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📅 August 2026

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🎨 Grok Imagine 2 Image API Launch

August 13, 2026
Two Grok Imagine image models are now available on LaoZhang API
Available groups, current prices, and recorded charges are shown in the LaoZhang API console and call logs.

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📅 July 2026

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💸 GPT-5.6 Luna and Terra API Prices Reduced

July 30, 2026
The latest GPT-5.6 rates are effective on LaoZhang API
Current model prices, token groups, and actual charges are shown in the LaoZhang API console and call logs.

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🎨 gpt-image-2-vip Size and Quality Parameters Restored

July 9, 2026
gpt-image-2-vip parameter capability restored
  • Latest channel verification confirms that default-group gpt-image-2-vip has restored size and quality support
  • size can now be used for common 1K / 2K / 4K outputs; 1024x1024, 2048x2048, and 3840x2160 were verified to return the requested dimensions
  • quality currently supports low, medium, and high; higher quality usually increases wait time and output token usage
  • Do not mix token types: default-group gpt-image-2-vip uses a per-call token; Sora2Official / GPTImage2 Enterprise use usage-billed tokens, and the request body still uses model="gpt-image-2"
  • The response remains Images API-compatible and returns data[0].b64_json by default
  • The gpt-image-2-vip model name and $0.03/call per-request billing remain unchanged
  • The June 23, 2026 notice that size was unavailable again is superseded by this announcement
  • 📝 Developer documentation:
When you need per-call billing plus 1K / 2K / 4K size control, create a default-group per-call token and use model="gpt-image-2-vip". When you need usage-based billing by official input / output tokens, pure official-key routing, or stricter official parameter compatibility, create a Sora2Official or GPTImage2 Enterprise usage-billed token and use model="gpt-image-2".

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🍌 Nano Banana 2 Lite is live with $0.025/call per-request billing

July 1, 2026
Nano Banana 2 Lite is now available on LaoZhang API
  • 🆕 New model: gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image (Nano Banana 2 Lite / Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image)
  • ⚡ Positioning: Google’s lightweight image model released on June 30, built for about 4-second generation, faster throughput than Nano Banana 2, and low-cost 1K image workflows
  • 📐 Capability scope: Supports 1K output and 14 common aspect ratios, suitable for drafts, batch assets, quick previews, and low-cost iteration
  • 💵 Billing: LaoZhang API currently offers per-request billing only at $0.025/call; actual charges are shown in console call logs
  • 📣 Launch price: The initial price is temporary. Any later change will be announced separately
  • 📝 Integration reference:
Nano Banana 2 Lite and Nano Banana 2 are two different models. Lite uses gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image and follows the same request patterns as Nano Banana Pro, so integration only requires replacing the model name with gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image. Lite is optimized for fast 1K lightweight generation. For 2K / 4K output, high-resolution final assets, or more complex image work, continue using gemini-3.1-flash-image (Nano Banana 2) or gemini-3-pro-image (Nano Banana Pro).

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💻 Claude Sonnet 5 is live with official-aligned pricing

July 1, 2026
Claude Sonnet 5 is now available on LaoZhang API
  • 🆕 New model: claude-sonnet-5
  • 🧠 Positioning: Anthropic’s next-generation Sonnet model released on June 30, described as its most agentic Sonnet yet, suitable for coding agents, tool use, long-running tasks, and complex automation
  • 📊 Official benchmarks: SWE-bench Verified 85.2% and Terminal-Bench 2.1 80.4%, approaching flagship Opus 4.8 capability
  • 💵 Pricing: LaoZhang API pricing is aligned with Anthropic official pricing. Introductory pricing is $2 / $10 per 1M input / output tokens through August 31, 2026, then $3 / $15 per 1M input / output tokens
  • 🛡️ Route note: Currently served through pure AWS Claude official-forward resources with high cache-hit availability, suitable for Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, OpenClaw, and other developer tools
  • 📝 Integration reference:
The introductory price follows Anthropic’s official time window: $2/$10 per million tokens through August 31, 2026, then $3/$15 per million tokens. Actual billing is shown in the console model price and call logs.

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📅 June 2026

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⚠️ gpt-image-2-vip size is unavailable again; output is temporarily limited to 1K (Historical Notice)

June 23, 2026
Temporary gpt-image-2-vip size parameter update (historical state)
This notice is historical and is superseded by the July 9, 2026 restoration notice. gpt-image-2-vip currently supports size and quality again.
  • Based on customer reports, live testing, and code-level review this morning, default-group gpt-image-2-vip lost the restored size behavior again after another upstream rule change
  • At that time, gpt-image-2-vip generated 1K images normally, but submitted size values were silently ignored, so 2K / 4K could not be selected through this route
  • The gpt-image-2-vip model name and $0.03/call per-request billing remain unchanged
  • At that time, 2K / 4K or precise size control required switching to official-forward gpt-image-2 under the Sora2Official or GPTImage2 Enterprise group
  • Official-forward gpt-image-2 supports 4K / 2K and precise size control; it is billed by official input / output tokens, not by default-group per-call pricing
  • The June 18, 2026 restoration notice is superseded by this announcement
  • 📝 Developer documentation:
For the latest state, see the July 9, 2026 announcement and the GPT Image 2 API documentation.

