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Microsoft AIImage modelPreview

MAI-Image-2.6 Flash

MAI-Image-2.6 Flash is rank 31 of 108 in our GraduallyBench test.

Arena ratingnot rated

n/aUser voteshigher is better

GraduallyBenchRank 31 of 108

67our own rating0 to 100

PriceRank 4 of 28

$0.019per imagelower is better

PopularityRank 670 of 875

0out of 100same as last month

Summary

At $0.019 per image it is cheap; a typical image model costs $0.06.

MAI-Image-2.6 Flash prioritizes speed and cost within the family. Microsoft presents Flash with MAI-Image-2.6 as the speed variant; text-to-image generation and precise image-to-image editing with targeted object, layout, and text changes remain available.

Like MAI-Image-2.6, Flash remains in preview. Microsoft documents a 32,000-token context, PNG output with at least 768 pixels on each side, and a 2,359,296-pixel total ceiling. Authentication uses Microsoft Entra ID or an API key. Proprietary weights, Foundry access, and preview status remain, with no local installation path documented.

Image samples from our tests

These images come from documented single requests with an archived prompt. They complement measurements but do not replace a controlled laboratory test.

Character and detailOpen Character and detail at original size

Character and detail

This sample tests Anatomy, clothing, and spatial consistency.

Prompt and settings

Create a square cinematic full-body portrait of a fictional bicycle courier waiting under a transparent umbrella at a rainy tram stop in Hamburg at blue hour. She wears a mustard raincoat, navy trousers, red sneakers, a silver helmet, and carries a teal messenger bag. Keep both hands visible, render the bicycle correctly, use realistic wet-street reflections, and include no readable brand names.

Generated through openrouter with model ID microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash. Archived settings were aspect ratio 1:1, provider default resolution, received 1024x1024, n=1, seed=provider random, actual cost $0.019587.

Open source
InfographicOpen Infographic at original size

Infographic

This sample tests Numbers, labels, and visual organization.

Prompt and settings

Create a square German infographic titled SO FUNKTIONIERT PHOTOSYNTHESE. Show exactly four numbered steps in this order: 1 LICHT, 2 WASSER, 3 CO₂, 4 ZUCKER + SAUERSTOFF. Use a clean editorial science style with one plant cross-section, simple arrows, high contrast, legible labels, and no other text.

Generated through openrouter with model ID microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash. Archived settings were aspect ratio 1:1, provider default resolution, received 1024x1024, n=1, seed=provider random, actual cost $0.019598.

Open source
Product photographyOpen Product photography at original size

Product photography

This sample tests Materials, reflections, and fine details.

Prompt and settings

Create a square premium product photograph of a brushed titanium wristwatch standing upright on dark green marble. The watch has a cream dial, thin black hands set to 10:10, twelve distinct hour markers, a realistic crown, and a dark brown leather strap. Soft window light from the left, controlled reflections, shallow depth of field, no text, no logo, no extra objects.

Generated through openrouter with model ID microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash. Archived settings were aspect ratio 1:1, provider default resolution, received 1024x1024, n=1, seed=provider random, actual cost $0.019589.

Open source
Typography and layoutOpen Typography and layout at original size

Typography and layout

This sample tests Legible text, hierarchy, and composition.

Prompt and settings

Create a square editorial poster for an imaginary night train called MONDFALTER. Show the exact German headline MONDFALTER and the exact subline BERLIN NACH LISSABON. Use a restrained midnight-blue and warm-cream palette, one stylized moth, strong Swiss-grid typography, generous negative space, and no additional words or logos.

Generated through openrouter with model ID microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash. Archived settings were aspect ratio 1:1, provider default resolution, received 1024x1024, n=1, seed=provider random, actual cost $0.019575.

Open source

All benchmark results

Every published result with its source, test setup and comparison models.

Show all 11 published benchmark results

Published benchmarks

Text to Image Arena

Elo ratings summarize pairwise comparisons within this leaderboard. They are not percentages. The scale does not express absolute quality or linear gaps between models.

GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1,222.56 Elo
GPT Image 2.5 Flare1,207.17 Elo
GPT Image 21,188.55 Elo
Grok Imagine Image 2.01,167.96 Elo
MAI-Image-2.61,166.73 Elo
Nano Banana 21,140.04 Elo
Muse Image1,126.51 Elo
GPT Image 1.51,122.98 Elo
MAI-Image-2.6 Flash1,120.06 Elo
MAI-Image-2.51,118.46 Elo
Nano Banana Pro1,117.96 Elo
Nano Banana 2 Lite1,106.52 Elo
Seedream 5.0 Pro1,101.34 Elo
Grok Imagine Image Quality1,048.87 Elo
Qwen-Image-2.11,043.13 Elo
Krea 2 Large1,034.15 Elo
Qwen Image 2.0 Pro1,030.07 Elo
MAI-Image-2.5 Flash1,029.38 Elo
FLUX.2 Flex1,026.13 Elo
Recraft V4.1 Utility1,025.94 Elo
FLUX.2 Max1,020.74 Elo
Krea 2 Medium Turbo1,020.6 Elo
HiDream-O1-Image-1.51,017.32 Elo
Ideogram 4.51,016.15 Elo
Wan 2.6 Text to Image1,015.27 Elo
FLUX.2 Pro1,002.84 Elo
Ideogram 4.01,002.25 Elo
HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct987.91 Elo
HiDream-O1-Image975.27 Elo
FLUX.2 Klein 9B929.74 Elo

higher is betterAs of November 3, 2026Scale: 0 Elo - 1,222.56 Elo

Source: Artificial Analysis
gradually.ai
Methodology and context
Metric
elo-rating
Scale
No upper bound is documented. The chart spans the recorded values and zero.
Participants
30
Methodology and context
AA appearances: 5535. This count does not establish an independent sample. Lower rank: 8. Upper rank: 14. Source model ID: daa01918-0450-4825-992a-eade1f981683. Evidence capture ID: aa-image-text-to-image-v2.1-2026-11-03-b02bfcda6707. Source payload hash: b02bfcda6707b185b316c6b1c2e00ef9efe82010f1e2f2903d32096adb7e1cd9
Source: Artificial Analysis

Image Editing Arena

Elo ratings summarize pairwise comparisons within this leaderboard. They are not percentages. The scale does not express absolute quality or linear gaps between models.

GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1,199.48 Elo
GPT Image 2.5 Flare1,182.52 Elo
MAI-Image-2.61,150.73 Elo
MAI-Image-2.6 Flash1,144.89 Elo
GPT Image 21,136.54 Elo
Seedream 5.0 Pro1,129.33 Elo
Muse Image1,129.11 Elo
MAI-Image-2.51,126.67 Elo
Nano Banana 21,124.08 Elo
GPT Image 1.51,118.78 Elo
Grok Imagine Image 2.01,117.71 Elo
Nano Banana Pro1,108.9 Elo
Grok Imagine Image Quality1,096.22 Elo
MAI-Image-2.5 Flash1,090.4 Elo
Qwen-Image-2.11,081.38 Elo
Ideogram 4.51,068.66 Elo
HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct1,064.33 Elo
Qwen Image 2.0 Pro1,058.03 Elo
Nano Banana 2 Lite1,055.27 Elo
FLUX.2 Klein 9B1,015.61 Elo
FLUX.2 Pro1,013.07 Elo
FLUX.2 Flex1,001.91 Elo
FLUX.2 Max998.74 Elo
HiDream-O1-Image954.61 Elo

higher is betterAs of November 3, 2026Scale: 0 Elo - 1,199.48 Elo

Source: Artificial Analysis
gradually.ai
Methodology and context
Metric
elo-rating
Scale
No upper bound is documented. The chart spans the recorded values and zero.
Participants
24
Methodology and context
AA appearances: 10825. This count does not establish an independent sample. Lower rank: 4. Upper rank: 8. Source model ID: daa01918-0450-4825-992a-eade1f981683. Evidence capture ID: aa-image-image-editing-v2.1-2026-11-03-3c9ca7a083ad. Source payload hash: 3c9ca7a083ada0be4f50daced49cc4d1282114c6ba75a56557795b4ea75aa6f5
Source: Artificial Analysis

Gradually sample test: Typography and layout

The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank from model-blind comparison rounds. One archived first output contributes per model. This remains an n = 1 sample.

Nano Banana 299.7 rank points
FLUX.2 Flex98.1 rank points
FLUX 3 Image96 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Utility95.6 rank points
Wan 2.7 Image94.1 rank points
SenseNova U1.5 Lite93.1 rank points
Kling Image 3.0 Omni92.8 rank points
Nano Banana Pro91.9 rank points
FLUX.2 Max91.6 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Flash88.5 rank points
Grok Imagine Image Quality88.2 rank points
Krea 2 Large86.3 rank points
Firefly Image Model 585.7 rank points
Muse Image85.7 rank points
FLUX 3 Image Klein84.4 rank points
Seedream 4.583.8 rank points
MAI-Image-2.582.2 rank points
Nano Banana 2 Lite82.2 rank points
Qwen Image 2.0 Pro81 rank points
Wan 2.7 Image Pro81 rank points
HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct78.8 rank points
Krea 377.6 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Flash76.6 rank points
HiDream-O1-Image-1.575.7 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Lite75.7 rank points
Luma Uni-1.1 Max75.1 rank points
GPT Image 274.5 rank points
Grok Imagine Image 1.073.8 rank points
Nano Banana 2.172.3 rank points
Krea 2 Medium Turbo71.3 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro71 rank points
Grok Imagine Image 2.070.7 rank points
MAI-Image-2.5 Flash70.1 rank points
Recraft V4.169.5 rank points
FLUX.2 Pro68.9 rank points
Bria FIBO 268.5 rank points
Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)68.2 rank points
ChatGPT Image Latest (API-Alias)67.9 rank points
GPT Image 1 Mini67.9 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Pro67.9 rank points
Ideogram 4.067.3 rank points
Luma Uni-1.167 rank points
Seedream 4.064.8 rank points
GPT Image 2.5 Flare63.9 rank points
LLaDA-Image62 rank points
MAI-Image-2.662 rank points
GPT Image 1.559.5 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 9B Preview55.8 rank points
Reve 2.153.9 rank points
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst53.6 rank points
MAI-Image-2.6 Flash53.6 rank points
Qwen-Image-2.153.6 rank points
Kling Image 3.051.4 rank points
Runway Gen-4 Image51.4 rank points
MOSS-Image-Base50.8 rank points
Qwen Image 2.1 Turbo50.8 rank points
GLM-Image50.2 rank points
FLUX.2 Dev49.8 rank points
FLUX.1 Kontext [max]45.5 rank points
Hy Image 3.5 Preview45.2 rank points
FLUX1.1 [pro]42.1 rank points
LongCat-Image41.4 rank points
Wan 2.6 Text to Image41.1 rank points
Z-Image Turbo39.6 rank points
Nucleus-Image38.3 rank points
Qwen Image 2.1 Pro38.3 rank points
MiniMax Image-0137.4 rank points
Chroma1-HD36.4 rank points
Bria FIBO Lite35.5 rank points
Qwen Image 3.0 Pro35.5 rank points
Z-Image Base32.7 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 9B32.4 rank points
Qwen Image 3.032.4 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 4B31.8 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3 Medium30.8 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large30.8 rank points
OmniGen229.6 rank points
Ideogram 4.528.3 rank points
Vidu Q2 Image26.8 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo25.5 rank points
FLUX1.1 [pro] Ultra21.8 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium21.8 rank points
MOSS-Image-SFT21.5 rank points
Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-SFT21.2 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 420.6 rank points
Sana-Sprint 1.6B 1024px20.6 rank points
FLUX.1 Kontext [pro]19 rank points
Lumina-Image 2.018.4 rank points
Boogu-Image-0.1-Turbo18.1 rank points
HiDream-O1-Image18.1 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 4 Ultra16.2 rank points
Chroma1-Flash16.2 rank points
FLUX.1 [dev]16.2 rank points
Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-Pretrain16.2 rank points
Sana-Sprint 0.6B 1024px15.9 rank points
Midjourney V8.114.3 rank points
HunyuanImage 3.012.5 rank points
AuraFlow v0.311.2 rank points
BAGEL-7B-MoT11.2 rank points
Boogu-Image-0.1-Base9 rank points
SANA-1.5 4.8B 1024px8.1 rank points
LLaDA-Image-Turbo7.8 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 36.9 rank points
Stable Diffusion XL 1.05 rank points
SDXL Turbo3.4 rank points
PixArt-Sigma-XL-2-1024-MS3.1 rank points
SANA-1.5 1.6B 1024px3.1 rank points
Stable Diffusion Turbo0 rank points

higher is betterAs of November 3, 2026Scale: 0 rank points - 100 rank points

Source: Gradually-Bildtest
gradually.ai
Methodology and context
Metric
rank-score-100
Scale
0-100
Participants
108
Sample
1
Methodology and context
One archived image per model, using the first output of the accepted test attempt. Technical repeats are disclosed for the affected image. All 108 images are ranked in three model-blind orderings. The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank. This remains an n = 1 sample, and an automated judge may have visual preferences of its own.
Source: Gradually-Bildtest

Gradually sample test: Product photography

The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank from model-blind comparison rounds. One archived first output contributes per model. This remains an n = 1 sample.

