GPT Image 2.6 Sunburst and Flare make SVG graphics and animated GIFs

OpenAI has two new image models in the API, GPT Image 2.6 Sunburst and GPT Image 2.6 Flare. Both can now hand you an SVG file or an animated GIF instead of a flat picture.

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01 02 What’s new

developers.openai.com · API changelog · Nov 4, 2026

GPT Image 2.6 Sunburst and Flare make SVG graphics and animated GIFs

November 4, 2026 Image API

Sunburst is for detailed work, like dense compositions and careful edits. Flare is for fast iteration, in apps where someone generates, looks, and tries again.

What the models can do.

A new complexity setting decides how much the model plans before it draws, at low, medium or high. Sunburst draws one football scene at each level, and the trophy and the champions sign move.

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GPT Image 2.6

01 02 What’s new

developers.openai.com · Image generation guide

A new setting decides how much the model plans

Leave complexity out and you get high, which helps with dense text but can run slower and change things you wanted kept. For a small edit, like swapping a sign, try low.

Ask for SVG output and you get paths and colors you can edit, made for icons and logos. Flare and Sunburst drew these two from one prompt, for a bakery called Field and Flour.

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GPT Image 2.6

01 02 What’s new

developers.openai.com · Image generation guide

Ask for an SVG and get shapes you can edit

You get one SVG per request, with no streaming. The edit endpoint can't return an SVG or take one in. And the file is a static drawing, without scripts or embedded pictures.

Set the format to GIF, and describe the motion and the loop in your prompt. Sunburst drew this lantern animation in nine frames, and the monkey is back where it started in under two seconds.

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GPT Image 2.6

01 02 What’s new

developers.openai.com · Image generation guide · Sunburst, 9 frames × 200 ms

Or ask for a GIF that loops

You can ask for up to 64 frames, each held from 20 milliseconds to 2 seconds. Like SVG, a GIF only comes from a new generation.

With markup-guided editing, you circle the spot on a transparent layer over your photo and describe the change. Flare turned this circled vase cobalt blue and left the rest of the kitchen alone.

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GPT Image 2.6

01 02 What’s new

developers.openai.com · Image generation guide

Circle what to change, then say how

Markup works with supported GPT Image 2.5 models too. It runs on the Image API's edit endpoint, and a request can't combine it with a mask.

What they cost, and who can use them.

Sunburst and Flare cost the same per token as GPT Image 2 and 2.5, with image output at 30 dollars per million tokens.

Both models run on the Image API's generation and edit endpoints. The Responses API, Batch and Chat Completions don't support them. Your organization may need to pass OpenAI's verification first.

At the same quality, each model can spend a different number of tokens, so the bill per image can differ. An SVG pays for a reference image plus the tokens that write the file. Complexity and markup add no fee.

I'd iterate in Flare, because it's built for speed, then switch to Sunburst for the final detailed image, with complexity on high only where the layout needs it. The image generation guide has every request field.