GPT Image 2.6 팀The short answer: One GPT Image 2.6 image on this site costs between $0.27 and $2.34 in credits on the $10 to $100 packs. The low end is a 1K Flare render at 20 credits on the $100 pack; the high end is a 4K Sunburst render at high quality, at 117 credits on the $10 pack. The $5 pack is a small starter at $1.00 per 1K Flare image. The API is priced in tokens instead, and OpenAI publishes no fixed token count for one image.
One image costs 20 to 78 credits before high quality
Model and size set the base price, and both are flat rates. That means you can turn the two into dollars without a calculator.
| Model | Size | Credits | $100 pack | $10 pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flare | 1K | 20 | $0.27 | $0.40 |
| Flare | 2K | 30 | $0.40 | $0.60 |
| Flare | 4K | 60 | $0.80 | $1.20 |
| Sunburst | 1K | 26 | $0.35 | $0.52 |
| Sunburst | 2K | 39 | $0.52 | $0.78 |
| Sunburst | 4K | 78 | $1.04 | $1.56 |
| Flare | GIF | 40 | $0.53 | $0.80 |
| Sunburst | GIF | 52 | $0.69 | $1.04 |
Read the two dollar columns as a range, not a promise. Dollar figures are rounded to the nearest cent. The lower rate comes from the $100 pack, which sells 7,500 credits at about $0.0133 each. The higher rate comes from the $10 pack, which sells 500 credits at $0.02 each. The $20 and $50 packs sit between them.
The $5 pack is left out of the tables because it holds only 100 credits at $0.05 each, enough for five 1K Flare images. All five are one-time buys, and pack credits never expire, so the rate depends on how much you pay at once. The pricing page lists every pack.
GIF has one price at any aspect ratio because the site fixes the format: 9 frames at 200 ms each, for 1.8 seconds of motion. Each frame is drawn inside a 512×512 pixel budget that scales to the ratio you choose. Flare charges 40 credits and Sunburst charges 52, which is $0.53 or $0.69 on the $100 pack. The GIF walkthrough covers the rest of the settings.
High quality adds 50% to the credit price
Low and medium cost the same, so high quality is the only setting that moves the quality part of your bill. The markup is 50% of the size price, and it applies to GIF as well.
| Model | Size | Credits at high | $100 pack | $10 pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flare | 1K | 30 | $0.40 | $0.60 |
| Flare | 2K | 45 | $0.60 | $0.90 |
| Flare | 4K | 90 | $1.20 | $1.80 |
| Sunburst | 1K | 39 | $0.52 | $0.78 |
| Sunburst | 2K | 59 | $0.79 | $1.18 |
| Sunburst | 4K | 117 | $1.56 | $2.34 |
| Flare | GIF | 60 | $0.80 | $1.20 |
| Sunburst | GIF | 78 | $1.04 | $1.56 |
Two things follow from that rule. High quality on a small size stays cheap: 1K Flare at high is 30 credits, or $0.40 on the $100 pack. The markup grows with size, so a 4K Sunburst frame at high costs 39 credits more than the same frame at medium.
Sunburst 2K at high lands on 59 credits, because 39 plus half is 58.5 and the site rounds up to a whole credit. A whole credit is about 1.3 cents on the $100 pack, so the rounding is worth less than a cent.
Spend high where the pixels are doing detail work: small type, fine labels, product text, dense diagrams. On a soft portrait at 1K there is little fine detail for the extra 10 credits to buy.
A denser prompt does not cost more
Credits are charged by size, not by token, so at one size a dense prompt and a short one cost the same. That is the biggest billing difference from the API, where input text is its own line on the invoice.
Nothing about the wording changes the credit price. Not the length, not the object count, not a list of 20 constraints. The four inputs that move the price are the model, the size, the format, and the quality setting.
Aspect ratio does not change the price either: all 11 options, auto included, cost the same at a given size. Reference images are free in credit terms too, and you can attach up to 16 to hold a product, a character, or a style steady across runs.
Failed runs refund their credits automatically, so a prompt the model refuses leaves your balance where it was.
The API charges per token, not per image
OpenAI lists token rates for both 2.6 variants and no fixed number of tokens for one image. Those rates are the only official prices for the model.
| Token type | Rate per 1M tokens |
|---|---|
| Image input | $8.00 |
| Image output | $30.00 |
| Text input | $5.00 |
The rates are the same for gpt-image-2.6-flare and gpt-image-2.6-sunburst. GPT Image 2.5 carries the same standard rates, which the 2.5 comparison sets out. Only 2.5 has a Batch rate, at $15.00 per 1M image output tokens; 2.6 does not appear in the Batch table.
Because the token count per image is not published, nobody outside OpenAI can turn those rates into a firm per-image price. The official route is the cost calculator in OpenAI's image generation guide, which turns a size and a quality into an estimate. Use it, not a number copied from a blog.
A page that prints a flat per-image API price is dividing a token rate by an assumed token count. The assumed count is the part nobody publishes.
The model reference lists both variants and their API parameters if you plan to call the endpoint instead of using credits.
Which pack to buy
Buy for the volume you expect, because every step up lowers the cost per credit. All five packs are one-time buys with no subscription, and their credits never expire.
| Pack | Credits | Cost per credit | 1K Flare images |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5 | 100 | $0.05 | 5 |
| $10 | 500 | $0.02 | 25 |
| $20 | 1,200 | $0.01667 | 60 |
| $50 | 3,400 | $0.01471 | 170 |
| $100 | 7,500 | $0.01333 | 375 |
The $5 pack is for a first try. It covers five 1K Flare images or one 4K Flare image, and a 4K Sunburst render at high quality needs more credits than it holds.
Because credits never expire, a pack bought in January still covers a December project. Leftover credits stay in your balance, so a larger pack carries no deadline.
So the split is simple. If you render a few images a week, start with the $10 or $20 pack and top up when it runs low. If you produce images steadily, the $50 and $100 packs bring the cost per credit down the furthest.
FAQ
How much does one image cost in dollars?
A 1K Flare image is 20 credits: $0.27 on the $100 pack, $0.40 on the $10 pack and $1.00 on the $5 pack. With high quality it becomes 30 credits, or $0.40 on the $100 pack and $0.60 on the $10 pack.
Does a long prompt cost more?
No. The site charges by size, so a two-line prompt and a 500-word prompt cost the same at one size. The same holds for edits and for requests with reference images attached.
Is high quality worth 50% more?
Only where the frame holds detail that has to survive: small type, fine labels, product text. A simple subject at 1K has little of that detail for the extra 10 credits to buy.
What does a GIF cost?
40 credits on Flare and 52 on Sunburst at any aspect ratio, or 60 and 78 with high quality. The site always renders 9 frames, so the price is the same whatever the motion shows.
Why is there no fixed API price per image?
OpenAI publishes token rates but not the number of tokens one image consumes. Its calculator turns a size and a quality into an estimate, and a third-party per-image figure rests on an assumed token count.
What happens if a generation fails?
The credits come back automatically. A run that returns nothing costs you time, not money.
Sources
- API pricing — image input $8, image output $30, and text input $5 per 1M tokens for both 2.6 variants, plus the pointer to the image cost calculator.
- Image generation guide — the cost calculator for one image.
- gpt-image-2.6-flare and gpt-image-2.6-sunburst — model pages.
- Changelog — the November 4, 2026 release note for GPT-Image-2.6.
Revision log
- November 5, 2026 — Page published.
- November 5, 2026 — Dollar figures updated for the current credit packs; subscription comparison removed.