MAI-Image-2.6 Flash90.3 rank points
Krea 2 Large90 rank points
Qwen Image 2.1 Turbo89.7 rank points
Qwen-Image-2.189.7 rank points
GPT Image 289.4 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Lite88.8 rank points
HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct88.2 rank points
MAI-Image-2.688.2 rank points
BAGEL-7B-MoT87.9 rank points
Wan 2.7 Image87.9 rank points
Nano Banana 2 Lite87.2 rank points
Qwen Image 3.087.2 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 9B86.6 rank points
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst86.6 rank points
Wan 2.7 Image Pro86.6 rank points
MOSS-Image-SFT85.7 rank points
Bria FIBO 283.8 rank points
SenseNova U1.5 Lite83.5 rank points
Qwen Image 2.1 Pro83.2 rank points
Grok Imagine Image 1.081.3 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 4B80.7 rank points
Krea 2 Medium Turbo80.7 rank points
Muse Image80.7 rank points
Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)80.7 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Flash76.9 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Pro76.9 rank points
FLUX 3 Image Klein74.8 rank points
Reve 2.173.8 rank points
GPT Image 1 Mini73.5 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 9B Preview72.6 rank points
Qwen Image 3.0 Pro71.3 rank points
Luma Uni-1.1 Max71 rank points
Recraft V4.171 rank points
MAI-Image-2.570.1 rank points
Nano Banana Pro70.1 rank points
Nano Banana 2.169.8 rank points
GPT Image 2.5 Flare69.2 rank points
ChatGPT Image Latest (API-Alias)68.9 rank points
Ideogram 4.568.9 rank points
Grok Imagine Image 2.067.9 rank points
FLUX.2 Flex62.6 rank points
Krea 362.6 rank points
FLUX 3 Image62 rank points
Nucleus-Image62 rank points
Kling Image 3.060.4 rank points
Luma Uni-1.159.5 rank points
FLUX.2 Max58.6 rank points
Qwen Image 2.0 Pro58.3 rank points
FLUX.2 Pro57.9 rank points
Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-Pretrain57.9 rank points
MAI-Image-2.5 Flash57.6 rank points
Wan 2.6 Text to Image53.9 rank points
GPT Image 1.552.3 rank points
HiDream-O1-Image-1.550.8 rank points
Midjourney V8.149.5 rank points
FLUX.1 [dev]46.4 rank points
FLUX.2 Dev46.4 rank points
Firefly Image Model 545.8 rank points
Nano Banana 244.9 rank points
Seedream 4.044.2 rank points
Seedream 4.544.2 rank points
Kling Image 3.0 Omni39.9 rank points
Grok Imagine Image Quality37.1 rank points
MOSS-Image-Base36.1 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Flash36.1 rank points
FLUX.1 Kontext [pro]35.8 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro35.8 rank points
Bria FIBO Lite35.2 rank points
LLaDA-Image35.2 rank points
HunyuanImage 3.033.6 rank points
Runway Gen-4 Image32.7 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Utility32.4 rank points
Vidu Q2 Image32.4 rank points
HiDream-O1-Image31.1 rank points
MiniMax Image-0129.9 rank points
OmniGen229.9 rank points
Z-Image Turbo29.9 rank points
LongCat-Image29.3 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium29 rank points
FLUX.1 Kontext [max]28.7 rank points
FLUX1.1 [pro] Ultra28.3 rank points
LLaDA-Image-Turbo26.8 rank points
Sana-Sprint 1.6B 1024px26.8 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3 Medium25.9 rank points
FLUX1.1 [pro]25.5 rank points
Ideogram 4.022.1 rank points
Z-Image Base21.5 rank points
Sana-Sprint 0.6B 1024px19 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large16.5 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 4 Ultra15.9 rank points
Chroma1-HD15.9 rank points
Lumina-Image 2.015.9 rank points
PixArt-Sigma-XL-2-1024-MS15.9 rank points
Chroma1-Flash15.6 rank points
Hy Image 3.5 Preview15.3 rank points
AuraFlow v0.315 rank points
Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-SFT15 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 314.6 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo14.6 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 413.7 rank points
Stable Diffusion XL 1.012.8 rank points
GLM-Image9 rank points
Boogu-Image-0.1-Base7.8 rank points
Boogu-Image-0.1-Turbo5.6 rank points
SDXL Turbo2.8 rank points
SANA-1.5 4.8B 1024px1.2 rank points
Stable Diffusion Turbo1.2 rank points
SANA-1.5 1.6B 1024px0.3 rank points

higher is betterAs of November 3, 2026Scale: 0 rank points - 100 rank points

Source: Gradually-Bildtest
gradually.ai
Methodology and context
Metric
rank-score-100
Scale
0-100
Participants
108
Sample
1
Methodology and context
One archived image per model, using the first output of the accepted test attempt. Technical repeats are disclosed for the affected image. All 108 images are ranked in three model-blind orderings. The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank. This remains an n = 1 sample, and an automated judge may have visual preferences of its own.
Source: Gradually-Bildtest

Gradually sample test: Character and detail

The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank from model-blind comparison rounds. One archived first output contributes per model. This remains an n = 1 sample.

