Microsoft launches fast image model MAI-Image-2.6-Flash

TREE NEWS update: Microsoft released its image generation model MAI-Image-2.6-Flash on Sept. 5, now in public preview via Microsoft Foundry. The model shares core capabilities with the flagship MAI-Image-2.6, including object removal/replacement, inpainting, and attribute editing, optimized for speed and cost. Pricing is $1.75 per million tokens for text input, $2.50 for image input, and $19 for image output. Microsoft AI lead Mustafa Suleyman says it generates 2x faster than GPT-Image-2-Medium with 72% better GPU efficiency.