GPT Image 2.6 Tops the Artificial Analysis Image Leaderboard, Flare Nearly Doubles in Speed
Artificial Analysis's hands-on testing shows that GPT Image 2.6, released by OpenAI on November 4, swept the top two spots on both the AA-Image-T2I v2.1 and AA-Image-Editing v2.1 leaderboards. GPT Image 2.6 Flare's median text-to-image generation time dropped from about 55 seconds to 30 seconds, and editing from about 58 seconds to 32 seconds, with a slight improvement in image quality; GPT Image 2.6 Sunburst takes about 2 minutes 15 seconds per image and claims first place, with the biggest gains in reasoning, text rendering, lighting, and materials. Both models support text-to-image and image editing, and add animated GIF and SVG output; API pricing is $30 per 1 million image output tokens, roughly $0.21 per 1024x1024 image.
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Artificial Analysis's hands-on testing compares the speed, image quality, and pricing of the two GPT Image 2.6 models, helping you decide whether to choose Flare or Sunburst.
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OpenAI's GPT Image 2.6 takes #1 and #2 on both AA-Image-T2I v2.1 and AA-Image-Editing v2.1. GPT Image 2.6 Flare is almost twice as fast as GPT Image 2.5 Flare with slightly better quality, and GPT Image 2.6 Sunburst takes the top spot with longer generation times
OpenAI released GPT Image 2.6 on November 4 in ChatGPT, Codex and the API. The API offers two models, GPT Image 2.6 Flare and GPT Image 2.6 Sunburst, which follow GPT Image 2.5 Flare and Sunburst. Both support Text to Image and Image Editing, and add animated GIF and SVG output. OpenAI added a complexity setting to the API, which controls how much the model plans before rendering. We benchmarked both models at max quality, with complexity at its API default of high.
In our testing, GPT Image 2.6 Flare is almost twice as fast as GPT Image 2.5 Flare while delivering slightly better quality. Its median Text to Image generation time fell from about 55 to 30 seconds, and its editing time fell from about 58 to 32 seconds. GPT Image 2.6 Sunburst goes the other way: it takes longer than GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, at about 2 minutes 15 seconds per image, and takes the #1 spot. Its largest Text to Image gains are in Reasoning, Text Rendering, Lighting and Material, and it is strongest in UIUX Design.
Both models cost $30 per 1M image output tokens, the same as GPT Image 2.5. That is about $0.21 per 1024x1024 image at max quality ($211 per 1k images).
GPT Image 2.6 is available in ChatGPT and Codex across all tiers, and in the OpenAI API.
Congratulations to @OpenAI on the release!
See below for our analysis of GPT Image 2.6 in the Artificial Analysis Image Arena 🧵