Who is Ideogram 4 actually for? Not individual creators, apparently
Your licensing page is actively misleading.
The Non-Commercial tier says "Outputs are yours" — full stop. No asterisk, no clarification. A normal person reads this and thinks: my images, my rights.
But then the actual license agreement reveals that using those images to make any money — even as a solo developer generating assets for their own app — violates the Non-Commercial terms and requires a $300/month license.
You cannot say "Outputs are yours" and then require payment to actually use those outputs. That's not a license tier, that's a bait-and-switch.
On top of that, $300/month will simply push away the majority of small independent creators — people building their own projects without company funding, without investors, without a team. Someone who just wants to generate images for their own small community page or personal brand cannot justify that cost. These are exactly the users who would evangelize your model, share it, and grow your reputation organically.
Here's the thing: your paid Self-Serve tier starts at 10,000 images/month. That's already a serious volume — not a hobbyist number. So why not introduce a free commercial tier capped at, say, 1,000–2,000 images/month? A solo creator running a small community group for self-promotion doesn't need 10,000 images. They need 50. Charging them $300/month for that is not a pricing strategy — it's a wall.
Please either:
- Clearly state on the free tier page that commercial use of outputs is prohibited (fix the misleading wording), and
- Consider a lightweight free commercial tier for small independent users — it costs you almost nothing and builds a loyal community around your model.
Right now you're alienating the exact people who would have become your loudest advocates.
And to make it worse — the Self-Serve license form itself requires a "Company name" and "Company size." There is no option for an individual creator. You have literally designed this license for teams and businesses only, while your free tier weights are downloaded by thousands of solo developers and independent creators. An individual cannot even properly fill out your form. That alone tells you everything about who this license is actually for — and who you've decided doesn't matter.
How long does it typically take to get a response from your team? I've been looking through the discussions here and haven't seen any replies from Ideogram in the past 25 days — across multiple topics, not just licensing. Is this channel actively monitored? If this isn't the right place to reach you, please point us to one that is.