# Can anyone use DALL-E 2 now that the waitlist is gone?

Date: 2022-09-29 · Author: Robert Scales · https://guidetoartificialintelligence.com/en/learn/dall-e-2-no-waitlist/

**Answer:** Yes. On 28 September 2022 OpenAI removed the waitlist for DALL-E, so anyone can now sign up and start creating images right away, with the same free monthly credits and paid top-ups as before. OpenAI says more than 1.5 million people already use it to make over 2 million images a day.

The line to use DALL-E is gone. Yesterday OpenAI announced that its image generator no longer has a waitlist: new users can sign up and begin making pictures from text descriptions immediately. The service is still labeled a beta, and the way you pay for it has not changed.

This is the last step in a gradual opening that started in April, when DALL-E 2 was first shown to a small group of testers. OpenAI says that what it learned along the way, especially about misuse, is what makes wider access possible now.

## What changed yesterday

OpenAI's blog post of 28 September 2022 makes three announcements:

- **No more waiting:** anyone can create an account and start using DALL-E right away.
- **Better safety systems:** filters now do a better job of rejecting attempts to create sexual, violent and other banned content, and OpenAI has new ways of detecting and responding to misuse.
- **An API is coming:** a DALL-E **API**, a way for programmers to connect their own apps to the system, is being tested with several customers and will be offered more broadly to developers and businesses soon.

OpenAI also shares how large the service has become: more than 1.5 million active users making over 2 million images a day, a group that includes artists, creative directors, writers and architects. Its Discord community, where users share images and feedback, has more than 100,000 members by OpenAI's count; TechCrunch, quoting the same announcement, puts it at about 100,000.

## How DALL-E got here

OpenAI calls its approach **iterative deployment**: release a powerful system in stages, watch how people use and misuse it, fix problems, then widen access. The company's own timeline of DALL-E 2 looks like this:

| Stage | What happened |
|---|---|
| Research preview (April) | DALL-E 2 paper published; access for 200 artists, researchers and trusted users |
| Gradual expansion | About 1,000 new users a week added to the preview |
| Paid beta (July) | Credit pricing introduced; over 1 million people invited from the waitlist |
| New feature | **Outpainting** added to the editor |
| No waitlist (28 September) | Open sign-up for everyone |

Outpainting, which came out of artists' feedback, lets you extend a picture past its original edges, so a portrait can grow into a full room or a landscape can widen into a panorama. OpenAI says artists' input also shaped features such as collections for organizing work.

## What it costs

Pricing carries over from the beta that began in July. Every user receives 50 free credits in the first month and 15 free credits each month after that. One credit buys one prompt, which returns four images, or one edit or variation, which returns three. Extra credits cost $15 for 115.

Here is what a careful beginner might do with a first month's 50 free credits:

1. Spend 10 credits trying one idea in several styles, for example "a lighthouse at dusk" as a watercolor, a pencil sketch and a 35mm photograph.
2. Spend 10 credits on variations of the two or three best images.
3. Spend 10 credits on edits, changing one detail at a time (the sky, a color, an added object).
4. Try outpainting on a favorite image to widen it.
5. Keep the rest for a second project once you know which prompts work.

> **Try it:** Pick one subject and write the same prompt in three styles before you sign up. When you get access, run all three, choose a winner, and make one edit to it. Keep a short note of each prompt and what came back; that log will teach you more than any list of tips.

## Why it matters

DALL-E's opening comes in a crowded and fast-moving season for image generators. Midjourney and Stability AI's Stable Diffusion compete for the same users, and Stable Diffusion can be downloaded and run by anyone without restrictions, with its safety tools left optional. TechCrunch describes OpenAI's slower, staged release as a contrast to that approach, and notes the debate it has fed: Representative Anna Eshoo has written to U.S. national security and science officials about openly released models, and earlier this month Getty Images banned AI-generated illustrations from its library over copyright concerns.

Against that background, removing the waitlist signals that OpenAI is now confident enough in its filters and monitoring to let anyone in. It also puts a polished, filtered image tool within reach of teachers, small businesses and hobbyists who have been waiting for months. Companies are interested too: TechCrunch reports that Stitch Fix, Nestlé and Heinz have tried DALL-E 2 for advertising, so far on a case-by-case basis.

## How do you get started with DALL-E today?

Go to OpenAI's DALL-E sign-up page, create an account, and you can begin straight away with your free credits. Type a description in the prompt box and press generate. You will get four images. From there you can save the ones you like, ask for variations, or open one in the editor to change part of it or extend it with outpainting.

A few habits help. Describe the subject, the style and the setting in one clear sentence. Change one thing at a time when a result is close, rather than starting over. And read the content policy before you begin: DALL-E still rejects uploads with realistic faces, refuses attempts to depict public figures, and blocks violent, adult and political images.

Since July, users have held full rights to commercialize what they create, including reprinting and selling it, so the pictures you make can go into a newsletter, a classroom handout or a product, within those content rules.

## Sources

- DALL·E Now Available Without Waitlist: https://openai.com/blog/dall-e-now-available-without-waitlist/
- OpenAI removes the waitlist for DALL-E 2, allowing anyone to sign up: https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/28/openai-removes-the-waitlist-for-dall-e-2-allowing-anyone-to-sign-up/
- DALL·E Now Available in Beta: https://openai.com/blog/dall-e-now-available-in-beta/