microsoft
Microsoft AI: MAI-Image-2.6 Flash
microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash
Our take
AI-assisted analysis based on the sources below. Suitability is an editorial assessment; test it on your own workload.
OpenRouter's catalog describes microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash as Microsoft AI's Flash variant, positioned as lower latency and lower cost than the MAI-Image-2.6 precision tier while aiming for comparable quality in latency-sensitive, high-throughput image generation and editing. The listing reports text and image inputs, image outputs, and controls for maximum output tokens and temperature. It also reports favorable Design Arena outcomes across graphic design, general image, editing, and logo categories. Because only an OpenRouter listing and no independent model card were supplied, validate quality, latency, cost, and safety on representative workloads.[1]
Strengths
- The catalog positions this Flash variant for lower latency and lower cost than the MAI-Image-2.6 precision tier, while targeting comparable image quality.[1]
- It is cataloged for image generation and editing with text and image inputs and image-only outputs.[1]
- OpenRouter reports favorable measured Design Arena outcomes in graphic design, general image, editing, and logo categories; these results do not prove workload-level performance.[1]
Limitations
- Only OpenRouter catalog evidence was supplied, and an independent model card was not available in this source pack.[1]
- The listing leaves reasoning support, knowledge cutoff, licensing, hardware requirements, safety behavior, and other deployment details unspecified; missing fields are unknowns, not confirmed absences.[1]
- The catalog evidence does not establish actual latency, quality, editing fidelity, total cost, or policy fit; validate them on representative workloads before adoption.[1]
Where to use it
- Qualified suggestion: latency-sensitive production image generation where high throughput is important.[1]
- Qualified suggestion: editing workflows that combine an existing image with text instructions.[1]
- Qualified suggestion: graphic-design or logo drafting pipelines, subject to brand and human quality review.[1]
Sources
- [1] OpenRouter catalog · Microsoft AI: MAI-Image-2.6 FlashSources checked: Nov 13, 2026
About this model
Description below is the original text supplied by OpenRouter, shown in the source language.
MAI-Image-2.6 Flash is the lower-latency, lower-cost member of the [MAI-Image-2.6](/microsoft/mai-image-2.6) family from Microsoft AI, built for latency-sensitive, high-throughput production image generation and editing at comparable quality to the precision tier....
Specifications
- Model ID
- microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash
- Canonical ID
- microsoft/mai-image-2.6-flash-20260904
- Creator
- microsoft
- Added to OpenRouter
- 04.09.2026
- Context length
- 4,096
- Modality
- text+image->image
- Input modalities
- text, image
- Output modalities
- image
- Token pricing
- No per-token price in the source snapshot — see OpenRouter for the billing unit
- Knowledge cutoff
- —
- Expiration date
- —
Tasks and capabilities
A grade appears only where the source supplies a matching measurement for that task, the model is active and the cohort holds at least 10 comparable models. The capability column lists facts the source declares — supported formats, reasoning and tool parameters — which are not measured quality.
| Task | Grade | Source-declared capability |
|---|---|---|
| General quality | No measurement | — |
| Coding | No measurement | — |
| Agents | No measurement | — |
| Writing | No measurement | — |
| Reasoning | No measurement | — |
| Document analysis | No measurement | — |
| Vision | No measurement | input: image |
| Image generation | No measurement | output: image |
| Audio | No measurement | — |
| Video | No measurement | — |
| Embeddings | No measurement | — |
Evaluations
| Source | Benchmark | Value | Grade | Data retrieved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena | models · graphicdesignwin rate 61.4% · rank 3 | 1,308Elo | AA — next 20% of the cohort | 13.11.2026 |
| Design Arena | models · imagewin rate 60.3% · rank 3 | 1,291Elo | AA — next 20% of the cohort | 13.11.2026 |
| Design Arena | models · imageeditingwin rate 57% · rank 2 | 1,235Elo | —Not rated | 13.11.2026 |
| Design Arena | models · logowin rate 56% · rank 3 | 1,268Elo | AA — next 20% of the cohort | 13.11.2026 |
How grades work
Each letter grade compares a model only against other models scored by the same source and metric in the current snapshot. S means the top 10%, A the next 20%, B the next 30%, C the rest. Models without a published measurement are shown as not rated — a supported format alone never implies measured quality.
- S — S — top 10% of the cohort
- A — A — next 20% of the cohort
- B — B — next 30% of the cohort
- C — C — below the B band
Providers
Optional live provider statistics from OpenRouter. Missing values are unknown, not zero.
| Provider | Context length | Price in /1M | Price out /1M | Latency p50 (30m, s) | Throughput p50 (30m, tok/s) | Uptime (30m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azure | 4,096 | — | — | — | — | 100% |
Provider data retrieved: 13.11.2026
Related articles
No published articles identify this model yet.