September 18, 2026
Image generation gets cheaper and faster: Muse Image, MAI-Image-2.6, and GPT-Image-2.5 enter the top 7
In Artificial Analysis's September 18, 2026 snapshot, GPT-Image-2.5 Flare took 1st place in text-to-image. Sunburst took 2nd place, MAI-Image-2.6 4th, and Muse Image 7th.
Artificial Analysis
@artificialanlys
Generating high-quality images has become cheaper and faster than ever. In recent weeks, Muse Image, MAI-Image-2.6, and GPT Images 2.5 have noticeably shifted the Pareto frontier for text-to-image in price and speed.
· 86.2K views
Generating high-quality images now requires less of a trade-off between price and speed. In recent weeks, Muse Image, MAI-Image-2.6, and GPT-Image-2.5 have shifted the frontier for text-to-image.
Previously, price and speed pulled choices in different directions. Now, at the same price, you can get more speed, and at the same speed, pay less.
**Artificial Analysis snapshot, 18.09.2026.** - GPT-Image-2.5 Flare — 1st place, Elo 1186, $210,7 per 1000 images. - GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst — 2nd place, Elo 1180, $210,7 per 1000 images. - MAI-Image-2.6 — 4th place, Elo 1146, $38,9 per 1000 images. - Muse Image — 7th place, Elo 1113, $10 per 1000 images.
Access. Muse Image is available in Meta AI: standard generation is free, while extended use is included in Meta subscription plans. MAI-Image-2.6 and MAI-Image-2.6-Flash are available in public preview through Microsoft Foundry and MAI Playground. ChatGPT Images 2.5 is available in ChatGPT and Codex, while GPT-Image-2.5 Flare and Sunburst are available through the OpenAI API.
API integration and pricing. OpenAI shows the call `client.images.generate(model="gpt-image-2.5-sunburst", prompt=...)`; the REST endpoint is `/v1/images/generations`.
- GPT-Image-2.5: $8 per 1M image input tokens, $2 per 1M cached image input tokens, and $30 per 1M image output tokens. Text input costs $5 per 1M standard and $1,25 per 1M cached tokens. - MAI-Image-2.6: $5 per 1M text input tokens, $8 per 1M image input tokens, and $38 per 1M image output tokens. - MAI-Image-2.6-Flash: $1,75, $2,50, and $19 for the same three token types.
OpenAI says Flare delivers higher quality than GPT Image 2 with 50% lower latency. Microsoft says Flash generates images 2,8 times faster than GPT-Image-2-Medium and delivers 72% greater efficiency.
The next Artificial Analysis snapshot will show whether the new gap between models in price and speed holds.
* Meta Platforms Inc. is recognized in Russia as an extremist organization, and its activities are prohibited; Facebook and Instagram are blocked. Meta AI and other company products are products of this organization.
