Felix Laurent
OpenAI released ChatGPT Images 2.6 on November 4, 2026. The update turns a prompt or a photo into an animated GIF, and it is live in ChatGPT, Codex and the API. Two new API models, GPT-Image-2.6 Flare and GPT-Image-2.6 Sunburst, come with it. OpenAI says Images 2.6 generates images 50% faster than before.
The release lands at a scale OpenAI now puts at 4 billion images per week across ChatGPT, Codex and the API. That is more than half a billion images a day, by the company's count. Images 2.6 is available globally on every subscription tier, on desktop, mobile and web.
What ChatGPT Images 2.6 adds
GIFs are the headline feature. A user can animate a prompt or an existing image, set the playback speed and edit single frames, according to OpenAI. The company pitches it for brand mascots, product loops, reaction memes and animated storyboards before video production. Even a rough sketch can become an animated character, OpenAI says.
The second addition is reusable reference images. People, pets and characters can be saved once and used again in new images without another upload. OpenAI also says edits keep characters, products and brand details more consistent from one round to the next.
Most of that consistency claim rests on the new API models. Their names and settings explain where the speed figure comes from.
Flare and Sunburst in the API
OpenAI split the API release into two models with different jobs. Flare is the fast one: at low quality it can return an image in as little as six seconds, OpenAI says. The company adds that Flare improves layout for posters, product shots and other commercial visuals.
Sunburst targets detail. At medium or high quality it gives higher-quality images and keeps them more consistent across edits, according to OpenAI. Both models are also available in Codex.
Three developer controls arrive alongside the models:
- image markup, already in ChatGPT, now lets API users mark the exact area of an image to change;
- SVG export produces vector files for websites, apps and print;
- a new complexity parameter sets how much planning the model does before it draws.
OpenAI recommends low complexity for most quick edits and medium or high for scenes with many elements or constraints. Quality and complexity are separate settings: quality controls detail, complexity controls how much goes into the scene. OpenAI links a pricing page for both models, but it was unreachable when this article was written.
OpenAI's developer team showed markup, SVG export and sprite sheets in a separate demo.
The 50% speed claim is OpenAI's own. An outside leaderboard measured both models within a day of the launch.
How Images 2.6 ranks on Arena
The crowd-voted leaderboard added both models on November 5. In its Text-to-Image Arena, Sunburst at medium quality placed #2 with 1,409 points. Flare at medium quality placed #4 with 1,384 points.
The top five places belong to OpenAI. GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst still holds #1 with 1,427 points, ahead of the new Sunburst. The nearest model from another lab is MAI Image 2.6 at #6 with 1,331. Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 follows at #7 with 1,325.
By category, Sunburst took #1 in Cartoon, Anime and Fantasy, Arena reports. That lines up with what early users chose to make with GIFs.
Arena also timed the models from request to finished image. Its median for Sunburst fell from 36.9 seconds on GPT Image 2.5 to 19.4 seconds, 1.9 times faster. Flare went from 21.7 to 13.4 seconds, 1.6 times faster.
Artificial Analysis, another image leaderboard, had no Images 2.6 entry on November 5. Its board was still topped by GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst.
Rankings say how people vote on single images. The first day of use shows what they actually do with GIFs.
What people built on day one
Several platforms had early access. OpenAI names Picsart, fal, Sable and Higgsfield among them, and Figma added the model to Figma Weave. OpenArt built the GIF examples on OpenAI's own launch page.
Those examples show the method behind the GIFs. OpenArt's prompts ask for a sprite sheet: six frames of the same character in a three-by-two grid. The last frame leads back to the first. The model draws the frames, and the loop plays them in order.
Higgsfield took the same sprite sheets into games. Its account posted a boxing match, a samurai duel, a space shooter, a pocket pet and a junkyard game, all animated with Images 2.6. In the junkyard game, Higgsfield says, the model kept one style across every sprite sheet.
Eight more games followed on the same day, from a frying pan fighting chickens to stick figures drawn as SVG.
Higgsfield also said 2.6 was live on its platform with unlimited use for seven days.
Is Images 2.6 an upgrade over 2.5?
On speed, the answer is yes, and it no longer rests only on OpenAI's word. Arena's medians show Sunburst at 19.4 seconds against 36.9, and Flare at 13.4 against 21.7. That is close to the 50% OpenAI promised.
On image quality, the picture is less clear. The new Sunburst at medium quality scores 18 points below GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, which still leads the board. The gap is small, and it compares a medium setting with the older model's entry.
The clear gain is new ground: GIFs, saved references, markup, SVG and the complexity setting. Images 2.6 makes images about twice as fast at nearly the same Arena score, and it can now animate them. For most users that trade is worth taking, while the top quality score still belongs to 2.5.
Sources
- Introducing Images 2.6, OpenAI – announcement, November 4, 2026
- Images 2.6 launch post, OpenAI on X – GIFs and reference images
- GIFs in ChatGPT Images 2.6, OpenAI on X – speed control and frame editing
- GPT-Image-2.6 in Codex and the API, OpenAI Developers on X – Flare and Sunburst
- Text-to-Image Arena results for GPT Image 2.6, Arena on X – leaderboard and median latency, November 5, 2026
- Images 2.6 games built from sprite sheets, Higgsfield on X
