GPT-IMGTwo routes, one price. Since cost cannot break the tie, the decision comes down to whether your job is a fast iteration loop or a single careful render. GPT-IMG runs the Flare route.
OpenAI splits GPT Image 2.5 into two API routes at the same token price. Flare is the fast default, Sunburst the careful one. Here is which your job needs.
The GPT Image 2.5 option in the box above is the Flare route. GPT Image 2 sits alongside it for a same-price second opinion.
When GPT Image 2.5 shipped on September 8, 2026, OpenAI divided it into two API routes rather than two price tiers. A comparison page is only useful if it also says what it cannot tell you, so the last three points are the limits of this one.
Positioned for social content, product imagery, rapid prototyping, and high-volume generation. It is the route you want when you are going to run the prompt fifteen times, and it carries most of the up-to-50% latency gain over GPT Image 2.
Slower and more deliberate, aimed at production campaign creative and detailed product work, where one render has to be right rather than fast.
Both routes bill at the same per-token rate, so there is no cheap option and no premium one. That makes this a job-fit decision, which is unusual enough to be worth saying twice.
The prompt box on this site sends to the Flare route. If your work genuinely needs Sunburst, you will need OpenAI’s API directly. We would rather say that than imply a choice you do not have here.
Everything on this page about Sunburst reflects how OpenAI positions it, not our own runs. Treat the Flare results as tested and the Sunburst description as vendor framing.
Flare landed dense instructions, correct multi-word text, and a contained reference edit in our testing. The realistic case for Sunburst is final campaign creative, not everyday production.
Every result in our GPT Image 2.5 review was generated through the Flare route, so what follows is the fast route being tested, not the careful one. A six-constraint brief — subject, handle orientation, light direction, background tone, a reserved empty corner, and a no-text rule — survived a single generation. An infographic came back with six multi-word labels spelled correctly. And a reference edit swapped the backdrop while the subject, angle, glaze highlights, and framing all stayed put, which is the behaviour Sunburst is meant to be the careful choice for.
The tested write-up, and the pages behind it.
Every prompt, render, and credit cost behind the Flare results described on this page.
The model page, pre-set to the cheapest draft configuration.
The comparison that does change what lands in your images, with both models in one prompt box.
Upgrade for larger monthly credits, faster generation, and commercial-ready output.
Practical details for this generator page.
Use the prompt panel above with the same account, credits, and history workflow.
