# DALL-E

12 Hacker News commenters recommended DALL-E and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for fun image generation and quick design ideas like wedding outfits. Critics note a recognizable look and abrupt retirement of older versions.

## Why people recommend it

- Fun experimental image output (3 comments): "the weird surreal images it generated were still pretty fun from an experimental point of view" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47864344)) "I was using DALL-E to create stickers, and was like "oh shit"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48424019)) "It had a really nice vibe to it, so worth preserving." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47858697))
- Impressive capability (2 comments): "trying to convey the gravity of this capability to my friends" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48417658)) "It was utterly mindblowing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48421659))
- Quick design iteration for outfits (2 comments): "My wife actually used an early Dall E to iterate on the design for my wedding sherwani." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49173068)) "she iterated on our wedding clothes by using Dall-E to design the ideas she had" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131280))

## What people warn about

- Recognizable AI look (3 comments): "The hacks on X calling themselves incredible artists because they can prompt Dall-E - slop." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45792596)) "I can't unsee echoes of DALE-2 horrors that color my perception of post-2022 digital art" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47980287)) "the same “ugh another one” feeling as Dall-E generated images would give" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48076752))
- Color cast and flat output (2 comments): "Most DALL-E 3 images have a orange-blue cast, which is absolutely not an unintended artifact." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45896691)) "they output flattened raster images" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46029407))
- Older versions shut down abruptly (2 comments): "OpenAI hadn't killed Dall-E labs with almost no heads-up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46398535)) "Then they killed Dall-E 2 and my credits vaporized." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517026))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Nano Banana](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nano-banana-pro.md): 265 recommend
- [gpt-image-1](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gpt-image-1-5.md): 79 recommend
- [FLUX.2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/flux-2.md): 66 recommend
- [gpt-image-2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gpt-image-2.md): 63 recommend
- [Qwen-Image](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qwen-image-2-1.md): 47 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://openai.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "DALL-E", https://hackerapproved.com/p/dall-e/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).