Nano Banana 2, the public name for Google's Gemini 3.1 Flash Image model, is a fast text-to-image and image-editing system for marketers, designers, and developers who need readable text inside images and consistent characters across a campaign. It reached the top of the Chatbot Arena text-to-image rankings in 2026 and ships inside the Gemini app as a mode toggle rather than a separate product.
Core Features
- Best-in-class text rendering: it validates typography character by character, so posters, signs, and book covers come out spelled correctly.
- Character consistency: it keeps the identity of up to 5 people across generations for storyboarding and campaign work.
- Up to 14 reference images: edits preserve style, product, or person consistency from supplied photos.
- Multi-resolution output: 512px, 1K, 2K, and 4K with 14 aspect-ratio options, plus video-to-image generation.
- Web-grounded generation: optional search grounding pulls real-time facts into visuals, and every output carries a SynthID watermark.
Use Cases
- Marketing teams producing social assets and product photography at volume.
- Designers who need accurate in-image typography without prompt engineering.
- Agencies keeping one character consistent across an entire visual campaign.
Pricing
In the Gemini app, Nano Banana 2 is free on the rate-limited tier and included with Google AI Pro at $19.99 per month and Google AI Ultra at $249.99 per month. Via API it costs about $0.067 per 1K image and $0.151 at 4K, with a Batch API at half price; a Nano Banana 2 Lite tier runs 1K images for roughly $0.034.
Our Take
Best for high-volume production where speed and accurate text matter more than artistic interpretation. The trade-off is that Midjourney still wins on pure stylized aesthetics, and API cost adds up fast at 4K.
Browse more in our Image Generation and AI Engine/Model categories.
