The first thing you need to know is that the Bing image generator is literally just a couple of clicks away if you use Microsoft Edge . You don’t need to be a genius or pay for some weird subscription. You just open the browser, type something like “create an image of…” into the search bar, and that’s it, you get four results in no time.
What few people mention is that you now have two different models to choose from for free . On one hand there’s the classic DALL-E 3, which is pretty fast, and on the other they recently added GPT-4o . This new one is more precise, especially with text inside the image, and it understands complicated descriptions better, but watch out, it takes a bit longer to generate them .
The whole “boosts” thing is trickier than it seems . They give you 15 a day to generate quickly, but when you use them up you can still create as much as you want. The catch is that then you go slower, and at certain times you might have to wait several minutes. I’ve tried generating at night and it runs much more smoothly, in case you’re interested.
Microsoft Designer and Bing Image Creator are no longer the same even though they come from the same place . They used to share a system, but now Designer runs on monthly credits (only 15 per month) and is more focused on templates and professional designs. The Bing one keeps the 15 daily boosts and is better for trying out ideas with no commitment .
The big pain is that it only generates square images . No matter what you ask for, it always comes out in square format. To use as a wallpaper or for presentations you have to crop them afterwards with another program, which is a pain. They say they might change it later on, but for now we’re stuck with 1:1.
What surprised me most is how it handles text inside the image . With GPT-4o I’ve managed to get it to write specific words and place them more or less correctly, which with DALL-E used to be a lottery as to whether phrases would come out making sense. For making posters or memes it works like a charm now.
You have to specify the styles yourself because there are no little buttons . If you don’t put “anime style,” “photorealistic,” or “pixel art” in the description, it makes very generic things that look like they came from a bland stock photo site. I’ve learned to craft prompts with details, and the difference is huge.
The 15-boost limit isn’t as restrictive as I thought . When they run out, you keep generating but without priority. And if you’re very impatient, you can redeem Microsoft Rewards points for more speed . All in all, for testing concepts or quick ideas, the normal speed is more than enough.
The Edge integration is the most convenient if you work on a computer . From the browser’s sidebar you can generate images while you have other tabs open. You don’t need to be going to the Bing website every five minutes, although sometimes the website gives you more options to refine the results.
That watermark that appears on the images is small but it’s there . In the bottom left corner it marks it as AI-generated, and if you crop it to remove the mark it might not look as professional afterwards. For personal social media it’s fine, but for more serious projects you’d have to edit it with another tool.
