Directory / By profession / Designers
Best AI tools for designers
A lot of a designer's week goes on the work around the design: wireframes and sitemaps, placeholder and concept imagery, vector cleanup, and rescuing low-resolution client files. AI covers much of that groundwork, while the taste decisions stay with you.
- 01 Prototypes from your design system: Figma Make
- 02 Concept art and mood imagery: Midjourney
- 03 Editable vector icons and logos: Recraft
- 04 Sitemaps and wireframes: Relume
- 05 Generative edits inside Photoshop: Adobe Firefly
- 06 Rescuing low-resolution files: Magnific
Prototypes from your design system
Figma Make
Included in paid Figma plans, from $16/editor/mo
Generates against your existing Figma components rather than inventing new ones, so the output already follows your system. The cheapest seat that meaningfully covers it is Professional Full at $16/mo; a single prompt can use 30 to 300+ credits, so the free daily allotment runs out fast.
- Free tier
- Starter (free) plan includes 150 AI credits/day, platform-wide, not Make-specific. Figma Make is technically usable on this allotment, but a single Make prompt often costs 30-300+ credits, so it is exhausted quickly.
Concept art and mood imagery
Midjourney
From $10/mo
Still the highest ceiling on pure image quality, with style and character references to keep a project consistent. No free tier; Basic is $10/mo ($8/mo billed annually). Wrong for precise output that has to match a spec.
- Free tier
- None: Midjourney has been subscription-only since removing its free trial in March 2023
Editable vector icons and logos
Recraft
Free · from $12/mo
Outputs genuine SVG that opens and edits in Figma or Illustrator, with brand style sets to keep a series consistent. Free images are public and carry no commercial rights, so client work needs Basic at $12/mo for 1,000 credits.
- Free tier
- Free plan, daily-reset credits (exact count unpublished); images are public and owned by Recraft, no commercial rights
Sitemaps and wireframes
Relume
Free · from $18/mo
Generates the sitemap first and then the wireframes, and Starter at $18/mo exports to Webflow, React or Figma. It solves information architecture, not visual design, which is exactly the part worth handing off.
- Free tier
- 1 user, 1 project, 1 wireframe page, 30 Webflow/React components, limited AI usage, view-only sharing
Generative edits inside Photoshop
Adobe Firefly
Included with Creative Cloud · from $10/mo standalone
Generative Fill in Photoshop is the strongest in-context editing available, and the model is trained on licensed material with Adobe indemnity, which matters for client and enterprise work. Standalone Firefly Standard is $9.99/mo for 2,000 credits.
- Free tier
- Limited monthly generative credits (reported as roughly 25/mo), watermarked outputs
Rescuing low-resolution files
Magnific
From $20/mo
Upscales by inventing plausible detail, with a creativity slider that controls how much it invents. Premium is $20/mo ($14.50/mo billed annually) as part of a shared credit pool. Never use it where invented detail would misrepresent the original.
- Free tier
- Reported free tier of roughly 20 images/day as part of the unified Freepik/Magnific plan, not independently confirmed against the primary page
What you can skip
Canva hands back a finished template layout for non-designers, and its listing marks it wrong for anyone who wants the best raw image and will lay it out themselves, which is a designer's normal workflow. Canva profile.
Head-to-heads between these picks
Other professions
Some outbound links are affiliate links, marked sponsored. Several tools on this page pay us nothing. Affiliate status never decides what is picked or the order it appears in.