OpenAI · image model

GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst

GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst is an OpenAI image-generation model released Sep 8, 2026; OpenAI's newest image-generation model in our dataset is GPT-Image-2.5 Flare. Proprietary, API access only. OpenAI's most capable image generation and editing model, released Sep 8, 2026, and #1 on the LMArena text-to-image snapshot we cite. Verified against vendor sources on Oct 26, 2026.

Reported Last verified Oct 26, 2026 · All models · JSON · Markdown

ReleasedSep 8, 2026
LicenceProprietaryProprietary (API)

Innot verifiedOutImage

Key facts

GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst: key facts with sources
Fact	Value	Source
Vendor	OpenAI	n/a
Released	Sep 8, 2026 OpenAI API changelog: Sunburst and Flare released together.	source
Status	generally available	n/a
API id	gpt-image-2.5-sunburst	source
Output	image	source
Licence	Proprietary (API)	source
Pricing	$5 in / $30 out per 1M tokens Billed in tokens, not per image: text input $5, image input $8, image output $30 per 1M tokens. Cost per image depends on size, quality and references.	source

Where GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst sits in our data

Released Sep 8, 2026 (week 37 of 2026), in September 2026. Other models in our data released that month: GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Opus 5.5, Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS, Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS, GPT-6 Luna.
The previous OpenAI model we track is GPT-6 Astra (Sep 3, 2026), 5 days earlier.
OpenAI tools we cover: Codex CLI, ChatGPT, OpenAI Agents SDK.
All releases by date: AI model releases by month · new AI models this week.

How GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst differs from GPT-Image-2.5 Flare

Read from the recorded facts of the two models, not from a head-to-head test. We have not run either.

Listed price is the same as GPT-Image-2.5 Flare: $5 in and $30 out (per 1M tokens).
Both were released on Sep 8, 2026.
Facts for the other model: GPT-Image-2.5 Flare.

What the sources say

These are claims from the linked pages, not our measurements.

Neutral signal: #1 on LMArena Text-to-Image in the Oct 7, 2026 snapshot (score marked preliminary).

What we tested

Nothing yet. We have not run GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst ourselves, so every fact on this page is Reported from the sources below. When we do test it, the scope will be stated here and in our test logs. See methodology.

Not verified, left out

We could not confirm these on a vendor page, so we do not state them.

The sibling GPT-Image-2.5 Flare (fast) is ranked #2 on the same leaderboard; its specifications were not captured.