by OpenAI. That is stronger than services that claim broad ownership over user-generated results.
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positive ●●●●○ termsTraining opt-out available
You can turn off use of your content for model training in account settings. This is a significant privacy control, even though it is not the default.
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negative ●●●○○ privacyBroad data collection
The privacy policy allows collection of account data, payment data, prompts, files, contacts, device, usage, cookies, location, and some outside-source data. Users should assume extensive telemetry and content processing.
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negative ●●●○○ privacyRetention exceptions apply
Although deletion tools exist, OpenAI may keep data longer for legal, security, fraud, abuse, and accounting reasons, and de-identified training data may remain disassociated from your account. So deletion is not always immediate or absolute.
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negative ●●●○○ privacyWork admins can access content
If you use an employer or business-linked account, administrators may control the account and access your content, and your organization may learn you have the account. That reduces privacy in workplace contexts.
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positive ●●●○○ termsClear notice of term changes
Material adverse changes to the terms require at least 30 days' advance notice. This is better than immediate unilateral changes without warning.
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negative ●●○○○ termsAuto-renewing subscriptions
Paid plans renew automatically until canceled. After the 14-day cooling-off period, cancellation usually stops future charges but does not refund the remaining billing period.
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neutral ●●○○○ privacyInternational data transfers
Personal data may be processed outside Europe, including in the United States, using adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses. This is common, but some users may prefer local-only processing.
Documents
Comparison is based on each service's published Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Read the source documents linked above before relying on any specific clause.