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🎨 gpt-image-2-vip Size and Quality Parameters Restored (Historical Notice)

June 18, 2026
Historical gpt-image-2-vip parameter capability update
This announcement is historical. gpt-image-2-vip lost size support again on June 23, 2026, and later restored size and quality support on July 9, 2026.
  • This entry describes the short-lived restoration state on June 18, 2026; use the July 9, 2026 announcement for the latest restored state
  • At that time, default-group gpt-image-2-vip temporarily restored size support
  • Common explicit 1K, 2K, and 4K pixel sizes were supported, including 1024x1024, 1536x1024, 2048x2048, 2048x1152, 3840x2160, and 2160x3840
  • The gpt-image-2-vip model name and $0.03/call per-request billing remain unchanged
  • For current 2K / 4K or precise size control, use default-group gpt-image-2-vip or official-forward gpt-image-2
  • 📝 Developer documentation:
Default-group gpt-image-2-vip currently supports size / quality again. Use gpt-image-2 under the Sora2Official / GPTImage2 Enterprise groups when you need pure official-key routing or stricter official parameter compatibility.

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⚠️ sora-2 and sora-2-pro Official-Forward Models Will Be Retired on July 1

June 17, 2026
Sora 2 official-forward route retirement notice
  • Due to upstream OpenAI compute allocation changes, the sora-2 and sora-2-pro official-forward routes have recently experienced severe timeout issues and no longer meet production stability expectations
  • LaoZhang API will stop maintaining and retire the sora-2 / sora-2-pro official-forward models on July 1, 2026
  • Although the official retirement timeline may point to September 2026, these routes are already frequently unstable, so we do not recommend new integrations or production workloads
  • Existing users should migrate as early as possible; currently recommended alternatives are wan-2.7 and SeeDance2 / Seedance 2.0
  • 📝 Migration reference:
After July 1, sora-2 and sora-2-pro official-forward routes will no longer be maintained as stable entry points. Move production jobs ahead of time to avoid timeout or task failure impact.

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⚠️ gpt-image-2-vip Size Parameter No Longer Supported (Historical Notice)

June 16, 2026
gpt-image-2-vip parameter support update
This is a historical notice. gpt-image-2-vip briefly restored size on June 18, 2026, lost it again on June 23, and restored size plus quality support on July 9, 2026.
  • This entry describes the temporary parameter adjustment on June 16, 2026
  • The gpt-image-2-vip model name and $0.03/call per-request billing remain unchanged
  • State at that time: default-group gpt-image-2-vip lost size support again; submitted size was silently ignored, and 2K / 4K could not be selected
  • Default-group gpt-image-2 still does not support size / quality
  • Use gpt-image-2 under the Sora2Official or GPTImage2 Enterprise group when you need full official Images API parameter compatibility
  • 📝 Developer documentation:
This section is historical. For current behavior, use the June 23, 2026 announcement and the GPT Image 2 API documentation.

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📅 May 2026

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🎬 Veo 3.1 Official API Forwarding Is Live With Low Unified 4K Pricing

May 21, 2026
Veo 3.1 official-forward route update
  • 🚀 New models:
    • veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview
    • veo-3.1-generate-preview
  • 💵 Pay-per-request billing:
    • veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview: $0.3/call
    • veo-3.1-generate-preview: $1.2/call
    • Set Billing mode to Pay-per-request when creating the token
    • Supported combinations use one unified price with no resolution surcharge; use 8 seconds for production integrations, and 1080p / 4K require 8 seconds
  • 📉 4K pricing advantage:
    • Based on Google’s 8-second 4K official price, Fast goes from about $2.40 to $0.3/call
    • Standard goes from about $4.80 to $1.2/call
    • 4K requests use unified pricing; verify final resolution from the downloaded MP4 metadata
  • 📝 Developer documentation:
The new route uses the same OpenAI Videos API style as Sora2 official forwarding: POST /v1/videos to create a task, GET /v1/videos/{id} to poll status, and GET /v1/videos/{id}/content to download MP4 bytes. The legacy-route incident notice still applies to old model names such as veo-3.1, veo-3.1-fast, and veo-3.1-fl; use the official-forward model names above for new integrations.

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⚠️ Veo-3.1 Legacy Route Temporarily Unavailable

May 14, 2026
Veo-3.1 route incident notice
  • The veo-3.1 series legacy route began experiencing failures on May 14, 2026
  • The legacy route is temporarily unavailable; pause new calls and production integrations for now
  • Existing users should follow later announcements; recovery timing will be announced on this page and in the console
During this incident, do not use veo-3.1, veo-3.1-fast, veo-3.1-fl, or other Veo-3.1 legacy-route variants for production workloads.

