Best AI Image Generators: Text-to-Image Leaderboard
Ranked by LMArena scores from anonymous head-to-head human votes. Artificial Analysis Image Arena Elo is shown for comparison; the two scales use different baselines and cannot be compared directly.
- Top open-weight
Qwen-Image-2.11362Alibaba - #1 on AA (matched)GPT-Image-2.5 SunburstAA Elo 1199OpenAI
On LMArena’s text-to-image leaderboard published Oct 7, 2026, #1 is GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst by OpenAI (1425, 17,752 votes); the image-editing leader is GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst (1514).
Full leaderboard · Image editing
10 modelsSorted by LMArena score by default; ± is half the 95% confidence interval.
| # | Model | LMArena | Artificial Analysis | Released | License | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score↓ | Rank | Votes | Elo | Rank | ||||
| 1 | Qwen-Image-2.1AlibabaOpen |
1362±6 | 19 | 36,713 | 1081±13 | 23 | Sep 2026 | qwen-research |
| 2 |  HunyuanImage 3.0 InstructTencentOpen |
1302±3 | 29 | 331,438 | 1063±13 | 31 | Jan 2026 | tencent-hunyuan-community |
| 3 | Qwen-Image-EditAlibabaOpen |
1241±3 | 38 | 2,021,780 | – | – | – | Apache 2.0 |
| 4 | Qwen-Image-Edit (2511)AlibabaOpen |
1233±3 | 40 | 485,092 | – | – | – | Apache 2.0 |
| 5 |  FLUX.2 [klein] 9BBlack Forest LabsOpen |
1224±3 | 43 | 540,679 | 1015±13 | 43 | Jan 2026 | flux-non-commercial-license |
| 6 | FLUX.2 [dev]Black Forest LabsOpen |
1224±4 | 44 | 254,229 | – | – | – | flux-non-commercial-license |
| 7 | FLUX.2 [klein] 4BBlack Forest LabsOpen |
1187±3 | 50 | 541,237 | 938±17 | 62 | Jan 2026 | Apache 2.0 |
| 8 | FLUX.1 Kontext [dev]Black Forest LabsOpen |
1151±3 | 54 | 3,639,665 | – | – | – | flux-1-dev-non-commercial-license |
| 9 |  BAGELByteDanceOpen |
1027±6 | 59 | 13,488 | 792±25 | 73 | May 2025 | Apache 2.0 |
| 10 |  Step1X-EditStepFunOpen |
996±5 | 60 | 155,416 | 601±39 | 76 | Apr 2025 | Apache 2.0 |
Scores: LMArena leaderboard-dataset (lmarena-ai on Hugging Face, CC-BY-4.0), Image editing published Oct 20, 2026; AA columns from the Artificial Analysis Image Arena. Please credit the sources when citing.
Sources & methodology
- LMLMArena leaderboard dataset (Hugging Face, CC-BY-4.0)
published Oct 20, 2026 · 60 models
- AAArtificial Analysis Image Arena
fetched Oct 26, 2026 · 76 models
- Scores come from LMArena’s text_to_image and image_edit leaderboards (overall category, latest release): users vote between two anonymous outputs and LMArena fits a Bradley–Terry model.
- AA values are shown only when the model name (ignoring bracketed variant notes) maps to exactly one row; hover to see the AA entry name. Anything unmatched stays blank (–); nothing is guessed.
- Price, resolution and generation speed have no reliable public source yet and are not shown.
- Synced daily at 06:55 UTC; public JSON: /api/public/image-leaderboard.php
FAQ
What is the best AI image generator right now?
On LMArena’s text-to-image leaderboard published Oct 7, 2026, #1 is GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst by OpenAI (1425, 17,752 votes); the image-editing leader is GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst (1514).
Which vendors rank highest for image generation?
On the text-to-image board, each vendor's best model ranks: OpenAI GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst (1425, #1), xAI Grok Imagine Image 2.0 (Canvas) (1334, #4), Microsoft AI MAI Image 2.6 (1332, #5), Google Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 (1328, #6), Reve Reve 2.1 (1302, #7).
Which open-weight image models can I run locally?
19 text-to-image models have non-proprietary licenses; the highest is Qwen Image 2.1 (1223, license qwen-research). Some licenses (e.g. FLUX dev non-commercial) restrict commercial use.
Why do LMArena and AA scores differ so much?
The two platforms use different voters, prompts and baselines, so absolute numbers are not comparable; relative order within one platform is what matters.