As of: 2026-10-25 23:49 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/mai-image-2-6-flash/

# MAI-Image-2.6-Flash

Microsoft, MAI-Image family. Status: preview. Type: image generation. Released: 2026-09-04.

## How to call it

| Provider | Model id | Endpoint | Docs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Foundry (Foundry Models sold by Azure) | `MAI-Image-2.6-Flash` | https://<resource-name>.services.ai.azure.com/mai/v1/images/generations | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/how-to/use-foundry-models-mai-image |
| Microsoft Foundry (image edits) | `MAI-Image-2.6-Flash` | https://<resource-name>.services.ai.azure.com/mai/v1/images/edits | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/how-to/use-foundry-models-mai-image |
| OpenRouter | `microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash` | https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/images |  |
| Web app (MAI Playground) |  |  | https://playground.microsoft.ai/ |

## Pricing

- Text input: $1.75 per 1M tokens
- Image input: $2.50 per 1M tokens
- Image output: $19 per 1M tokens
- Unit as published: USD per 1M tokens (OpenRouter listing, provider Azure); Artificial Analysis estimates ~$19.5 per 1,000 images at 1024x1024
- Source: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/images/models/microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash/endpoints
- Last checked: 2026-10-25

## Specs

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

## Where it stands

- Newer image generation models in the registry since its release: 6. The 5 newest:
  - FLUX 3 Image Klein (2026-10-15) https://postcutoff.com/m/flux-3-image-klein/
  - Krea 3 (Fast / High / Ultra modes) (2026-10-15) https://postcutoff.com/m/krea-3/
  - Nano Banana 2.1 (Gemini Nano Banana 2.1) (2026-10-06) https://postcutoff.com/m/gemini-nano-banana-2-1/
  - Qwen-Image-2.1 (2026-09-20) https://postcutoff.com/m/qwen-image-2-1/
  - 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

- 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: https://microsoft.ai/news/pushing-the-quality-cost-frontier-with-mai-image-2-6/
- 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: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/how-to/use-foundry-models-mai-image
- 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: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/concepts/models-sold-directly-by-azure

## 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.

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

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:
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/how-to/use-foundry-models-mai-image
- https://microsoft.ai/news/pushing-the-quality-cost-frontier-with-mai-image-2-6/
- https://microsoft.ai/models/mai-image-2-6/
- https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/images/models/microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash/endpoints

Model page: https://postcutoff.com/m/mai-image-2-6-flash/