OpenAI ships GPT-Image-2.5: Sunburst for fidelity, Flare for half the latency

OpenAI introduced GPT-Image-2.5 in the API and ChatGPT as two models: Sunburst, its most capable image model (sharper detail, more natural lighting, finer editing control), and Flare, a faster variant with roughly 50% lower latency than GPT Image 2 at the same quality. Official guidance is to default to Flare and switch to Sunburst when precision edits matter. Community reports place the pair first and second on Image Arena (Tier-4 signal), and third-party availability (Vercel AI Gateway, fal.ai, ComfyUI partner nodes) landed within days.

For product teams doing image generation at scale, Flare's latency claim changes the interactive-use calculus (inline generation, agents that render), while Sunburst becomes the quality ceiling to benchmark against. Same-day gateway and workflow-tool availability shows distribution for OpenAI image models now happens within hours.