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🛡️ GPTImage2 Enterprise Pure Official-Key Group Is Live

May 13, 2026
GPT Image 2 official-compatible group update
  • New GPTImage2 Enterprise group: pure official-key routing with enterprise concurrency support
  • Billing is official pricing +20% to cover tax and operating cost, not profit markup
  • Sora2Official remains available as a mixed AZ + official-key transit group
  • Both official-compatible groups use model="gpt-image-2" with Images Generations and Images Edits
For quick testing or default-group routes, you can keep using default-group gpt-image-2 / gpt-image-2-vip. For official parameter compatibility and higher stability, choose GPTImage2 Enterprise.

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🎨 gpt-image-2-vip Size Parameter Historical Notice

May 1, 2026
gpt-image-2-vip size capability update
This announcement preserves the historical state from May 1, 2026. gpt-image-2-vip stopped supporting size on June 16, briefly restored it on June 18, lost it again on June 23, and restored size plus quality support on July 9.
  • ✅ Parameter update:
    • gpt-image-2-vip now supports 1K, 2K, and 4K size tiers
    • 30 explicit pixel sizes are supported across square, portrait, landscape, widescreen, and ultrawide ratios
    • Pass an explicit pixel value such as 2048x2048, 3840x2160, or 2160x3840
    • Latest status: gpt-image-2-vip supports size and quality again
  • 🧩 Integration notes:
    • gpt-image-2-vip supports size
    • gpt-image-2-vip currently supports common 1K / 2K / 4K sizes again
    • Use gpt-image-2 under the Sora2Official mixed AZ + official-key group, or use the GPTImage2 Enterprise pure official-key group when you need pure official-key routing or stricter official parameter compatibility
  • 📝 Developer documentation:
This historical announcement records the gpt-image-2-vip size-parameter capability update at that time. It does not change the April 22 announcement for the initial GPT-Image-2 default-group route launch.

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📅 April 2026

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🎨 GPT-Image-2 Default-Group Routes Updated; sora_image Official Route Offline

April 22, 2026
Image generation route update
  • 🚀 New routes:
    • gpt-image-2 default standard route is now available for text-to-image and image-to-image workflows
    • gpt-image-2-vip is available; as of July 9, 2026, it supports size and quality again
  • ⚠️ Route change:
    • The sora_image official route is now offline
    • New image generation integrations should use gpt-image-2 or gpt-image-2-vip
    • Existing sora_image calls should migrate model and endpoint configuration as soon as possible
  • 💵 Pricing:
    • gpt-image-2 is billed per request at $0.03/call
    • gpt-image-2-vip is also billed per request at $0.03/call
    • You can test the model online at yingtu.ai before integrating the API
  • 📝 Developer documentation:
Default-group routes use Images Generations and Images Edits. Use gpt-image-2 or gpt-image-2-vip for basic text-to-image. For 2K / 4K, precise size, or full official parameter compatibility, use gpt-image-2 under the Sora2Official mixed AZ + official-key group, and choose GPTImage2 Enterprise when you want the pure official-key route.

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🧠 Claude Opus 4.7 / Thinking Now Available

April 17, 2026
Claude Opus 4.7 is now available on LaoZhang API
  • 🚀 New Models: claude-opus-4-7 / claude-opus-4-7-thinking
  • 🌟 Launch Details:
    • Standard and Thinking variants are now available
    • Works directly through the OpenAI-compatible API by switching the model name
    • Suitable for complex reasoning, coding agents, and long-context tasks
  • 📝 Documentation Sync:
    • Announcement page has been updated
    • Related recommendation pages will be updated to the latest model version gradually
To try the latest Claude high-end model, switch the model field in your existing code or dashboard configuration to either of the model names above.

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💰 Nano Banana Pricing Update Notice

April 13, 2026
New pricing is now live for Nano Banana Pro and Nano Banana2
  • 🎯 Affected models:
    • gemini-3-pro-image-preview (Nano Banana Pro)
    • gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview (Nano Banana2)
  • 💵 Price changes:
    • Nano Banana Pro: $0.05/request → $0.09/request
    • Nano Banana2: $0.045/request → $0.055/request
  • 📝 What was updated:
    • Documentation and pricing pages have been synced
    • Comparison pages, FAQs, and recommendations now reflect the new pricing
    • Actual charges are shown in the console call logs
This update is effective immediately. For bulk purchasing or stable large-scale usage, contact Telegram @laozhang_cn.

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📅 January 2026

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📚 Documentation Update for 2026

January 7, 2026
Documentation Optimization - 2026 New Year Update
  • 📅 Year Updates: All model recommendation pages updated to 2026
  • 🔄 Model Reference Updates: Default models in code examples updated to latest recommendations
  • ⚠️ Retirement Notice: Claude 3 Opus officially retired on January 5, 2026
  • 📝 Config Updates: Claude Code configuration method updated to settings.json
New year, new beginnings! LaoZhang API continues to provide you with the best AI services!
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