How to get Ghibli-style AI portraits without ChatGPT subscription? Try these free alternatives

Studio Ghibli-style images have been the talk of the town ever since ChatGPT got its new native image generation capabilities. While everyone from Sam Altman to Sachin Tendulkar has jumped on the bandwagon, ChatGPT's new image generation feature isn't yet available to all users.

What are your options if you want to join this viral trend without paying the $20 ChatGPT subscription? Let's have a look at the possible alternatives.

How to create Ghibhli portraits if you don't have a premium account?

OpenAI announced Wednesday that it would roll out ChatGPT's new image generation capabilities to Plus, Pro, Team and Free users of the chatbot. However, the company later confirmed that the rollout to Free users has been delayed, and even if they do get the update, it will be limited to three image generations per day.

This essentially means that free users of ChatGPT will not be able to generate Studio Ghibli-style images or other similar effects.

However, Elon Musk's Grok AI (based on Grok 3) is currently able to generate these images for free, although not with the accuracy of ChatGPT. However, it is still a good way for people to generate Studio Ghibli-style images without having to pay.

Below are some examples of Studio Ghibli-style images we generated using Grok.

The latest Gemini model via Google AI Studio is also capable of native image output, but the chatbot rejected our requests to turn real images into Ghibli-style images.

What is Studio Ghibli?

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio founded in 1985 by Miyazaki Hayao, Takahata Isao and Suzuki Toshio. The company is known for its high-quality filmmaking with hand-drawn animation and rich storytelling.

Some of the company's most notable animated films include Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke.