See the links to the first 500 NightCafé competitions below.
Australian content
There are many Australians on the NightCafé site, so there are plenty of examples of artistic creations related to Australia. There are also overseas art creators who have made Australia-related artworks. Additionally, there was an official competition with the theme of “Australia” (see the Gallery view), which encouraged a lot of AI art to be made regarding Australia; and it’s possible that there may be more competitions in the future with Australian topics (such as kangaroos, koalas, Ayers Rock, etc.) — at least, we hope so.
NightCafé also enables private competitions, and there have been various Australian-themed competitions for people to enter.
As the NightCafé site is used by people from all over the globe, the site itself is not necessarily an example of Australian culture; however, it is a good example of a successful Australian enterprise, which is why it is being promoted here.
Daily competitions
The NightCafé crowd run official daily competitions (called “challenges”), wherein a broad theme is given, users enter their artworks into the competition, the NightCafé community vote upon the entries, and the top scorers win credits.
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners get some great bonuses, whilst those ranking in the top 5%, 10%, and 20% get some nice extras too.
For the latest competitions, see the “Daily Challenges” section on NightCafé, which shows “Today’s Challenge” (notifying creators of the current competition) and “Yesterday’s Challenge” (where members can vote for the previous day’s competition); it also gives links to the results of the previous daily competitions.
Models (both free and credit-driven)
There a number of different art-creating “Models” which can be used to make your creations.
There is a free model (currently DreamShaper v8). There are also some advanced models, which cost credits to use. The amount of credits needed for each model vary, and those costs may change.
At the time of updating this text (24 Feb. 2025), most of the general models cost 0.5 or 1 credit each (although there was one which cost 1.5, and one for 4 credits). To make an animated creation costs a fair amount of credits. The best general model to use at this stage seems to be the Flux Schnell model (0.5 credits per image).
Many people join the Pro plan, whereby they can use the advanced Pro models.
Credits (including free credits)
You can earn free credits every day, in several ways. You get 5 credits just for logging into the site every day, 2 credits for voting on official competitions, and, if you hit the “Like” button on 25 creations made by other people, you can get the “Love Bomber badge”, which earns you another 5 credits each day.
So you can get at least 12 free credits per day (plus any extras which you may pick up).
You can obtain extra credits for earning a variety of achievements and getting various badges (mostly related to your activity and interconnectivity on the site).
You can earn more credits by entering and voting in boosted competitions (which cost nothing to join), and by making a creation for 5 days in a row (5 Day Streak badge). Earning other badges can earn you even more credits.
There’s also the extra credits you could win if you decide to try your luck (or skill) in the daily official competitions (which cost nothing to enter). There are also private competitions in which you can win even more credits. There’s a lot of credits you can get for free.
If you want even more credits, then you can buy them — that is not some kind of trick, as you can get a usable number of credits just by getting your freebies every day (and, don’t forget, you can use the free model too). However, if you are seriously into creating artworks, then you might just want to pay for some extra credits — it’s well worth it, as can be seen by the number of people on the site with the “Pro” notation on their profile. But, if you want to, you can have some great fun making nice art on the site without ever paying a cent.
In March 2024 referral links were added, so you can get extra credits by introducing people to the NightCafé site.
Examples of great art on NightCafé
If you want to look at some of the best artworks on the site, then have a look at their “Explore AI Generated Art” section, or check out the daily competition winners (see the links below).
The “Masterpiece Monday” and “No-Theme Thursday” competitions can be really good, as it’s a free-for-all of great art, so those competitions can showcase a lot of talent.
It’s not a perfect world
You should be aware that the AI art process is not perfect (which applies to all of the AI art sites on the internet). Hands and eyes can often be a bit tricky for some reason, and if you want some text in your image (for example, if you include a banner or sign in your creation) it may not come out quite right (although hopefully all of these problems will be rectified or minimised as AI art programming develops and improves in the future).
Sometimes the AI can be a loose cannon, and you might not always get what you wanted (mind you, sometimes it makes some amazing things, just by accident).
However, the more you learn about the process, the more you can control it. Creating AI art is a learning process, and it may be worthwhile to visit the forums, to watch tutorial videos on YouTube, and to ask other creators a bunch of questions, so that you can become more skilled at making AI art.
Join NightCafé and try it out for free
If you are new to AI art, don’t let your lack of knowledge of AI techniques stop you from creating art on NightCafé — just jump in and try making some random artistic creations. It’s easy to type in some test prompt words (e.g. “kangaroo in the bush with the sun shining”), and hit the “Create” button. Use the free model to experiment, and then, once you think you’ve got the hang of things, have a go with the better models.
If you make any images that you think are good, hit the “Publish” button, and show the world; if you don’t like some of them, then you can delete them or leave them in your folder unpublished. On some other AI image sites, all of the creations are public; the privacy set-up of NightCafé is far better.
There’s so much you can do on NightCafé, so go and give it a try!
NightCafé competitions
For the latest competitions, see the “Daily Challenges” section on NightCafé, which shows “Today’s Challenge” (notifying creators of the current competition) and “Yesterday’s Challenge” (where members can vote for the previous day’s competition); it also gives links to the results of the previous daily competitions.
Check out the previous competition entries:
NightCafé competitions, 401-500
NightCafé competitions, 301-400
NightCafé competitions, 201-300
NightCafé competitions, 101-200
NightCafé competitions, 1-100
You can see just how much the AI art technology has improved if you compare the earlier creations with the latest creations.
Related resources
NightCafé Studio, NightCafé site
Blog, NightCafé blog
Knowledge Base, NightCafé site
Feedback and Support, NightCafé site
Social media
NightCafe AI Art Official, NightCafé on Facebook
NightCafe Studio, NightCafé on Linkin.bio (site: Later)
nightcafestudio, NightCafé on Instagram
r/nightcafe, NightCafé on Reddit
nightcafestudio, NightCafé on Tik Tok
NightCafe Studio, NightCafé on X (ex-Twitter)
NightCafe Studio, NightCafé on YouTube
Joining NightCafé
If you use this referral link to join NightCafé, it can give the IAC account some extra credits, without any cost to you (a big thank you to anyone who uses our referral link).
As of 24 February 2025, the general links on the IAC posts regarding NightCafé are referral links.
Note: The information in this post may change, depending on NightCafé’s policies and circumstances.
Updated 2 March 2025
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