How to use Microsoft's new in-house AI image generator model mai-image-1 for free

The new model is not accessible through Copilot or Bing Image Creator, at least not as at October 2025.

However, it has made its first mark by scoring in the top ten in the 'Text-to-Image Arena' leaderboard on LMArena:

https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text-to-image

Microsoft is testing this model in LMArena first so that they can gather insights and feedback from users before making mai-image-1 available in their AI products, including Copilot and Bing Image Creator.

This is how you can start using it right now (for free):

Step 1:

Navigate to this LMArena link for direct chat with image models: https://lmarena.ai/?chat-modality=image&mode=direct

Step 2:

In the drop down on the right hand side of "Direct Chat", click that drop down then scroll down and select "mai-image-1". You should see a check mark next to "mai-image-1" after clicking it. See screenshot attached below for reference.

Step 3:

Type the prompt of the image you want to generate in the input field in the middle of the page and click 'Enter' and mai-image-1 will generate your image.

Hope this helps!

Post your images in the comments, let's see what you create!