Published: 5 November 2026
OpenAI released ChatGPT Images 2.6 on 4 November 2026, and it brings two changes you will notice straight away. ChatGPT can now turn a prompt or a photo into an animated GIF. It can also keep reference images of you, your pets or your characters, so you do not have to upload them again. The update is rolling out in ChatGPT and Codex on the web, desktop and mobile.
You set the speed and fix single frames before you share a GIF
A GIF starts from a text prompt or an image you upload. Once ChatGPT has made the animation, you can change how fast it plays, edit individual frames and share the loop. OpenAI pitches it for work as much as for fun: “From personal reactions to brand mascots and product visuals, GIFs give people and businesses a playful way to communicate,” the company writes.
The feature lands on a busy service. OpenAI says people now make more than four billion images a week across ChatGPT and its API, a billion more than in September, The Decoder reported.
OpenAI has not said how long a GIF can be, how many frames it can hold or how many GIFs each plan allows. Decrypt found the GIF maker missing from its own accounts on launch day, so expect it to reach your account in stages.
Reference images keep faces and products in your account for next time
The second change saves a step. OpenAI says you can “keep reference images of yourself, pets, and characters ready to reuse in new creations,” so a mascot, a product or your own portrait no longer has to be uploaded with every request. TestingCatalog adds that the goal is to keep characters and products looking the same across a series of images, which is where image generators tend to drift.
What OpenAI has left out matters as much. Its posts do not say where saved references are stored, how you delete them, whether they are linked to ChatGPT’s memory, or what stops someone from saving a photo of another person. OpenAI has also not said whether GIFs of real people carry a watermark.
Is ChatGPT Images 2.6 available in the Netherlands?
Most likely yes, but OpenAI has not mentioned Europe separately. According to TestingCatalog and Runtimewire, OpenAI describes the rollout as global and across all subscription tiers, and it names no country exceptions. Check your own account before you plan a campaign around it.
Flare and Sunburst cost the same per token as 2.5, but may use more tokens per image
Developers get two new API models. OpenAI says GPT-Image-2.6 Flare and Sunburst generate images 50% faster than before, and that Flare can produce an image in as little as six seconds. Sunburst is meant for detailed work and keeps edits more consistent. According to OpenAI’s developer documentation, both models support a new complexity setting, edits guided by markup you draw on the image, SVG output and animated GIFs.
The model pages list the same token prices as the 2.5 versions: $8 per million image input tokens and $30 per million image output tokens. The cost per image can still rise. In one developer’s test on OpenAI’s forum, a medium quality image used more than three times as many output tokens as with 2.5. That is a single test without a published method, but it is reason enough to measure your own prompts before you switch.
Agree which photos of people may be saved before your team starts
For the marketing and communication teams we work with, this makes ChatGPT a quick way to produce a looping product visual or a mascot animation for social media. No designer or separate animation tool is needed. Saved references also make a consistent series of on-brand images easier. The risk sits in the same feature. A photo of a recognisable colleague or customer is personal data under the GDPR, and once it is saved as a reference it stays in the account until someone removes it.
Start with mascots, products and invented characters, and try the GIF editor on one small campaign. Keep photos of colleagues and customers out of personal Free, Go, Plus and Pro accounts, where conversations can be used to train OpenAI’s models unless the user turns that off. If your team wants to work with real faces, use a ChatGPT Business or Enterprise workspace, which comes with a data processing agreement. Even then, ask the person in the photo for consent first.
For more information, visit the official announcement of ChatGPT Images 2.6 on the OpenAI blog.
