I ranked every AI image generator on the May 2026 leaderboards by one number: seconds per image . Not Elo score. Not how pretty the output looks at 1080p. Just: how long does a user wait from prompt to pixels.

The result reordered everything I thought I knew about this category.

The fastest model in production right now is not from OpenAI, not from Google's flagship line, and not from Midjourney. It's Z-Image Turbo, an open-tier model that ships images in about a second for one cent each. Meanwhile GPT Image 2 — the model topping the quality Elo at 1338 — can take a full minute on a complex prompt.…