diff --git a/src/sse/handlers/chat.ts b/src/sse/handlers/chat.ts
index 2b5f0ef0a6..8ffba39d62 100644
--- a/src/sse/handlers/chat.ts
+++ b/src/sse/handlers/chat.ts
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ import { checkAndRefreshToken } from "../services/tokenRefresh";
 import { createHookContext, runHooks, initPreRequestRegistry } from "@/lib/middleware/registry";
 import { rejectPeerRequest } from "@/shared/resilience/peerRouting";
 import { deleteHandoff, getHandoff } from "@/lib/db/contextHandoffs";
-import { updateCombo } from "@/lib/db/combos";
+import { getComboByName, updateCombo } from "@/lib/db/combos";
 import { isModelAllowedForKey } from "@/lib/db/apiKeys";
 import { promoteSuccessfulComboModel } from "@/lib/combos/autoPromote";
 import {
@@ -462,10 +462,14 @@ async function handleChatImplementation(
   // image-registry match is only image-only when the same provider/model pair is
   // absent from the chat catalog.
   const imageModel = getImageModelEntry(modelStr);
+  // Exact stored combo names take precedence over colliding bare image aliases.
+  // Keep this narrower than getComboForModel() so mappings and synthetic aliases
+  // retain their existing resolution order.
+  const isExactStoredCombo = imageModel ? Boolean(await getComboByName(modelStr)) : false;
   const isChatCatalogModel = imageModel
     ? getModelsByProviderId(imageModel.provider).some((model) => model.id === imageModel.model)
     : false;
-  if (imageModel && !isChatCatalogModel) {
+  if (imageModel && !isExactStoredCombo && !isChatCatalogModel) {
     log.warn("CHAT", `Rejecting image-generation model on chat endpoint: ${modelStr}`);
     return errorResponse(
       HTTP_STATUS.BAD_REQUEST,
diff --git a/tests/unit/chat-rejects-image-only-model.test.ts b/tests/unit/chat-rejects-image-only-model.test.ts
index a485544290..f84526b20d 100644
--- a/tests/unit/chat-rejects-image-only-model.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/chat-rejects-image-only-model.test.ts
@@ -11,8 +11,11 @@ import assert from "node:assert/strict";
 import { createChatPipelineHarness } from "../integration/_chatPipelineHarness.ts";
 
 const harness = await createChatPipelineHarness("chat-rejects-image-only-model");
-const { buildRequest, handleChat, resetStorage } = harness as {
+const { buildRequest, combosDb, handleChat, resetStorage } = harness as {
   buildRequest: (opts: { body: unknown }) => Request;
+  combosDb: {
+    createCombo: (data: Record<string, unknown>) => Promise<unknown>;
+  };
   handleChat: (req: Request) => Promise<Response>;
   resetStorage: () => void | Promise<void>;
 };
@@ -72,6 +75,32 @@ test("POST /v1/chat/completions with a chat model still reaches routing (guard i
   }
 });
 
+test("POST /v1/chat/completions routes a stored chat combo whose name is an image alias (#8986)", async () => {
+  await combosDb.createCombo({
+    name: "fast",
+    strategy: "priority",
+    models: ["openai/gpt-4o"],
+  });
+
+  const request = buildRequest({
+    body: {
+      model: "fast",
+      messages: [{ role: "user", content: "hi" }],
+    },
+  });
+
+  const res = await handleChat(request);
+  if (res.status === 400) {
+    const body = (await res.json()) as { error?: { message?: string } };
+    const msg = body?.error?.message || JSON.stringify(body);
+    assert.doesNotMatch(
+      msg,
+      /image-generation model/i,
+      "a stored chat combo must take precedence over a colliding image alias"
+    );
+  }
+});
+
 test("POST /v1/chat/completions allows a model registered for both chat and image generation", async () => {
   const request = buildRequest({
     body: {