OpenAI adds GIF creation to ChatGPT with Images 2.6

ChatGPT and Codex can now turn a text prompt or a rough sketch into an animated GIF. OpenAI introduced Images 2.6 on Wednesday, the latest version of its image generator, which the company says is available worldwide on every subscription plan, on desktop, mobile and the web.

That includes the free tier in Mexico, OpenAI says. The announcement does not say how long the GIFs can run, how large they can be or how many each plan allows.

Images 2.6 generates images 50% faster than the previous version, according to OpenAI. In its own demo, the same scene, a luxury travel ad, took 7.08 seconds on GPT-Image-2.5 Flare and 4.84 on GPT-Image-2.6 Flare at low quality, 46% faster. Those are the company's numbers, and no independent test has confirmed them.

Two models arrive in the API. GPT-Image-2.6 Flare is built for speed; at low quality, OpenAI says it can return an image in as little as six seconds. GPT-Image-2.6 Sunburst aims for more detail and for keeping characters and products consistent from one edit to the next.

Prices stay put. OpenAI's pricing page lists the same rates for both models: $8 per million image input tokens, $30 per million image output tokens and $5 per million text input tokens, identical to the 2.5 models.

Developers also get image markup, SVG export and a new "complexity" parameter that sets how much planning the model does before it generates. OpenAI suggests a low setting for quick edits and a medium or high one for crowded scenes.

The release comes more than six months after ChatGPT Images 2.0, which launched April 21. OpenAI, which also announced the launch on X, says its tools now generate 4 billion images a week. With token prices unchanged, what an API image costs will depend on the quality and complexity a developer picks, and OpenAI points to a calculator for estimates.