Microsoft's MAI-Image-2.6-Flash Cuts Input Cost to a Third, Runs 2.8x Faster
heypearlai · x · 2026-09-06
Microsoft shipped MAI-Image-2.6-Flash this week, and the headline is cost: input pricing is roughly a third of the full MAI-Image-2.6, output is half price, and it runs about 2.8x faster than OpenAI's mid-tier image option. The full MAI-Image-2.6 still sits at #2 on Artificial Analysis behind OpenAI's top model. Microsoft isn't closing the quality gap — it's making the #2 spot dramatically cheaper to run, which matters more than rank for high-volume image generation.
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