Midjourney Permutation Prompts: 10 Ways to Use Them

Have you ever wanted to generate a range of variations of a prompt with a single command?

Permutation prompts in Midjourney allow you to do exactly this by simply including lists of items separated by commas and wrapped in curly brackets!

They’re one of my favorite things to use in Midjourney to generate a wide range of images fast, iterate on prompts quickly, and generally to save time.

Let’s learn 10 ways to use permutation prompts in Midjourney.

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I love permutations this much. 👆

How to Use Permutation Prompts in Midjourney?

The syntax for using permutation prompts is simple.

Just separate your list with commas, and wrap the list in curly braces. Here’s the exact syntax for a permutation prompt in Midjourney.

{item 1, item 2, item 3, etc.}

This line of code is equivalent to 3 separate imagine prompts:

item 1
item 2
item 3
etc.

It works on any part of your prompt, including parameters. On Discord, the bot asks you to confirm the number of prompts before it runs them.

Note: Be careful with your GPU minutes if you’re using a lower plan! Permutation prompts generate images so quickly so it can easily chew up your GPU minutes for the month! To check your remaining GPU time, look at the usage details on your Manage Subscription page, or type /info to the Midjourney bot in Discord.

Your plan also caps how many prompts a single permutation can make: 4 on Basic, 10 on Standard and 40 on Pro and Mega. And permutations only run in Fast or Turbo mode, never Relax (Midjourney’s permutation docs).

Here’s 10 awesome prompts to get you started using permutations in Midjourney. 👇

1. Try Different Colors

Trying different colors is a great way to experiment and create combinations of generated images.

Check out these 3 examples of an Australian coral reef using different color combinations within a permutation prompt.

A {red and pink, pink and purple, yellow and orange} coral reef, shot underwater off the coast of North Queensland, Australia.

2. Try Varying Styles

Varying the stylize parameter in Midjourney is an excellent way to quickly check out varying levels of artistic expression in your generated images.

Here’s 3 examples of a high fashion tiger generated using a single prompt with varying stylize values. I’ve also outlined the power of varying styles when making AI pixel art with Midjourney.

A tiger wearing silicon, high fashion, intricate details shown by the high resolution photography --s {100, 500, 1000}

3. Use Different Nouns

Creating multiple prompt variations using the permutation feature is a great way to substitute a range of different objects or things into a single prompt.

Here’s an example permutation prompt where I changed the primary object with a permutation prompt.

A {puppy, kitten, baby cow} happy with excitement, in the style of cartoon realism, Disney animation, hyper-realistic portraits, 32k uhd, cute cartoonish designs, wallpaper, luminous brushwork

4. Try Different Lighting

Trying out different lighting in your image generation is an excellent way to control the mood and general aesthetics of your creations.

Try out different lighting settings with permutation prompts to get your desired results much faster.

The world’s largest church towering over a town, photograph taken from the town {morning light, midday light, afternoon light}

5. Leverage Different Adjectives

Using different adjectives in your permutation prompt is a handy tool when you’re not exactly sure of what you want.

Using different adjectives is a neat way to let Midjourney get your creative juices flowing next time you might have some prompter’s block. 😆

A {classic, modern, rusty} sports car hard parked with curious onlookers from a far

6. Varying Chaos for Creatives

Chaos (called Variety in the website’s settings, but I like chaos better 😊) is a parameter in Midjourney that when increased can produce unexpected results.

Varying the chaos parameter within curly braces is a great way to generate unexpected and random AI generated images. You’ll see exactly what I mean in the images below!

A painter's palette --c {1, 50, 100}

7. Weirdness Parameter

The weirdness parameter is similar to the chaos parameter as it allows you to introduce weird and quirky attributes to your generated images and produce unexpected outcomes.

You’ll notice that similar to the chaos parameter, weirdness generates some.. weird stuff!

A digital painting of a duck running and dodging a boss's attacks --w {1, 1500, 3000}

8. Version

Midjourney’s models now run all the way up to V8.2, the default since July 2026, plus the Niji models for anime and Eastern styles (Niji 7 is the latest).

Varying the versions can be interesting, but I don’t use it much as oftentimes the latest Midjourney models are the best.

Here’s a simple permutation prompt from 2024 showing how far things had come in 18 months!

A lovely green apple --v {1, 4, 6}

To pit the newest models against each other instead, try --v {6.1, 7, 8.2}.

9. Combinations

Combinations, also known as nested permutations, are a great way to combine and vary all the different parameters I’ve outlined here into a single prompt.

Here’s an example of a combination prompt that combines varying nouns, adjectives, and style parameters. (Note: this generates 27 x 4 lots of images, so it needs a Pro or Mega plan. Careful with your GPU minutes.)

A {happy, sad, confused} {cat, mouse, dog} --s {100, 500, 1000}

10. My Gigachad Permutation Prompt

This is my go to prompt for generating a massive image set in a single hit.

It’s great if you’re looking to generate logos in Midjourney or other styles where you might need a bit of luck in the generated images to get what you’re after.

[Your Prompt] --s {100, 200, 600, 1000} --c {1, 50, 100} --w {1, 1500, 3000}

Appending this specific permutation prompt onto the back of your text prompt will generate a total of 144 unique images (36 lots of 4). That’s 36 prompts, so it needs a Pro or Mega plan.

Again, be careful with your GPU minutes!

Advanced Permutation Prompting (Cheat Sheet)

I’ve put together this cheat sheet featuring 5 of my advanced go-to Midjourney permutations. Feel free to save it and try these permutations out for yourself!

The infographic shows the original 2024 versions. The text versions below are updated for V8: --raw instead of the old --style raw (more on that in my raw mode guide), and newer models in Nested Models.

Here’s the text versions you can save for later:

Old Faithful:
--s {100, 200, 600, 1000} --c {1, 50, 100}

Random Styler:
--sref random --repeat 4 OR --sref {random, random}

Cycle Raw:
--s {80, 90, 100, 110, 120} {--w 0, --raw}

Nested Models
{--v {6.1, 7, 8.2}, --niji {6, 7}}

Shotgun:
{--s {1, 100, 1000} --c {0, 25} --w {0, 1000}} {--w 0, --raw}

Plan check: Old Faithful (12 prompts) and Shotgun (24) need Pro or Mega. Cycle Raw (10) and Nested Models (5) fit on Standard, and Random Styler (4) runs on any plan.

Common Mistakes When Using Permutation Prompts

Let’s go over some of the most common mistakes I’ve seen when working with permutation prompts in Midjourney.

• Used GPU Minutes: In the Midjourney web app, if you notice all your generations are failing, it’s most likely because you’ve used up your GPU minutes for the month. To check how much Fast time you have remaining, look at the usage details on your Manage Subscription page, or type /info to the Midjourney bot in Discord.

• Too Many Prompts for Your Plan: A permutation that makes more prompts than your plan allows (4 on Basic, 10 on Standard, 40 on Pro and Mega) won’t run. Trim your lists or split it into a couple of smaller prompts.

• Relax Mode: Permutations don’t work in Relax mode. Switch to Fast for the permutation, then back to Relax afterwards.

• Wrong Syntax: If your permutation prompts are sending errors when you try to enter them, make sure the syntax is right. You must use curly braces { } and your items must be separated by a comma. Need a comma inside one of your options? Put a backslash in front of it, like {red, pastel \, yellow} bird.

• Double Dash: This is another common syntax mistake that can cause issues. When using parameters make sure your prompt has a double dash, with a space before it. A lot of tools, WordPress for example automatically removes double dashes and puts a single dash in place – this will make your permutation prompts fail.

If your permutation prompts aren’t working it’s most likely you’ve either run out of GPU minutes, hit your plan’s limit, or there’s a mistake with your permutation syntax.

Wrapping Up

Today we went over how to use permutation prompts in Midjourney.

Permutations are one of my favorite prompt hacks to use in Midjourney when trying to generate unexpected images, or large collections fast. Keep my Midjourney cheat sheet handy for the parameters to mix in.

Remembering the simple syntax will come in handy for any aspiring prompt engineer using Midjourney!

Happy prompting. 😎