As of: 2026-11-09 21:13 CET.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/m/gpt-image-2-6-sunburst/

# GPT Image 2.6 Sunburst

OpenAI, GPT Image family. Status: current. Type: image generation. Released: 2026-11-04.

## How to call it

| Provider | Model id | Endpoint | Docs |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI API | `gpt-image-2.6-sunburst` | https://api.openai.com/v1/images/generations | https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-image-2.6-sunburst |
| Web app (ChatGPT Images 2.6) and Codex |  |  | https://chatgpt.com |

## Pricing

- Text input: $5 per 1M tokens
- Cached text input: $1.25 per 1M tokens
- Image input: $8 per 1M tokens
- Cached image input: $2 per 1M tokens
- Image output: $30 per 1M tokens
- Unit as published: per 1M tokens (USD)
- Source: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-image-2.6-sunburst
- Last checked: 2026-11-05

## Specs

- Input: text, image
- Output: image
- Context window: not published
- Max output: not published
- Open weights: no
- Licence: proprietary

## Where it stands

- No newer image generation model in the registry yet.
- Before it from OpenAI: GPT Image 2.5 Flare (2026-09-08) https://postcutoff.com/m/gpt-image-2-5-flare/
- Closed weights; access is hosted only.

## What stands out

- Animated GIF output: Generates animated GIFs from a prompt or image; speed and single frames editable in ChatGPT (OpenAI on X, Nov 4 2026). Source: https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2118124953832935810
- Markup-guided edits and SVG output: Docs list markup-guided edits, SVG output and a complexity setting. Source: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-image-2.6-sunburst
- Speed: Higher-quality model; at medium or high quality keeps details more consistent from one edit to the next (OpenAI Devs on X). Source: https://x.com/OpenAIDevs/status/2118124753340756055

## Notes

Successor to gpt-image-2.5-sunburst (Sept 2026) at the same token rates. Endpoints: v1/images/generations and v1/images/edits. Only snapshot listed: gpt-image-2.6-sunburst. Some early users on X said results looked worse than 2.5 (no benchmark yet).

```bash
curl https://api.openai.com/v1/images/generations \
 -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
 -d '{"model":"gpt-image-2.6-sunburst","prompt":"a lighthouse at dawn"}'
```

Model page: https://postcutoff.com/m/gpt-image-2-6-sunburst/