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MAI-Image-2.6

Microsoft AI's image model, launched on August 10, 2026 and offered in public preview on Microsoft Foundry. Microsoft highlights text rendering, portraits and photorealistic commercial images.

Microsoft AIImage modelReleased August 2026Data checked October 18, 2026

Where people rank it

#2

Creating images, 25,091 votes

#2

Editing images (tied), 51,384 votes

From blind votes on LMArena, where people pick the better of two anonymous answers. See the full tables on the AI leaderboard.

Strengths and weaknesses

  • Tied for second on LMArena text-to-image and image editing
  • Sixth of 104 entries on the Artificial Analysis text-to-image arena
  • Artificial Analysis lists it at about $39 per 1,000 images, far below GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst
  • Still a public preview on Microsoft Foundry
  • Clearly behind GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst on both LMArena image boards

Best for

  • Images with readable text
  • Photorealistic product and portrait shots

Every score we have

Each bar compares this model with the best result any model on this page has on the same test.

  • LMArena text to image1,332.1Arena score 1332.1 (95% CI 1326.7 to 1337.5); 25,091 votes; entry "mai-image-2.6"; position 5 of 82 on the full board
  • LMArena image editing1,428.3Arena score 1428.3 (95% CI 1423.3 to 1433.3); 51,384 votes; entry "mai-image-2.6"; position 5 of 59 on the full board
  • Artificial Analysis image arena1,165.6Elo 1165.6 (95% CI 1153.6 to 1177.6); 8,090 appearances; position 6 of 104 on the Artificial Analysis text-to-image arena
  • Price per 1,000 images (estimate)$39$38.90 per 1,000 images (Artificial Analysis estimate)

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