Even though Microsoft has full access to OpenAI"s latest frontier models, the former is developing its own AI models to better serve its customers through differentiated products and experiences. Early this year, Microsoft announced its first two in-house AI models: MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview.
Last month, Microsoft announced its third in-house AI model, MAI-Image-1, an image generation model to compete against OpenAI"s gpt-image-1 and Google"s Gemini/Imagen models. Today, Microsoft announced that the MAI-Image-1 model is now generally available for everyone on Bing.com/create and Bing mobile apps.
To try out this new Microsoft model, users must explicitly select MAI-Image-1 from the model picker. MAI-Image-1 is currently available in all countries where Bing Image Creator and Copilot Labs are available except for the EU. Microsoft announced that the new model will be made available to EU users soon.
When training this new model, the Microsoft AI team focused on preventing it from producing repetitive or overly stylized outputs. This was achieved by prioritizing rigorous data selection and nuanced, task-focused evaluation. According to the Microsoft AI team, MAI-Image-1 will be better at generating photorealistic imagery, landscapes, and more.
Another advantage of this model is its speed. Microsoft claims that this new model is significantly faster compared to other large image generation models on the market.
MAI-Image-1 has shipped 🚢 Try it now at https://t.co/24MRu9VQ0z or the Bing app, plus it"ll generate custom art for your Story Mode audio at https://t.co/9hL81LTFwF
— Mustafa Suleyman (@mustafasuleyman) November 4, 2025
It really excels at:
-artistic lighting/photorealistic detail
-nature scenes
-food!
Drop your creations below ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/E2J20L2PpX
In LMArena"s Image Arena, this new model debuted at the #9 position, which indicates that the Microsoft AI team has a long way to go to beat other top AI labs including OpenAI, Bytedance, Google DeepMind and Tencent. However, this release proves Microsoft is serious about building a competitive, differentiated AI stack.