OpenAINotable

GPT Image 2.5 Flare

Released Sep 8, 2026

OpenAI's default image model from the Images 2.5 launch, the faster sibling of Sunburst for everyday high-quality generation and editing.

Price per image: —
Max resolution: 3840x2160
AA arena Elo: 1192
LMArena Elo: 1398
Capabilities: text to image, editing, inpainting, reference images
Licence: Proprietary

Strengths & weaknesses

Strengths

OpenAI says it beats GPT Image 2 on quality at 50% lower latency
#2 on both the Artificial Analysis and LMArena text-to-image leaderboards (2026-10-14)
Better at preserving reference subjects and editing only what is asked
Custom sizes up to 3840px on the long edge

Weaknesses

Prompt-based masking, so the model may not follow the exact mask shape
OpenAI says it can still struggle with precise text placement

Same size limits as Sunburst (max edge 3840px, 8,294,400 total pixels; above 2560x1440 is experimental). AA scored it at "max" quality. The LMArena score is marked Preliminary.

Links

API model strings

openaigpt-image-2.5-flare
openaigpt-image-2.5-flare-2026-09-08