The update arrives as OpenAI battles Google's Gemini for AI supremacy—and as Amazon reportedly eyes a $10 billion investment in the company.
OpenAI rolled out a significant upgrade to its ChatGPT image generation capabilities on Tuesday, promising speeds up to four times faster and a dramatically improved ability to follow user instructions for edits.
The new ChatGPT Images, powered by the company's GPT-Image-1.5 model, delivers stronger instruction following and more precise editing while maintaining consistency in details like facial likeness, lighting, and composition across multiple edits.
The update comes as OpenAI intensifies its battle against Google, which has seen its Gemini chatbot surge to 650 million users in October. This is an increase from 450 million just months earlier in July, largely driven by Google's popular Nano Banana Pro image generator. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared a "code red" last month in a leaked internal memo detailing plans to regain the company's position as the AI leader.
What's New
The upgraded image model addresses one of the most persistent frustrations with AI image tools: the inability to make targeted edits without the system reinterpreting the entire image. Users can now ask the system to add, subtract, combine, blend, and transpose elements while the model maintains visual consistency.
OpenAI says the update offers more natural-looking results, better dense text rendering, and handles smaller text more effectively. These are the capabilities that have historically plagued image generation models.
"The model adheres to your intent more reliably—down to the small details—changing only what you ask for while keeping elements like lighting, composition, and people's appearance consistent across inputs, outputs, and subsequent edits," OpenAI said.
OpenAI is also introducing a dedicated home for Images in ChatGPT, available in the sidebar on mobile and web, with dozens of preset filters and prompts to inspire users.
"The new image viewing and editing screens make it easier to create images that match your vision or get inspiration from trending prompts and preset filters," wrote Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of applications.
Competitive Pressure
OpenAI had reportedly planned to release the new image generator in early January, but accelerated those plans amid mounting pressure from Google. The company's last image model release was GPT-Image-1 in April, and Google's recent momentum has clearly rattled OpenAI's leadership.
Google's Nano Banana Pro has proven so popular that the company recently limited free users to just two image generations per day. Meanwhile, ChatGPT Images remains a significant part of why OpenAI now boasts 800 million weekly ChatGPT users.
"We believe we're still at the beginning of what image generation can enable," OpenAI said. "Today's update is a meaningful step forward with more to come, from finer-grained edits to richer, more detailed outputs across languages."
Growing Investment Interest
The product push comes as OpenAI continues to attract massive investor interest. Amazon is in preliminary discussions to invest at least $10 billion in OpenAI, according to Bloomberg and The Information, in a deal that could value the company north of $500 billion. The agreement would also involve OpenAI adopting Amazon's Trainium AI chip, though sources caution that talks are fluid and terms could change.
Such an investment would signal the intensifying competition among tech giants to secure positions in the AI ecosystem, even as Amazon has already invested at least $8 billion in OpenAI rival Anthropic.
The new ChatGPT Images is rolling out globally to all users starting Tuesday, with the previous version remaining available as a custom GPT for those who prefer it.
