Is Midjourney Down?

ALPHA: SHARED FOLDERS AND A THINKING MODE FOR V8.2 (Alpha Changelog 10/7/26 and 'Testing Thinking Mode', both posted 2026-10-08, vendor-primary): **Thinking mode** -- 'You can now rerun jobs made with 8.2 (standard and edit) with thinking. Midjourney looks at your image, finds where it missed your prompt (wrong objects, layout, anatomy, text) and generates again.' Run it from the lightbox via 'Rerun (Thinking)'; Midjourney says it helps 'prompt accuracy, typography, and coherence' and may later ship as a broader thinking mode or an 'add more thinking' step. **Alpha site only (alpha.midjourney.com), described as an early version; no GPU-time cost stated.** **Shared folders** -- folders can be shared with Collaborators (who can generate straight into the folder) or Viewers, by username or by link (private, anyone-with-link view, or open to any Midjourney member); the owner can delete a shared folder for everyone; images stay in each creator's own history. **Privacy caveat from Midjourney: sharing does not change image privacy -- non-stealth images made inside a private folder can still appear on Explore and on profiles.** This is the 'better ways to create together' the 10/1 changelog teased. Same changelog: stalled edit submits now fail cleanly within two minutes, older Firefox works again, Live Style Previews work on custom styles, draft mode on V8.1/V8.2 always makes a 24-image grid.

THE EDIT MODEL IS THE STORY SINCE V8.2 -- COMMUNITY TESTING OPENED 2026-08-27, AND THE 2026-09-24 UPDATE MADE EDITS PIXEL-PRECISE (vendor-primary; this page was last reviewed 2026-07-29). On 2026-08-27 Midjourney said 'today we're gonna start letting everyone test our first V8.2 image edit model': editing images with instructions, generating from other images with **up to 4 image references at once, replacing omni-reference**, changing specific areas (inpainting) or expanding the canvas (outpainting), with personalization, moodboards and srefs supported (the last two 'may work best with some extra prompt direction'). Ways in: drag images into the prompt bar, the edit button in the lightbox, the edit tab, or --edit on Discord; both midjourney.com and alpha.midjourney.com got new UIs. **2026-09-24 update**: 'Making targeted edits to the image will change only the pixels that you've selected', so repeated edits no longer degrade the image; the Styles sidebar gained **Live previews** of your current prompt across liked and featured styles (click a thumbnail to generate with it); **--tile now blends invisibly on V8.1/8.2** where seams used to show; and Midjourney is 'experimenting with fast models in the interface' on alpha. The alpha changelog of 9/23 added saved default parameters (Settings > Advanced > Your defaults), a full-width masonry Create feed with hover prompts and in-place Organize mode, and Archive across all projects; 9/16 added Korean. No pricing change; the tiers on this page were unchanged as of this pass.

FIRST ACQUISITION -- CO-STAR (2026-07-23): Midjourney bought **Co-Star**, its first acquisition ever, to build out its Product and Design organization; Co-Star founder Banu will lead that effort. The strategic signal matters more than the deal: the post describes 'the slow blossoming of a very unusual research lab' and promises 'the announcement of half a dozen similarly ambitious projects over the next 6 months,' citing **Midjourney Medical** as the first example. Read: Midjourney is deliberately widening past image generation, which is worth watching if you evaluate it purely as an image tool

MODEL RELEASE -- V8.2 IS NOW THE DEFAULT (2026-07-24): Midjourney shipped V8.2 as its live image model, ending the preview-only period that started with the `--preview` flag on 6/25. The vendor post is an aesthetics-and-quality release rather than an architecture change: images should be 'more creative, bold, sophisticated, edgy and fresh', occurrences of a 'low quality image' are 'dramatically reduced', and Personalization understands preferences better for accounts with long rating histories, with a larger image pool available for building personalization profiles. **No pricing change accompanied the release** -- the vendor post mentions none. Supersedes the two entries below that state V8.2 does not exist / remains preview-only

LAWSUIT UPDATE (2026-07-09 coverage; motion filed 6/29): in the Disney/Universal/Warner Bros. copyright case, Midjourney went on offense -- after a mid-June ruling denied its initial discovery request, it filed a renewed motion demanding the studios **reveal their own internal use of generative AI**. Midjourney's argument: if the studios are 'training generative-AI models on third-party copyrighted works' themselves, that conduct supports the industry treating AI training as fair use -- 'The studios are engaging in the very conduct they complained about.' No ruling yet on the renewed motion. Meanwhile **v8.2 remains preview-only** (`--preview` flag on v8.1; no GA date; updates.midjourney.com has no posts since 6/25). The case outcome remains the biggest structural risk/catalyst for the product

WEB UPDATE (2026-05-27, vendor changelog 'Web Updates 5'): conversational/voice sessions gained **Image Prompts and Style References** plus sidebar settings and recent-jobs access; Image Prompts now work from the tray/sidebar; tray images persist across voice submissions; new **'Rerun as HD' button upgrades V8.1 standard-res images** in one click; folder hidden-item counts and mobile settings cleanup. NOTE: 'V8.2 imminent' claims circulate in aggregators but the vendor changelog's newest version entries remain V8.1 Updates (4/30) and V8.1 Alpha (4/14) -- no V8.2 exists yet