GPT Image 2.6's pricing is easy to misread: token rates are identical to 2.5, but per-image bills at low/medium quality are several times higher. The official guide warns explicitly: "Equal token rates don't mean equal cost per image." This article lays out the official rates, per-image costs, SVG/GIF billing and third-party prices.
OpenAI's pricing page, read directly Nov 13, 2026: text input $5.00 per 1M tokens (cached $1.25), image input $8.00 (cached $2.00), image output $30.00 — identical across both variants and both generations. The one difference is Batch: 2.5 has Batch pricing (image output at half price, $15/1M), while 2.6 is not in the Batch table — no Batch price. 2.6 doesn't support the Responses API, so the guide's caching section (which covers GPT-Image-2 and 2.5 inside the Responses API only) doesn't apply to 2.6 — the pricing page lists cached rates for 2.6, but whether they can actually be realized is unverified, so don't budget cache discounts.
Per the official calculator (1024×1024, checked Nov 7, 2026, same for both models): low 823 tokens $0.02469 (2.5: 196 tokens $0.00588, 4.2x); medium 1,449 tokens $0.04347 (2.5: $0.01317, 3.3x); high 1,756 tokens $0.05268 (same as 2.5); xhigh 3,122 tokens ~$0.094 (same); max 7,024 tokens $0.21072 (same). weneedai's reading of the official calculator script agrees.
Other sizes measured: 1536×1024 (mxchat, Nov 7, 46 images): low 664 tokens $0.0203, medium 1,132 tokens $0.0343, high Flare 1,353 tokens $0.0410 / Sunburst 1,372 tokens $0.0415, xhigh $0.0741, max $0.1650. 2048×2048 (official calculator): low $0.050, max $0.428. 3840×2160 low $0.047 (LaoZhang). SeedDance measured 4K at ~3.4x the price of 1K, and a 3:1 panorama at about one-third of a square image.
QuantSlant's same-prompt comparison (medium): 2.5 Sunburst 343 tokens ($0.011) vs 2.6 Sunburst 1,132 tokens ($0.034), about 3x the bill; a three-round editing flow cost $0.046 / ~27s on 2.6 vs $0.022 / ~19s on 2.5. Note the official calculator's token counts don't exactly match measured token counts — token use varies by prompt at the same quality tier — so budget with a margin.
SVG is billed as two parts: the reference image at image-model rates + the author model at its token rates, with no fixed per-image price (per the guide); CellCog measured $0.03–$0.23 per returned SVG. GIF is billed per output token (Replicate's framing). Streaming partial images cost an extra 100 image-output tokens each. SVG/GIF outputs don't support streaming, partial images or custom compression.
Replicate bills per image: low $0.05, medium $0.09, high $0.128, max $0.50; GIF and SVG per output token. fal: $30/1M output tokens. BudgetPixel: $0.12/image retail. OpenRouter: same as official ($8/$30 per 1M tokens). LaoZhang API's own VIP model charges a fixed $0.03/call — aggregator pricing, not OpenAI's. Recraft Studio: credits 4–57 (default 10), Sunburst available at default settings on the free plan.
ChatGPT works on all tiers including free, but OpenAI publishes no fixed image count for any tier; the only number is a Medium author's single-person test — a free account hit the cap after ~8 operations (images, GIFs and edits combined), with a prompt to retry after 24 hours. That's a single-person test, not an official quota. Codex works on all tiers, with image generation counting against the same usage quota as normal conversation; per the Codex pricing FAQ, turns with image generation consume quota 3–5x faster than comparable text-only turns (depending on image quality and size).
Reference: weneedai — GPT Image 2.6 Pricing (rewritten and organized by ModelBrief; facts per the source)