Microsoft MAI-Image-2 Pricing
All plans and pricing as of 2026-04-17
Azure Foundry API
- ✓Text input: $5/1M tokens
- ✓Image output: $33/1M tokens
- ✓Public preview on Azure Foundry
- ✓Global standard deployment in US regions + West Europe + Sweden Central + South India
MAI-Image-2-Efficient (variant, shipped 2026-04-14)
- ✓22% faster than MAI-Image-2
- ✓4x more compute-efficient
- ✓Same architecture, tuned for throughput
- ✓Same category availability
Bundled (Copilot / Bing Image Creator / PowerPoint)
- ✓Existing Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions use MAI-Image-2 under the hood
- ✓Bing Image Creator is the consumer-facing surface
- ✓No separate pricing or config required for existing Microsoft customers
Is Microsoft MAI-Image-2 Worth the Price?
Value Score: 7.5/10
Overall Score: 7.4/10 · Microsoft shops already on Azure or M365 Copilot who need a first-party image model without an OpenAI dependency. Also good for any high-volume programmatic image workflow (ad creative, product photography variations) where MAI-Image-2-Efficient's 4x cost efficiency materially changes the economics.
MAI-Image-2 is the most surprising entry in Microsoft's 2026-04-02 MAI model release. Debuting #3 on Arena.ai on their first attempt -- against Nano Banana 2, Midjourney, and Flux -- suggests Microsoft's internal imaging research (part of the Inflection / Mustafa Suleyman-era buildout) was further along than publicly known. For Azure customers this is a real alternative to third-party APIs. For everyone else, the three standalone winners (Nano Banana 2, Midjourney, Flux) remain the answer depending on your use case -- but expect Microsoft to catch up on multi-reference and stylization features through Q2/Q3 2026.
How Microsoft MAI-Image-2 Pricing Compares
| Tool | Free Tier | Starting Price | Value Score | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft MAI-Image-2(this tool) | Yes | $5 input / $33 output/per 1M tokens | 7.5/10 | 7.4 |
| Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) | Yes | $0 | 8.5/10 | 8.9 |
| Leonardo AI | Yes | $0 | 9/10 | 8.3 |
| Stable Diffusion | Yes | $0 | 10/10 | 8.0 |
| Midjourney | No | $10/month | 7/10 | 7.8 |
| Ideogram | Yes | $0 | 8/10 | 7.8 |