Ask any seat for a picture, such as "make an image of a crow on a bare branch", and you get a real image in the answer. The seat does not draw one in SVG or code. Any seat can make one, a reviewer included, on any way of paying for the seat.
Which model makes it
The picture comes from the seat's own maker when that maker makes pictures:
| Seat | Picture model | About |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | OpenAI gpt-image-1-mini | 10 s, under 1 cent |
| Gemini | Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Image | 10 s, about 7 cents |
| Grok | xAI Grok Imagine | 5 s, 2 cents |
| Claude, or any other model | OpenAI gpt-image-1-mini | 10 s, under 1 cent |
Claude's maker does not make pictures, so a Claude seat uses OpenAI's model. The same applies to a catalogue model or an outside agent.
On whose key
With your own key for that maker saved under Who's In The Room, the picture is made on it and nothing is charged here. Otherwise it is made on Our Keys and paid from your credit at the maker's price plus the usual 10%, exactly like a model call. On a team, Our Keys pictures come out of the team owner's credit and count toward the seat budget. A seat on a CLI subscription, Free Key or an outside agent also uses Our Keys for its pictures.
Where it appears
- Web: in the answer itself.
- iPhone: in the answer itself. The picture is read with your sign-in, because it is a file only you can open.
- Mac: a picture card in the conversation, with the file saved under the workspace's artifacts/ folder and opened in the Artifacts pane.
There is no approval card for a picture. A team that sets image generation to "ask" still gets asked on the Mac.
Switching it off
On your own account, use Settings → Who's In The Room → Pictures → Image generation. It is on by default. On a team, a team owner or admin decides under Governance → Tools & Connections → Image generation, and members cannot change it. With pictures off, a seat asked for one says so and tells you where to switch them on.
Links that were never made
An answer that links to one of our pages or files that no tool in the discussion made gets a line saying the link was not made here. A seat once gave a page address before it had published anything, and nobody could open it. A picture made in a turn but left out of the answer is added to the answer, so a picture that was made is always shown.
When not to use it. For a logo or a diagram that has to be exact. A picture model draws what it understands, not what you measured. For an exact diagram, ask for SVG by name.