MAI-Image-2.5
Microsoft AIProprietary
MAI-Image-2.5 is an AI image model from Microsoft AI. On LMArena’s Text-to-image leaderboard it ranks 14 of 82 with 1254±4 from 61,265 votes. On LMArena’s Image editing leaderboard it ranks 9 of 60 with 1400±4 from 190,119 votes. License: Proprietary.
Key figures
- Developer
- Microsoft AI
- License
- Proprietary
- Released (per AA)
- Jun 2026
Who it is for (from the data)
- Solid quality with room to choose: #14 of 82 on Text-to-image, in the top half.
- Generating and editing images: it is ranked on both boards.
- Use via Microsoft AI's service or API: LMArena lists it as proprietary.
- Existing Microsoft AI users: this vendor has 4 models on Text-to-image.
Neighbours on Text-to-image
| # | Model | Score | Votes | AA Elo | License | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 |  Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (Nano Banana 2) [Web Search] Google | 1262 | 60,515 | – | Proprietary | +8 |
| 12 |  Seedream 5.0 Pro ByteDance | 1255 | 94,181 | 1100 | Proprietary | +1 |
| 13 |  Qwen Image 3.0 Pro Alibaba | 1255 | 11,440 | 1095 | Proprietary | +1 |
| 14 | MAI Image 2.5 Microsoft AI | 1254 | 61,265 | 1118 | Proprietary | |
| 15 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image (Nano Banana 2 Lite) Google | 1250 | 17,804 | – | Proprietary | -4 |
| 16 | Gemini 3 Pro Image 2K (Nano Banana Pro) Google | 1248 | 175,734 | – | Proprietary | -6 |
| 17 |  GPT Image 1.5 High Fidelity OpenAI | 1237 | 169,927 | – | Proprietary | -17 |
Alternatives · More from Microsoft AI
| # | Model | Score | Votes | AA Elo | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | MAI Image 2.6 Microsoft AI | 1332 | 25,091 | 1166 | Proprietary |
| 24 | MAI Image 2 Microsoft AI | 1184 | 51,475 | – | Proprietary |
| 58 | MAI Image 1 Microsoft AI | 1093 | 98,410 | – | Proprietary |
Alternatives · Top open-weight models
| # | Model | Score | Votes | AA Elo | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | Qwen Image 2.1 Alibaba | 1223 | 11,441 | 1042 | qwen-research |
| 20 |  Ideogram 4.0 Quality Ideogram | 1205 | 60,591 | – | Ideogram Open Model |
| 27 |  Cosmos3-Super-Text2Image (Agentic) NVIDIA | 1165 | 10,805 | – | OpenMDW-1.1 |
| 33 | Cosmos3-Super-Text2Image NVIDIA | 1152 | 18,485 | – | OpenMDW-1.1 |
| 35 |  Hunyuan Image 3.0 Tencent | 1150 | 180,518 | 989 | tencent-hunyuan-community |
How to read the scores
- LMArena score: people blind-pick the better of two anonymous images for the same prompt, and the votes are fitted into an Elo-style rating; "±" is the 95% confidence interval.
- Text-to-image and image edit are separate boards, so scores are not comparable across them; AA Elo comes from Artificial Analysis on a different scale.
- If the gap between two models is smaller than their combined intervals, the order is not statistically reliable; treat them as the same tier. More votes mean narrower intervals.
FAQ
Where does MAI-Image-2.5 rank among AI image models?
Text-to-image rank 14 (1254); Image editing rank 9 (1400) (LMArena, data as of Oct 26, 2026).
Is MAI-Image-2.5 open-weight?
No. LMArena lists it as Proprietary; it is available only through Microsoft AI’s products or API.
Can MAI-Image-2.5 edit images?
Yes. MAI-Image-2.5 is #9 of 60 on the LMArena image-edit board (1400, 190,119 votes).
Who makes MAI-Image-2.5?
According to LMArena, MAI-Image-2.5 is made by Microsoft AI.
How reliable is MAI-Image-2.5's score?
The scores are based on 61,265 votes on Text-to-image (95% CI ±4); 190,119 votes on Image editing (95% CI ±4). More votes and narrower intervals mean a more stable rank.
How far is MAI-Image-2.5 from #1 on Text-to-image?
#1 on Text-to-image is GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst (1425); MAI-Image-2.5 scores 1254, 171 points behind.
Sources
LMArena Text-to-image data published on Oct 7, 2026.
LMArena Image editing data published on Oct 20, 2026.
17NAS syncs the upstream leaderboards daily; this page's data was synced on Oct 26, 2026.
Price, resolution and speed have no reliable public data yet and are omitted; all values come from the snapshot, blanks show –.