OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Images 2.0 with Native Reasoning — DALL-E 2 and 3 Retiring May 12

OpenAI Blog·high signal

OpenAI released gpt-image-2 on April 21, which claimed the #1 spot across every category on the Image Arena leaderboard within 12 hours by a +242 point margin. It is OpenAI's first image model with native reasoning ('thinking') built into the architecture, supporting 2K resolution, aspect ratios from 3:1 to 1:3, and generating up to 8 coherent images per prompt with character continuity. Pricing is ~$0.21 per 1024x1024 render (~60% more than prior gen). DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 are being retired on May 12, 2026 — developers need to migrate.