Nano Banana

Nano Banana is Google's family of state-of-the-art image generation and editing models, built on Gemini. It is developed and operated by Google itself, distinct from unaffiliated third-party websites that borrow the Nano Banana name.

The current family comprises Nano Banana 2.1 (gemini-nano-banana-2.1, an update to Nano Banana 2), Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image), and Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image). The original Nano Banana model (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) was deprecated in the API and shut down on October 2, 2026.

The models accept image and text input and let users refine results conversationally in plain language. Capabilities include multi-turn character consistency, accurate text rendering, and search-grounded generation drawing on Gemini's real-world knowledge, with output resolutions up to 4K. Nano Banana Pro targets studio-quality precision and control, Nano Banana 2 offers pro-level generation and editing at Flash speed, and Nano Banana 2 Lite is the fastest, most efficient model in the family. The models are accessible through the Gemini app's Create images tool, Google AI Studio, and the Gemini API. All generated images carry an invisible SynthID watermark, and images made in the Gemini app also carry a visible watermark.

In the Gemini app, Nano Banana 2 is free to use, while Nano Banana 2.1 requires a paid Google AI plan (AI Plus, AI Pro or AI Ultra); paid plans also unlock higher generation limits and the ability to redo an image with Nano Banana Pro. No numeric usage limits are published for free use. The Gemini API has no free tier for these models and bills per output image on its paid tier: Nano Banana 2.1 costs about $0.034 at 1K resolution, $0.050 at 2K and $0.113 at 4K; Nano Banana 2 costs about $0.045 at 0.5K, $0.067 at 1K, $0.101 at 2K and $0.151 at 4K; Nano Banana 2 Lite costs about $0.034 at 1K; and Nano Banana Pro costs about $0.134 at 1K/2K and $0.24 at 4K. Batch processing is available at half price.

Limitations include the lack of published numeric limits for free app use, a visible watermark on Gemini app images, no free tier on the API, and a 4K cap on output resolution.

Nano Banana suits casual users who want free in-app image editing, developers who need API access to Google's latest image models, and teams wanting studio-quality editing with character consistency; those needing unlimited free API access should look elsewhere.