diff --git a/extensions/microsoft-foundry/image-generation-provider.test.ts b/extensions/microsoft-foundry/image-generation-provider.test.ts
index c5b4723c0a32..2a85a06c7cf1 100644
--- a/extensions/microsoft-foundry/image-generation-provider.test.ts
+++ b/extensions/microsoft-foundry/image-generation-provider.test.ts
@@ -375,6 +375,27 @@ describe("microsoft foundry image generation provider", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it("allows custom mai-image deployment names for generation without model metadata", async () => {
+    postJsonRequestMock.mockResolvedValue(
+      releasedJson({
+        data: [{ b64_json: Buffer.from("png").toString("base64") }],
+      }),
+    );
+    const provider = buildMicrosoftFoundryImageGenerationProvider();
+
+    await provider.generateImage({
+      provider: PROVIDER_ID,
+      model: "mai-image-2-live",
+      prompt: "draw it",
+      cfg: buildConfig({ modelId: "mai-image-2-live", includeModel: false }),
+    });
+
+    expect(postJsonRequestMock).toHaveBeenCalledOnce();
+    expect(requirePostJsonRequest().body).toMatchObject({
+      model: "mai-image-2-live",
+    });
+  });
+
   it("allows manual custom deployment names when configured name only repeats the id", async () => {
     postJsonRequestMock.mockResolvedValue(
       releasedJson({
diff --git a/extensions/microsoft-foundry/image-generation-provider.ts b/extensions/microsoft-foundry/image-generation-provider.ts
index c1e01d7275ed..2959c7ca4145 100644
--- a/extensions/microsoft-foundry/image-generation-provider.ts
+++ b/extensions/microsoft-foundry/image-generation-provider.ts
@@ -66,9 +66,11 @@ function ensureMaiImageModel(
   model: string,
 ): { modelName: string; hasMetadata: boolean } {
   const resolved = resolveConfiguredModelName(providerConfig, model);
+  const normalizedModel = normalizeOptionalLowercaseString(model);
   if (
     !isFoundryMaiImageModel(resolved.modelName) &&
-    (resolved.hasMetadata || normalizeOptionalLowercaseString(model)?.startsWith("mai-"))
+    (resolved.hasMetadata ||
+      (normalizedModel?.startsWith("mai-") && !normalizedModel.startsWith("mai-image-")))
   ) {
     throw new Error(
       `Microsoft Foundry image generation supports MAI image deployments only, got "${resolved.modelName}".`,