For the shot that matters.
The premium half of OpenAI's 2.5 API release. Slower on purpose, in exchange for tighter control across every edit. Built for campaign creative and product imagery that has to be right.
3 to 9 credits per image. Included on every plan, including the free tier. Quality xhigh costs 2x and max 3x.
OpenAI
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst
What is GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst?
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst is the premium model in OpenAI's September 2026 API release, and the counterpart to Flare. It trades generation speed for precision, giving tighter control across edits and holding detail through the kind of long editing session a real campaign asset goes through. OpenAI positions it for production ready campaign creative and polished product imagery, which is the honest description: this is not the model you explore with, it is the model you finish with. On APImage it lives in the same studio and the same credit pool as Flare, so the usual workflow is to find the frame on Flare and then render it properly on Sunburst.
- Provider
- OpenAI
- Released
- September 2026
- Positioning
- Premium visual workflows
- API model ID
- gpt-image-2.5-sunburst
- Generation time
- Longer than Flare, by design
- Edit control
- Tightest available across multi turn edits
- Reference photos
- Strong subject fidelity across settings and styles
- Text rendering
- Inherits GPT Image 2's strength
- Best for
- Campaign creative, product imagery, hero shots
- Plans
- Every plan, including free
- Cost
- 3 to 9 credits per image, 2x at xhigh, 3x at max
What GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst does that the others do not.
Control across the whole edit chain
Ten turns in, the first nine decisions are still there. This is the model for assets that get notes.
Detail that survives scrutiny
Built for work that will be seen at full size, in print, or next to a real photograph.
Product imagery that ships
Materials, reflections and edges hold up. Polished enough to go straight onto a product page.
Same references, higher fidelity
The 2.5 reference handling, applied with more care. A subject moved to a new setting keeps the details that make it that subject.
Where it earns its credits in real work.
Campaign hero shots
The one image the whole campaign hangs on, at the quality that decision deserves.
Ecommerce product imagery
Polished enough for a product page without a retouching pass afterwards.
Print and large format
Work that gets looked at closely, where an approximation shows.
Long editing sessions
Client notes, revisions, then more notes. Precision across turns is the whole point.
Brand critical creative
When the logo, the colour and the type all have to be exactly right.
- 1Find your composition on Flare first. It is faster and cheaper for exploration.
- 2Switch the model to GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst and bring the prompt and references across.
- 3Render the frame, then refine with targeted edits.
- 4Export at full size. Transparent PNG is available on Plus and above.
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst is not the right answer to everything. Your plan includes all of them, so switching model costs nothing.
GPT Image 2.5 Flare
You are exploring, or generating at volume. Faster and the default for most work.
See GPT Image 2.5 FlareGPT Image 2
Budget matters more than the last increment of quality.
See GPT Image 2Flux 2 Max
No text in the frame and you prefer the Black Forest Labs look.
What it costs
3 to 9 credits per image
Included on every plan, including the free tier. Quality xhigh costs 2x and max 3x.
No separate subscription
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst is on the same plan as every other model on APImage, priced in the same credits out of the same pool. Run the same prompt through three models and keep the one that looks right.
New models never cost extra
When a provider ships something new it appears in your studio at no additional charge. Ultra plans get it first.
is live on APImage
One subscription, one pool of credits, and not a single extra login. Start free and switch models with a dropdown.
Generate with Sunburst