Midjourney Has Bought the Astrology App Co-Star, and the Reasons Are Genuinely Interesting

Key points

• Midjourney acquired Co-Star, a social astrology app with roughly 4.3 million monthly active users, according to Bloomberg via TechCrunch AI.
• Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• Co-Star's team of about two dozen employees has joined Midjourney.
• Midjourney currently has no standalone app of its own, operating almost entirely through Discord.
• The acquisition adds to a growing and eclectic Midjourney portfolio that already includes a medical arm and a spa.

Midjourney, the AI lab best known for letting people type a sentence and get a striking image back, has bought Co-Star, a social astrology app that millions of people use to check their birth charts and share compatibility readings with friends.

The price was not made public.

What is Co-Star, exactly?

Co-Star uses both AI-generated text and writing by human astrologers to produce horoscopes and compatibility assessments based on a user's birth date and location. About 4.3 million people open it every month, mostly to check whether their Virgo tendencies clash with their partner's Scorpio ones, then send the result as a screenshot. It's a social network built around astrological identity, and a writing tool that personalises the output for each user.

Why would an image-generation company want this?

Honestly, the fit isn't obvious. Midjourney built its name on AI image generation, the technology that turns a written description into a picture. It runs almost entirely through Discord, the group-chat platform, and has never released a standalone app. This is only the second Midjourney story we've reported, both from the past 90 days, and each time the company has looked less like a focused image tool and more like a lab casting in several directions at once.

The company is reportedly also building a medical product and, yes, a spa. An astrology app is a big swing for a lab still defined by one Discord server.

The likely prize is talent. Co-Star's two dozen employees have real experience shipping a polished consumer app. That's exactly what Midjourney would need if it ever wants to get off Discord and into people's pockets.

What does this mean for Co-Star users?

Nothing changes immediately. The app should keep working as normal. Longer term, Midjourney's image-generation technology could make Co-Star's charts and readings look a lot more interesting, though nothing's been announced there.

Here's the data angle worth knowing: Co-Star collects your exact birth time, date and location, and ties that to your social connections inside the app. That personal data now sits with Midjourney. Neither company has said how it will be handled post-acquisition. If you're careful about what you share with AI companies, check what Co-Star holds on you in the app's settings before assuming nothing has changed.

My read: the astrology angle is a distraction. The real story is whether Midjourney can absorb a consumer-app team and finally ship something that doesn't live inside Discord.

Common questions

Does Co-Star cost anything to use?

Co-Star is free to download, with optional paid features. No pricing changes have been announced.

Is Midjourney free to use?

There's a limited free trial, then a monthly subscription starting at around $10 for basic access to its image generator via Discord.

Should Co-Star users worry about their data?

No new privacy policy for Co-Star users has been published yet. Check what data the app holds on you via its settings, particularly your birth details and friend connections.