Microsoft launches cost-optimized MAI-Image-2-Efficient AI model at 41% lower price

Microsoft has released MAI-Image-2-Efficient, a faster and cheaper variant of its flagship text-to-image model that the company says delivers production-ready quality at nearly half the cost of the original. The new model is priced at $5 per million text input tokens and $19.50 per million image output tokens, representing a roughly 41% reduction from MAI-Image-2's pricing. Available immediately in Microsoft Foundry and MAI Playground with no waitlist, the model runs 22% faster than its predecessor and achieves 4x greater throughput efficiency per GPU, according to benchmarks conducted on NVIDIA H100 hardware at 1024×1024 resolution. Microsoft claims it outperforms competing hyperscaler models from Google The company is positioning the two models as complementary tools rather than replacements, with MAI-Image-2-Efficient targeting high-volume, cost-sensitive production workloads like product photography, marketing creative, and UI mockups, while MAI-Image-2 remains the precision instrument for complex stylization and photorealistic fidelity. The release follows MAI-Image-2's debut on March 19 and broader availability through Microsoft Foundry on April 2, marking a rapid development cadence for Microsoft's in-house AI superintelligence team led Microsoft's tiered pricing strategy for image generation mirrors approaches seen elsewhere in the AI industry but focuses specifically on optimizing cost-per-image economics for enterprise-scale deployment. The faster, cheaper model addresses architectural requirements for agentic AI systems that may need to generate images programmatically as part of larger workflows.