OpenAI Ships Images 2.6 With Two New API Models

OpenAI is introducing ChatGPT Images 2.6, an update to the image generator inside ChatGPT, and says it adds GIFs and reference images. A reference image is a picture you supply for the model to base its output on. The same post says two new image models are coming to OpenAI's API with 50% faster image generation.

The developer half of the release is explained in a companion thread from OpenAI Developers. The two API models are GPT-Image-2.6 Flare and Sunburst, continuing the pairing OpenAI introduced with Images 2.5 in September, when it advised Flare for fast everyday generation and Sunburst where editing precision matters most. For 2.6, OpenAI Developers says Sunburst keeps details more consistent from one edit to the next, and its launch video describes GIFs built from a sprite sheet of poses whose frames are stitched into a loop. That description is for the API; the ChatGPT post does not say whether ChatGPT's GIFs work the same way.

The post leaves open how much changes for ChatGPT users. OpenAI already said Images 2.5 was better at preserving the subjects in reference photos, in release text quoted by Simon Willison, so "now with reference images" does not by itself show what is new about them in 2.6. The post also does not say which ChatGPT plans get the update or what the 50% speed gain is measured against, and its attached video could not be transcribed, so any demonstration in it is not covered here.