GPT Image 1.588.8 rank points
Qwen Image 2.0 Pro88.5 rank points
FLUX.2 Pro86.9 rank points
Krea 384.7 rank points
FLUX.2 Dev81.6 rank points
Kling Image 3.0 Omni81.6 rank points
Reve 2.180.1 rank points
Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)79.4 rank points
Wan 2.6 Text to Image78.5 rank points
Wan 2.7 Image Pro78.2 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Flash75.4 rank points
FLUX.2 Flex75.1 rank points
Grok Imagine Image 2.075.1 rank points
MOSS-Image-SFT74.1 rank points
Qwen Image 3.0 Pro74.1 rank points
Seedream 4.072.9 rank points
Firefly Image Model 572.3 rank points
Z-Image Base71 rank points
Z-Image Turbo71 rank points
Bria FIBO Lite70.7 rank points
FLUX.2 Max70.4 rank points
FLUX 3 Image69.5 rank points
MAI-Image-2.5 Flash67.9 rank points
Ideogram 4.567.6 rank points
FLUX 3 Image Klein66.4 rank points
Nucleus-Image66.4 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Utility66.4 rank points
Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-SFT65.4 rank points
Qwen Image 2.1 Pro64.8 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro64.8 rank points
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst64.2 rank points
GPT Image 2.5 Flare63.2 rank points
Wan 2.7 Image63.2 rank points
MAI-Image-2.662.9 rank points
LLaDA-Image62.6 rank points
Qwen Image 3.061.7 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 4B61.1 rank points
Muse Image61.1 rank points
Grok Imagine Image 1.060.7 rank points
Luma Uni-1.1 Max60.4 rank points
GPT Image 260.1 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Pro60.1 rank points
Kling Image 3.059.2 rank points
Ideogram 4.058.9 rank points
HiDream-O1-Image-1.558.3 rank points
HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct57.9 rank points
ChatGPT Image Latest (API-Alias)57 rank points
Nano Banana 2.156.7 rank points
Grok Imagine Image Quality55.8 rank points
MAI-Image-2.554.8 rank points
Krea 2 Large54.2 rank points
FLUX.1 [dev]52.6 rank points
LLaDA-Image-Turbo52.6 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 452.3 rank points
MAI-Image-2.6 Flash52 rank points
Midjourney V8.151.4 rank points
GLM-Image51.1 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo51.1 rank points
Chroma1-Flash50.8 rank points
FLUX.1 Kontext [pro]50.2 rank points
Hy Image 3.5 Preview49.5 rank points
Luma Uni-1.148.6 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Lite48.6 rank points
Bria FIBO 248.3 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 4 Ultra48 rank points
Recraft V4.148 rank points
Qwen Image 2.1 Turbo47.7 rank points
Nano Banana 2 Lite47.4 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3 Medium45.8 rank points
MOSS-Image-Base45.5 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 9B Preview45.2 rank points
FLUX1.1 [pro] Ultra45.2 rank points
HiDream-O1-Image45.2 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Flash42.4 rank points
FLUX1.1 [pro]39.3 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 9B38.9 rank points
Runway Gen-4 Image38.9 rank points
Nano Banana Pro37.1 rank points
Seedream 4.537.1 rank points
Nano Banana 236.4 rank points
SenseNova U1.5 Lite34.9 rank points
Qwen-Image-2.133.6 rank points
MiniMax Image-0132.7 rank points
BAGEL-7B-MoT32.4 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium31.1 rank points
GPT Image 1 Mini30.8 rank points
Krea 2 Medium Turbo29.9 rank points
Stable Diffusion XL 1.028 rank points
FLUX.1 Kontext [max]27.1 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 326.8 rank points
PixArt-Sigma-XL-2-1024-MS26.8 rank points
Sana-Sprint 1.6B 1024px26.2 rank points
Vidu Q2 Image26.2 rank points
HunyuanImage 3.024.3 rank points
LongCat-Image24.3 rank points
Lumina-Image 2.023.4 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large23.1 rank points
Chroma1-HD16.5 rank points
AuraFlow v0.316.2 rank points
Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-Pretrain14 rank points
Sana-Sprint 0.6B 1024px8.7 rank points
OmniGen27.8 rank points
Boogu-Image-0.1-Base7.5 rank points
Boogu-Image-0.1-Turbo5 rank points
Stable Diffusion Turbo4.7 rank points
SANA-1.5 1.6B 1024px4 rank points
SDXL Turbo2.8 rank points
SANA-1.5 4.8B 1024px0.3 rank points

higher is betterAs of November 3, 2026Scale: 0 rank points - 100 rank points

Source: Gradually-Bildtest
gradually.ai
Methodology and context
Metric
rank-score-100
Scale
0-100
Participants
108
Sample
1
Methodology and context
One archived image per model, using the first output of the accepted test attempt. Technical repeats are disclosed for the affected image. All 108 images are ranked in three model-blind orderings. The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank. This remains an n = 1 sample, and an automated judge may have visual preferences of its own.
Source: Gradually-Bildtest

Gradually sample test: Infographic

The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank from model-blind comparison rounds. One archived first output contributes per model. This remains an n = 1 sample.

