#1 GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst
Arena 1446 1436–1457, 6,601 votes · median $0.024 · Arena #1 · #1 among models priced here · also GPT Image 2.5 Flare, GPT Image 2
Best AI image models for illustration, cartoon and anime (Oct 2026)
The best image models for illustration, cartoon and anime in Oct 2026 are GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, Grok Imagine Image 2.0, Nano Banana 2.1, ranked by Arena.
#2 Grok Imagine Image 2.0
Arena 1372 1354–1390, 1,274 votes · median $0.080 · Arena #4 · #2 among models priced here
#3 Nano Banana 2.1
Arena 1326 1311–1340, 1,879 votes · median $0.037 · Arena #6 · #3 among models priced here · also Nano Banana Pro
Also consider
| Rank | Model | Arena | Median | Ranks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Seedream 5 Pro | 1267 (1261–1273) | $0.041 | Arena #13 · #4 among priced |
| 5 | Qwen Image 2.1 | 1234 (1224–1243) | $0.040 | Arena #19 · #5 among priced |
| 6 | FLUX 2 Max | 1168 (1163–1173) | $0.070 | Arena #29 · #6 among priced |
How this list is ranked
Text-to-image models ranked on Arena's cartoon category, covering illustration, cartoon and anime. Human preference on prompts Arena classified as cartoon. The URL is /illustration; the score is that cartoon category. 7 qualified after family collapse. Based on data from Arena (arena.ai). Arena does not endorse this ranking.
Notable models we cannot rank
| Model | Reason |
|---|---|
| Ideogram 2a Turbo | no counted public price |
| Ideogram 3 | no counted public price |
| Qwen Image 3 | no counted public price |
| Seedream V5 Lite | no counted public price |
| Seedream 5.0 Pro | no counted public price |
| Seedream 4.5 | no counted public price |
| Seedream 4 | no counted public price |
| Emu 3.5 Image Edit | no counted public price |
| ERNIE Image | no counted public price |
| ERNIE Image LoRA | no counted public price |
| ERNIE Image LoRA Turbo | no counted public price |
| ERNIE Image Turbo | no counted public price |