Three new GPT image models are being tested in Arena: aurora-blue-alpha, aurora-green-alpha and aurora-red-alpha. We came across them while testing image generation and shared the results on 18 October. 1
These are the same three names that appeared in OpenAI’s API. Their appearance in Arena now links those API entries to image generation, giving us a clearer idea of what OpenAI has been testing. 3
We first got aurora-red-alpha, which returned the close-up cat portrait above. Aurora-green-alpha also produced a cat, with a wider crop and a brighter background. Red’s result feels more like a deliberately composed portrait; green’s looks closer to a casual indoor photo. 2
Our guess is that OpenAI is comparing variants of an upcoming GPT image release. Blue, green and red could be different checkpoints or configurations of the same model. We’ve seen all three names in testing, but how they differ is still an open question.
Sources & references
- Lumina: three Aurora image models in Arena ↗
18 October 2026. Lumina’s firsthand report listing all three Aurora names as GPT image models in Arena.
- Lumina: aurora-red-alpha image-generation finding ↗
18 October 2026. Lumina’s initial aurora-red-alpha encounter. The red and green Arena captures in this article are reproduced unchanged.
- Earlier finding: three Aurora names in OpenAI’s API ↗
Capture supplied by Lumina reporting the same blue, green and red identifiers in OpenAI’s API. This is a capture of the finding, rather than a raw API response.