Seedream 5.0 Pro99.1 rank points
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst97.2 rank points
GPT Image 2.5 Flare91 rank points
Luma Uni-1.189.4 rank points
Qwen Image 2.1 Turbo88.8 rank points
Qwen Image 3.088.8 rank points
Wan 2.7 Image Pro88.5 rank points
Muse Image86.3 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Flash86 rank points
Ideogram 4.585.4 rank points
Reve 2.184.7 rank points
Qwen-Image-2.182.9 rank points
ChatGPT Image Latest (API-Alias)82.6 rank points
MAI-Image-2.5 Flash81.3 rank points
SenseNova U1.5 Lite80.4 rank points
Wan 2.7 Image79.4 rank points
Krea 2 Medium Turbo78.8 rank points
Luma Uni-1.1 Max78.8 rank points
Bria FIBO 278.2 rank points
FLUX 3 Image Klein77.3 rank points
Wan 2.6 Text to Image77.3 rank points
Grok Imagine Image 1.076.9 rank points
Grok Imagine Image 2.076.6 rank points
HiDream-O1-Image-1.576.3 rank points
Krea 2 Large75.7 rank points
MOSS-Image-SFT75.4 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 9B Preview74.8 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro74.5 rank points
Krea 373.8 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Flash73.8 rank points
MAI-Image-2.6 Flash73.5 rank points
Recraft V4.173.2 rank points
Ideogram 4.072.6 rank points
FLUX.2 Dev72 rank points
GPT Image 1.571.7 rank points
Hy Image 3.5 Preview70.7 rank points
MOSS-Image-Base70.7 rank points
MAI-Image-2.569.2 rank points
FLUX 3 Image68.5 rank points
Seedream 4.067.3 rank points
GPT Image 266.4 rank points
Nano Banana 2 Lite65.7 rank points
Nano Banana Pro64.8 rank points
Nano Banana 2.164.2 rank points
Recraft V4.1 Utility63.9 rank points
Nano Banana 263.2 rank points
Qwen Image 2.1 Pro62 rank points
Qwen Image 2.0 Pro61.7 rank points
Qwen Image 3.0 Pro61.7 rank points
HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct61.1 rank points
Grok Imagine Image Quality60.7 rank points
MAI-Image-2.660.7 rank points
FLUX.2 Flex57 rank points
Seedream 5.0 Lite55.8 rank points
FLUX.1 Kontext [max]53.9 rank points
FLUX.2 Max53.6 rank points
FLUX.1 Kontext [pro]52.6 rank points
Kling Image 3.051.4 rank points
FLUX.2 Pro44.6 rank points
HiDream-O1-Image42.7 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 9B41.7 rank points
FLUX.1 [dev]39.9 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large38.6 rank points
Z-Image Turbo37.4 rank points
Vidu Q2 Image37.1 rank points
LongCat-Image36.8 rank points
HunyuanImage 3.036.1 rank points
Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)36.1 rank points
LLaDA-Image-Turbo35.8 rank points
Midjourney V8.135.2 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3 Medium34.3 rank points
Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-SFT33 rank points
LLaDA-Image32.7 rank points
Runway Gen-4 Image32.4 rank points
GPT Image 1 Mini31.8 rank points
FLUX.2 Klein 4B30.2 rank points
GLM-Image29.9 rank points
Kling Image 3.0 Omni29.6 rank points
FLUX1.1 [pro] Ultra27.7 rank points
Seedream 4.526.5 rank points
MiniMax Image-0125.5 rank points
FLUX1.1 [pro]24 rank points
Z-Image Base24 rank points
Nucleus-Image23.4 rank points
Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-Pretrain23.1 rank points
Chroma1-HD22.4 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium19.9 rank points
Bria FIBO Lite19.6 rank points
OmniGen219 rank points
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo16.8 rank points
Boogu-Image-0.1-Base15.9 rank points
Lumina-Image 2.015.9 rank points
Firefly Image Model 515 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 412.5 rank points
Chroma1-Flash12.1 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 4 Ultra11.8 rank points
Sana-Sprint 1.6B 1024px10 rank points
Boogu-Image-0.1-Turbo8.4 rank points
SDXL Turbo8.4 rank points
SANA-1.5 1.6B 1024px7.2 rank points
AuraFlow v0.36.9 rank points
Sana-Sprint 0.6B 1024px6.9 rank points
BAGEL-7B-MoT5.9 rank points
SANA-1.5 4.8B 1024px5.6 rank points
Adobe Firefly Image 35.3 rank points
PixArt-Sigma-XL-2-1024-MS5.3 rank points
Stable Diffusion XL 1.05 rank points
Stable Diffusion Turbo4.7 rank points

higher is betterAs of November 3, 2026Scale: 0 rank points - 100 rank points

Source: Gradually-Bildtest
gradually.ai
Methodology and context
Metric
rank-score-100
Scale
0-100
Participants
108
Sample
1
Methodology and context
One archived image per model, using the first output of the accepted test attempt. Technical repeats are disclosed for the affected image. All 108 images are ranked in three model-blind orderings. The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank. This remains an n = 1 sample, and an automated judge may have visual preferences of its own.
Source: Gradually-Bildtest

Measurements without matching peer values

These measurements have no matching peer values under the same test conditions. Their original values and sources remain available here.

Text to Image Arena (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
1119.12
Score
1119.12
Metric
elo-rating
Unit
Elo
Benchmark version
v2.1
Direction
Higher is better
Source rank
10
Confidence interval
12
Lower confidence bound
1107.12
Upper confidence bound
1131.12
Source type
independent-evaluator
Evaluator
Artificial Analysis
Status
superseded
Retrieved at
2026-10-28
Methodology
AA appearances: 5482. This count does not establish an independent sample. Lower rank: 8. Upper rank: 15. Source model ID: daa01918-0450-4825-992a-eade1f981683. Evidence capture ID: aa-image-text-to-image-v2.1-2026-10-28-3934dc936096. Source payload hash: 3934dc936096a42bab80169feb6f2838b35ed3c556ae1318a32a08935fc34479
USD price per 1,000 tokens
19.456
Context
This result is retained as historical evidence and is not interchangeable with current results.
Source Artificial Analysis
Image Editing Arena (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
1144.09
Score
1144.09
Metric
elo-rating
Unit
Elo
Benchmark version
v2.1
Direction
Higher is better
Source rank
7
Confidence interval
13
Lower confidence bound
1131.09
Upper confidence bound
1157.09
Source type
independent-evaluator
Evaluator
Artificial Analysis
Status
superseded
Retrieved at
2026-10-28
Methodology
AA appearances: 10753. This count does not establish an independent sample. Lower rank: 4. Upper rank: 8. Source model ID: daa01918-0450-4825-992a-eade1f981683. Evidence capture ID: aa-image-image-editing-v2.1-2026-10-28-48032b53d24b. Source payload hash: 48032b53d24bdc28e3fdad1638e08857fbd2d403a7de9cbd090e77a54169b750
USD price per 1,000 tokens
19.456
Context
This result is retained as historical evidence and is not interchangeable with current results.
Source Artificial Analysis
AA Image Arena Elo (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
1119
Score
1119
Metric
pairwise human-preference Elo
Unit
elo
Benchmark version
AA-Image-T2I v2.1
Category
text-to-image
Direction
Higher is better
Sample
5235
Confidence interval
12
Lower confidence bound
1107
Upper confidence bound
1131
Source type
independent-evaluator
Evaluator
Artificial Analysis
Status
active
Retrieved at
2026-10-17
Methodology
Independent evaluation. Overall text-to-image; exact leaderboard row MAI-Image-2.6-Flash.
Context
This is a dynamic leaderboard snapshot retrieved on 2026-10-17, not a published vote-collection date. The page reports Samples but does not disclose a unique-prompt or unique-rater basis, exact serving revision, or whether votes overlap earlier snapshots. Do not treat this as independent replication.
Source Artificial Analysis
AA Image Arena Elo (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
1144
Score
1144
Metric
pairwise human-preference Elo
Unit
elo
Benchmark version
AA-Image-Editing v2.1
Category
image-editing
Direction
Higher is better
Sample
10638
Confidence interval
13
Lower confidence bound
1131
Upper confidence bound
1157
Source type
independent-evaluator
Evaluator
Artificial Analysis
Status
active
Retrieved at
2026-10-17
Methodology
Independent evaluation. Overall image editing; exact leaderboard row MAI-Image-2.6-Flash.
Context
This is a dynamic leaderboard snapshot retrieved on 2026-10-17, not a published vote-collection date. The page reports Samples but does not disclose a unique-prompt or unique-rater basis, exact serving revision, or whether votes overlap earlier snapshots. Do not treat this as independent replication.
Source Artificial Analysis
Quantslant image-generation test average / Quantslant-Bildgenerierungstest, Mittelwert (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
8.1
Score
8.1
Metric
Mean editorial score across five prompts (0–10)
Unit
rating
Benchmark version
Quantslant test, tested 2026-09-27
Category
text-to-image
Direction
No direction published
Sample
5
Source type
independent-evaluator
Evaluator
Quantslant
Status
active
Retrieved at
2026-10-19
Methodology
Independent evaluation. Five prompts from Quantslant's image-generation ranking, 16:9, one attempt per prompt, Polish prompts, through OpenRouter's image API.
Context
Small, self-reported editorial test with five outputs for this model. The article does not disclose a scoring rubric, evaluator count, uncertainty interval, or the exact served checkpoint. It reports an average out of 10 but does not explicitly define score direction, so direction is left null.
Source Quantslant

