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MicrosoftMAI-Image familyPreviewImage generationReleased 4 Sep 2026

MAI-Image-2.6-Flash

Faster, cheaper variant of MAI-Image-2.6 for high-throughput image generation and editing.

Model idMAI-Image-2.6-Flash

Price$1.75 text in, $19 image out per 1M tokens

Checked25 October 2026

Where it stands

6newer image generation models since its release

The 5 newest are listed. All image generation models

Weights
Closed weights; access is hosted only.

How to call it

4 ways to use MAI-Image-2.6-Flash, with the model id each provider expects.

Providers, model ids, endpoints and docs for MAI-Image-2.6-Flash
ProviderModel idEndpointDocs
Microsoft Foundry (Foundry Models sold by Azure) MAI-Image-2.6-Flash https://<resource-name>.services.ai.azure.com/mai/v1/images/generations learn.microsoft.com
Microsoft Foundry (image edits) MAI-Image-2.6-Flash https://<resource-name>.services.ai.azure.com/mai/v1/images/edits learn.microsoft.com
OpenRouter microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/images
Web app (MAI Playground) playground.microsoft.ai

Pricing

Prices for MAI-Image-2.6-Flash
Text input$1.75 per 1M tokens
Image input$2.50 per 1M tokens
Image output$19 per 1M tokens

As published: “USD per 1M tokens (OpenRouter listing, provider Azure); Artificial Analysis estimates ~$19.5 per 1,000 images at 1024x1024”.

Source: openrouter.ai, checked 25 October 2026.

Specs

Input
Text and images
Output
Images
Context window
Not published
Max output
Not published
Open weights
No
Licence
Proprietary
Released
4 September 2026
Status
Preview
Type
Image generation

What stands out

What its maker marketed at launch, and what people found later, each with its source.

  • Low-cost, fast tier of MAI-Image-2.6

    Same generation and editing capabilities as MAI-Image-2.6 at lower cost; Microsoft claims 2.8x faster than GPT-Image-2-Medium with ‘72% greater efficiency’ (metric not defined).

    Source: microsoft.ai

  • Bing web grounding and auto aspect ratio

    Supports web_grounding (Bing Search context) and auto_aspect_ratio, like MAI-Image-2.6; up to 2,359,296 px output (1536x1536 equivalent).

    Source: learn.microsoft.com

  • Up to five reference images for edits

    Edits API accepts up to five JPEG/PNG references for multi-image composition and precise local edits.

    Source: learn.microsoft.com

Notes

Artificial Analysis text-to-image leaderboard (read 2026-10-25): #10, Elo 1119, listed release Sep 2026, $19.5 per 1k images (https://artificialanalysis.ai/text-to-image/arena/leaderboard-text). AA image-editing leaderboard: tied 3-7, Elo 1144 (https://artificialanalysis.ai/image/leaderboard/editing). Foundry model version 2026-07-31, Global Standard, public preview; same RPM limits as MAI-Image-2.6. Microsoft’s model page calls it ‘less than half the price of our flagship model’. No official Azure price page found: token prices are from OpenRouter’s Azure-provider listing.

Deploy MAI-Image-2.6-Flash (version 2026-07-31) in Foundry and call /mai/v1/images/generations with your deployment name as model (same request shape as MAI-Image-2.6).

Sources: