Nano Banana 2.1 benchmarks, pricing and specs
Nano Banana 2.1 is a Google model released on October 6, 2026 that takes text, image and video input and produces image and text. It costs $0.0336 per image. It scores 1328 Elo on Arena Text-to-Image, #4 of 9 current models (Arena, measured October 7, 2026).
- Per image
- $0.0336
- Arena Text-to-Image
- 1328 Elo · #4/9
Data verified October 12, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-12
Key facts
- Provider
- Model family
- Nano Banana
- Release date
- October 6, 2026
- Status
- Current
- Access
- API only
- API model id
- gemini-nano-banana-2.1
- Context window
- Not reported
- Max output
- Not reported
- Input
- text, image, video
- Output
- image, text
- Task families
- image, multimodal
- Declared capabilities
- image generation, image editing, image to image
Nano Banana 2.1 pricing
It is the #2 cheapest of 6 current image models priced per image.
Independent benchmark results
Scores come from independent evaluators that ran the model themselves, pinned to a dated snapshot. Rank is among current models in the same snapshot. Google's own launch figures are listed under strengths with the publisher named, because they are not measured the same way.
| Benchmark | Score | Rank | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arena Text-to-Image | 1328 Elo | #4 of 9 | October 7, 2026 | Arena · 2026-10-12 |
| Arena Image Edit | 1428 Elo | #4 of 8 | October 6, 2026 | Arena · 2026-10-12 |
Strengths, cautions and best uses
Strengths
- An update to Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) with better visual quality, prompt adherence, multi-turn character consistency and text rendering at Flash-tier speed
- Generates and edits at 1K, 2K and 4K, accepts text, image, video and PDF input, and fuses up to 14 reference images
- At $0.0336 per 1K image it costs about half of its predecessor's $0.067
Cautions
- Google prices output by image tokens; the per-image figures are Google's own equivalents and batch is half price
- No independent image-quality benchmark is recorded here
Best for
- High-volume product, marketing and social imagery where cost per image matters
- Iterative editing that must keep characters and objects consistent across turns
Alternatives to Nano Banana 2.1
The closest current imagemodels by price. The cheapest model that scores as well or better is listed first; failing that, the cheapest one within 3% of the benchmark's scale.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image
- Same price per image, $0.0336
- 78 points lower on Arena Text-to-Image, 1250 vs 1328
FLUX1.1 [pro]
- 19% more per image, $0.04 vs $0.0336
- 312 points lower on Arena Text-to-Image, 1016 vs 1328
- From Black Forest Labs
Gemini 3.1 Flash Image
- 34% more per image, $0.045 vs $0.0336
- 66 points lower on Arena Text-to-Image, 1262 vs 1328
grok-imagine-image
- 40% cheaper per image, $0.02 vs $0.0336
- 158 points lower on Arena Text-to-Image, 1170 vs 1328
- From xAI
Compare Nano Banana 2.1 with
Nano Banana 2.1 FAQ
How much does Nano Banana 2.1 cost?
Nano Banana 2.1 costs $0.0336 per image at the standard tier. It is the #2 cheapest of 6 current image models priced per image. Source: Google, verified October 11, 2026.
How does Nano Banana 2.1 score on independent benchmarks?
Nano Banana 2.1 scores 1328 Elo on Arena Text-to-Image, #4 of 9 current models (Arena, measured October 7, 2026) and 1428 Elo on Arena Image Edit, #4 of 8 current models (Arena, measured October 6, 2026). These are independent evaluations, not Google's own launch figures.
Is Nano Banana 2.1 open source or API only?
Nano Banana 2.1 is available through Google's API only; its weights are not published.
What are the best alternatives to Nano Banana 2.1?
The closest current alternatives by price and measured performance are Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image (same price per image, $0.0336), FLUX1.1 [pro] (19% more per image, $0.04 vs $0.0336), Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (34% more per image, $0.045 vs $0.0336) and grok-imagine-image (40% cheaper per image, $0.02 vs $0.0336).
Sources
- Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 · Google · official · verified October 12, 2026
- Gemini API release notes · Google · official · verified August 18, 2026 · CC-BY-4.0
- Gemini Developer API pricing · Google · official · verified October 11, 2026
- Arena leaderboard dataset (lmarena-ai/leaderboard-dataset) · Arena · independent · verified October 12, 2026 · CC-BY-4.0
Cite this page
Van Data Team. "Nano Banana 2.1 Benchmarks, Pricing and Specs." AI Model Benchmark Dataset 2026-10-12. https://vandatateam.com/ai-model-benchmarks/nano-banana-2-1
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Production evaluation
Deciding whether Nano Banana 2.1 fits your workload?
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