Recorded measurement details

Text to Image Arena (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
1120.06
Score
1120.06
Metric
elo-rating
Unit
Elo
Benchmark version
v2.1
Direction
Higher is better
Source rank
10
Confidence interval
12
Lower confidence bound
1108.06
Upper confidence bound
1132.06
Source type
independent-evaluator
Evaluator
Artificial Analysis
Retrieved at
2026-11-03
Methodology
AA appearances: 5535. This count does not establish an independent sample. Lower rank: 8. Upper rank: 14. Source model ID: daa01918-0450-4825-992a-eade1f981683. Evidence capture ID: aa-image-text-to-image-v2.1-2026-11-03-b02bfcda6707. Source payload hash: b02bfcda6707b185b316c6b1c2e00ef9efe82010f1e2f2903d32096adb7e1cd9
USD price per 1,000 tokens
19.456
Source Artificial Analysis
Image Editing Arena (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
1144.89
Score
1144.89
Metric
elo-rating
Unit
Elo
Benchmark version
v2.1
Direction
Higher is better
Source rank
7
Confidence interval
13
Lower confidence bound
1131.89
Upper confidence bound
1157.89
Source type
independent-evaluator
Evaluator
Artificial Analysis
Retrieved at
2026-11-03
Methodology
AA appearances: 10825. This count does not establish an independent sample. Lower rank: 4. Upper rank: 8. Source model ID: daa01918-0450-4825-992a-eade1f981683. Evidence capture ID: aa-image-image-editing-v2.1-2026-11-03-3c9ca7a083ad. Source payload hash: 3c9ca7a083ada0be4f50daced49cc4d1282114c6ba75a56557795b4ea75aa6f5
USD price per 1,000 tokens
19.456
Source Artificial Analysis
Gradually sample test: Typography and layout (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
53.6
Score
53.6
Metric
rank-score-100
Unit
rank score
Direction
Higher is better
Source rank
50
Sample
1
Source type
gradually-sample-test
Evaluator
gemini-3.1-pro-preview
Retrieved at
2026-11-03
Methodology
One archived image per model, using the first output of the accepted test attempt. Technical repeats are disclosed for the affected image. All 108 images are ranked in three model-blind orderings. The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank. This remains an n = 1 sample, and an automated judge may have visual preferences of its own.
Mean rank
50.67
Individual ranks
46, 53, 53
Criterion scores
headline 1.33, subline 1.33, text-control 1.33, visual-brief 1, layout 1.33
Source Gradually-Bildtest
Gradually sample test: Product photography (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
90.3
Score
90.3
Metric
rank-score-100
Unit
rank score
Direction
Higher is better
Source rank
1
Sample
1
Source type
gradually-sample-test
Evaluator
gemini-3.1-pro-preview
Retrieved at
2026-11-03
Methodology
One archived image per model, using the first output of the accepted test attempt. Technical repeats are disclosed for the affected image. All 108 images are ranked in three model-blind orderings. The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank. This remains an n = 1 sample, and an automated judge may have visual preferences of its own.
Mean rank
11.33
Individual ranks
7, 18, 9
Criterion scores
subject 2, time 2, watch-details 2, photography 2, exclusions 2
Source Gradually-Bildtest
Gradually sample test: Character and detail (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
52
Score
52
Metric
rank-score-100
Unit
rank score
Direction
Higher is better
Source rank
55
Sample
1
Source type
gradually-sample-test
Evaluator
gemini-3.1-pro-preview
Retrieved at
2026-11-03
Methodology
One archived image per model, using the first output of the accepted test attempt. Technical repeats are disclosed for the affected image. All 108 images are ranked in three model-blind orderings. The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank. This remains an n = 1 sample, and an automated judge may have visual preferences of its own.
Mean rank
52.33
Individual ranks
73, 35, 49
Criterion scores
scene 1, wardrobe 1, anatomy 1, props 1, environment 1
Source Gradually-Bildtest
Gradually sample test: Infographic (Show measurement, test conditions, and source)
Source value
73.5
Score
73.5
Metric
rank-score-100
Unit
rank score
Direction
Higher is better
Source rank
31
Sample
1
Source type
gradually-sample-test
Evaluator
gemini-3.1-pro-preview
Retrieved at
2026-11-03
Methodology
One archived image per model, using the first output of the accepted test attempt. Technical repeats are disclosed for the affected image. All 108 images are ranked in three model-blind orderings. The 0-100 value normalizes the mean rank. This remains an n = 1 sample, and an automated judge may have visual preferences of its own.
Mean rank
29.33
Individual ranks
23, 11, 54
Criterion scores
title 1.67, sequence 1.67, labels 1, diagram 1.67, clarity 1
Source Gradually-Bildtest

Popularity compared

How often the model is searched for, used and mentioned, compared with every model of its category.

Popularity index

The 100 most popular models of this category, 0 to 100, higher is more popular

20 of 101 models

Stable Diffusion XL 1.072
Anima Base v1.068
SDXL Turbo63
Stable Diffusion Turbo63
Nano Banana 261
FLUX.2 Max55
Krea 2 Raw54
Nano Banana Pro50
FLUX.2 Pro48
MOSS-Image-SFT46
FLUX.2 Flex46
GPT Image 246
LongCat-Image45
MAI-Image-2.645
FLUX.2 Klein 9B45
PixArt-Sigma-XL-2-1024-MS44
Janus-Pro-7B44
HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct44
MOSS-Image-Base44
MAI-Image-2.6 Flash0

As of November 2026 · Source: gradually.ai popularity index

Over time

Weekly values from October 18, 2026 to November 5, 2026

MAI-Image-2.6 FlashFLUX 3 Image KleinHy Image 3.5 PreviewIdeogram 4.5FLUX 3 Image

MAI-Image-2.6 Flash compared

Compare with another model

Predecessor and successor

  • No predecessor recorded for MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  • MAI-Image-2.6 Flash has no successor yet

The most popular comparisons

  1. 1GPT Image 2 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  2. 2GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  3. 3Reve 2.1 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  4. 4Nano Banana 2 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  5. 5Midjourney V8.2 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  6. 6GPT Image 1.5 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  7. 7MAI-Image-2.5 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  8. 8Nano Banana Pro vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  9. 9Nano Banana 2 Lite vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
Show all 139 comparisons
  1. 10Seedream 5.0 Pro vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  2. 11Grok Imagine Image Quality vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  3. 12FLUX.2 Max vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  4. 13Qwen Image 2.0 Pro vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  5. 14MAI-Image-2.5 Flash vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  6. 15HiDream-O1-Image-1.5 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  7. 16Krea 2 Medium Turbo vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  8. 17Seedream 4.0 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  9. 18Krea 2 Large vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  10. 19Luma Uni-1.1 Max vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  11. 20FLUX.2 Flex vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  12. 21Recraft V4.1 Utility vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  13. 22Ideogram 4.0 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  14. 23Wan 2.6 Text to Image vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  15. 24FLUX.2 Pro vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  16. 25HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  17. 26FLUX.2 Klein 9B vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  18. 27HiDream-O1-Image vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  19. 28Firefly Image Model 5 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  20. 29Midjourney V8.1 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  21. 30Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  22. 31GPT Image 2.5 Flare vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  23. 32Qwen-Image-2.1 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  24. 33MAI-Image-2.6 vs. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
  25. 34MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Muse Image
  26. 35MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Grok Imagine Image 2.0
  27. 36MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX 3 Image
  28. 37MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX 3 Image Klein
  29. 38MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Nano Banana 2.1
  30. 39MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Ideogram 4.5
  31. 40MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Hy Image 3.5 Preview
  32. 41MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Ming-Image-0.1-Design
  33. 42MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Recraft V4.1
  34. 43MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Recraft V4.1 Flash
  35. 44MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Bria FIBO 2
  36. 45MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Krea 3
  37. 46MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Qwen Image 3.0 Pro
  38. 47MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Qwen Image 3.0
  39. 48MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Qwen Image 2.1 Pro
  40. 49MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Qwen Image 2.1 Turbo
  41. 50MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Wan 2.7 Image Pro
  42. 51MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Wan 2.7 Image
  43. 52MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Seedream 5.0 Flash
  44. 53MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. SenseNova U1.5 Lite
  45. 54MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Kling Image 3.0
  46. 55MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Kling Image 3.0 Omni
  47. 56MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Vidu Q2 Image
  48. 57MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. WAND-Vega-Image 1.0 Pro
  49. 58MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. WAND-Vega-Image 1.0 Flash
  50. 59MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. WAND-Vega-Image 1.0 Lite
  51. 60MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. GLM-Image
  52. 61MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. MiniMax Image-01
  53. 62MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Z-Image Turbo
  54. 63MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Luma Uni-1.1
  55. 64MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Runway Gen-4 Image
  56. 65MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Runway Gen-4 Image Turbo
  57. 66MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Leonardo Phoenix 1.0
  58. 67MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Leonardo Lucid Origin
  59. 68MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Leonardo Lucid Realism
  60. 69MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Adobe Firefly Image 3
  61. 70MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Adobe Firefly Image 4
  62. 71MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Adobe Firefly Image 4 Ultra
  63. 72MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium
  64. 73MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Turbo
  65. 74MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Stable Diffusion 3.5 Flash
  66. 75MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Xingliu Star-3
  67. 76MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. MiracleVision V6
  68. 77MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Hy Image 3.0
  69. 78MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Bria FIBO Lite
  70. 79MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Mystic 2.5
  71. 80MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Mystic 2.5 Flexible
  72. 81MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Mystic 2.5 Fluid
  73. 82MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro
  74. 83MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Seedream 4.5
  75. 84MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Seedream 5.0 Lite
  76. 85MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Kling Image O1
  77. 86MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Stable Image Core
  78. 87MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Stable Image Ultra
  79. 88MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX.2 Klein 9B Preview
  80. 89MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. GPT Image 1 Mini
  81. 90MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. ChatGPT Image Latest (API-Alias)
  82. 91MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)
  83. 92MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX.2 Klein 4B
  84. 93MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX.2 Dev
  85. 94MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX1.1 [pro]
  86. 95MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX1.1 [pro] Ultra
  87. 96MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX.1 [dev]
  88. 97MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX.1 Kontext [pro]
  89. 98MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. FLUX.1 Kontext [max]
  90. 99MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Stable Diffusion XL 1.0
  91. 100MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Stable Diffusion 3 Medium
  92. 101MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. SDXL Turbo
  93. 102MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Stable Diffusion Turbo
  94. 103MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Midjourney V7
  95. 104MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Niji 7
  96. 105MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Grok Imagine Image 1.0
  97. 106MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. HUMAIN Image 1
  98. 107MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. MOSS-Image-Base
  99. 108MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. MOSS-Image-SFT
  100. 109MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. LLaDA-Image
  101. 110MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. LLaDA-Image-Turbo
  102. 111MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Nucleus-Image
  103. 112MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. LongCat-Image
  104. 113MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. BAGEL-7B-MoT
  105. 114MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. OmniGen2
  106. 115MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Emu3.5-Image
  107. 116MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-SFT
  108. 117MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Kandinsky-5.0-T2I-Lite-Pretrain
  109. 118MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. NextStep-1.1
  110. 119MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Boogu-Image-0.1-Base
  111. 120MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Boogu-Image-0.1-Turbo
  112. 121MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. SANA-1.5 1.6B 1024px
  113. 122MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. SANA-1.5 4.8B 1024px
  114. 123MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Sana-Sprint 0.6B 1024px
  115. 124MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Sana-Sprint 1.6B 1024px
  116. 125MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Chroma1-HD
  117. 126MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Chroma1-Flash
  118. 127MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. AuraFlow v0.3
  119. 128MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. PixArt-Sigma-XL-2-1024-MS
  120. 129MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Lumina-Image 2.0
  121. 130MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. HART-0.7B-1024px
  122. 131MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Janus-Pro-1B
  123. 132MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Janus-Pro-7B
  124. 133MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Show-o2-1.5B-HQ
  125. 134MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Kandinsky 3.1
  126. 135MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Anima Base v1.0
  127. 136MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Krea 2 Raw
  128. 137MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. HunyuanImage 3.0
  129. 138MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct Distil
  130. 139MAI-Image-2.6 Flash vs. Z-Image Base

All specifications

Input and output

Context window
32,000 tokens
no source
Maximum output
2,359,296 pixels
Source: Maximum output

Watermarking and provenance

AI watermarking refers to invisible signals embedded in the output. Visible marks and provenance metadata are listed separately. Unknown means there is insufficient evidence for that particular field.

AI watermarking
Unknown
no source
Watermarking technique
Not known
no source

Licence and access

Weights
Proprietary
Source: Weights
Access
API
Source: Access
Lifecycle
Preview in Microsoft Foundry
Source: Lifecycle

Further details

Image capabilities
Text-to-image generation and precise image-to-image editing
Source: Image capabilities
Editing controls
Target objects, layouts, and text, and clean up motion blur
Source: Editing controls
Output format and size
PNG, at least 768 pixels on each side and at most 2,359,296 pixels in total
Source: Output format and size
Aspect ratio
Can choose the aspect ratio from the prompt and image inputs
Source: Aspect ratio
Web grounding
Can use current Bing Search results as additional image context
Source: Web grounding
API authentication
Microsoft Entra ID or an API key
Source: API authentication

Prices

Representative price
$0.019456 per imageSource
OpenRouter (microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash)
$0.03 per image (estimated)Source

Frequently asked questions about MAI-Image-2.6 Flash

How good is MAI-Image-2.6 Flash?

Rank 31 of 108 in our own test.

GraduallyBench from Nov 3, 2026

GraduallyBenchour own rating, 0 to 100 · higher is better
MAI-Image-2.668
GPT Image 1.568
Qwen Image 3.068
MAI-Image-2.6 FlashRank 31 of 10867
Seedream 5.0 Lite67
Luma Uni-1.166
Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)66

What is MAI-Image-2.6 Flash good at?

Best at Product photography (90 out of 100), weakest at Character and detail (52).

GraduallyBench, one image per task

  1. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash: Typography and layoutTypography and layoutLegible text, hierarchy, and composition54out of 100Rank 50 of 108 in this task
  2. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash: Product photographyProduct photographyMaterials, reflections, and fine details90out of 100Rank 1 of 108 in this task
  3. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash: Character and detailCharacter and detailAnatomy, clothing, and spatial consistency52out of 100Rank 55 of 108 in this task
  4. MAI-Image-2.6 Flash: InfographicInfographicNumbers, labels, and visual organization74out of 100Rank 31 of 108 in this task

How much does an image with MAI-Image-2.6 Flash cost?

About $0.019 per image. That is cheap: a typical image model costs $0.06.

Price per imageDollars per image · lower is better
Muse Image$0.01
Krea 2 Medium Turbo$0.015
FLUX.2 Klein 9B$0.015
MAI-Image-2.6 FlashRank 4 of 28$0.019
MAI-Image-2.5 Flash$0.02
Wan 2.6 Text to Image$0.03
FLUX.2 Pro$0.03

Sources and data date

Show all 15 sources

Benchmark sources at a glance

Which independent evaluators tested this model. This is coverage, not a quality ranking.

No active result from the reviewed external evaluators can currently be attributed to this model. Other source evidence remains available below.

Without vendor claims and historical or disputed results; those stay labelled in the single values.

TypeEvidence and data date
Research statusResearch date October 17, 2026. 4 source URLs checked. This documents the inspected sources, not an exhaustive inventory of every publication.
Not published

exact-serving-revision

Note

The evaluator shows the exact product row but does not disclose an API route or serving checkpoint revision.

Additional sourceMicrosoft AI (retrieved September 24, 2026) · Microsoft Foundry MAI-Image-2.6 Flash catalog · Editorial description reviewed October 2, 2026
Additional sourceImage pricing (retrieved October 17, 2026; October 28, 2026; November 3, 2026)
Additional sourceLifecycle data · Microsoft Foundry July and August 2026 updates · Editorial description reviewed October 2, 2026
Additional sourceMicrosoft AI (retrieved September 24, 2026) · Microsoft Foundry MAI image deployment guide · Editorial description reviewed October 2, 2026
Additional sourceOpenRouter
Additional sourceArtificial Analysis (retrieved October 17, 2026; October 28, 2026; November 3, 2026)
Additional sourceGradually-Bildtest (retrieved November 3, 2026)
Additional sourceQuantslant (retrieved October 19, 2026)
Additional sourceModel metadata (retrieved October 17, 2026)
Additional sourceOpenRouter: Popularity index (derived), CC BY 4.0
Additional sourceVercel AI Gateway: Popularity index (derived), CC BY 4.0
Additional sourceOllama: cumulative downloads for the popularity index
Additional sourceReplicate: cumulative runs for the popularity index
Additional sourceGoogle Trending Now: limited feed selection for Germany and the US
Additional sourceCreative Commons Attribution 4.0