Google released Nano Banana 2.1, an image-generation and editing model based on Gemini 3.6 Flash, on 6 October, The Decoder reported. It replaces Nano Banana 2, released in February 2026. The listed price for a 1K image is 3.36 cents, down from 6.70 cents for the earlier model, while a 4K image costs 7.56 cents rather than 15.10 cents. Google says the update improves image quality and several kinds of editing.
Key points
- Nano Banana 2.1 uses Gemini 3.6 Flash and replaces the image model released in February.
- Listed prices for 1K and 4K images are roughly half those of Nano Banana 2.
- Google claims improvements in visual quality, text rendering and consistency across images.
- The model is rolling out across Google products; the previous model is due to shut down on 29 October.
Gemini 3.6 Flash takes over from February’s model
Nano Banana 2 ran on Gemini 3.1 Flash Image. Moving its replacement to Gemini 3.6 Flash changes the underlying model as well as the price developers pay for an image. The published prices vary with output resolution: Nano Banana 2.1 supports 1K, 2K and 4K images, with 1K as the default. Google also offers Nano Banana Pro, listed at 13.40 cents for a 1K image.
The model can take up to 14 reference images in one request, with Google describing support for keeping up to four characters and ten objects consistent. Reference images give the generator visual examples to work from, rather like laying several pictures beside a drawing before asking for a new version. Google says the update also improves lettering inside images, infographic layouts and wide panoramas. For panoramas, it identifies tiling artefacts — visible repetition where sections of an image meet — as a problem addressed at 2K and 4K resolutions.
Making an illustrated notice with words inside the picture could be easier if Google’s claimed improvement in text rendering holds in use. Reference images could also help keep a recurring character recognisable from one illustration to the next.
Google offers minimal, medium and high settings for what it calls thinking, which affect image quality. The model can also connect to Google Search. For developers building on it, those controls sit alongside the lower per-image prices: the choice of resolution and thinking setting would matter when deciding how to generate an image.
Google’s image and editing scores
Google’s benchmark table gives Nano Banana 2.1 a score of 1050 ± 14 for overall text-to-image preference with thinking enabled and 1015 ± 13 without it. The same table lists 990 ± 7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Image and 935 ± 8 for Gemini 3 Pro Image. These are scores on Google’s reported evaluation, with separate entries for the two Nano Banana 2.1 settings, rather than a measurement of every image someone might ask the model to make.
The table also covers editing. On its multi-character consistency test, Google lists 1106 ± 14 for Nano Banana 2.1 with thinking, 1068 ± 14 without thinking and 978 ± 10 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Image. Its infographic-accuracy entries are 0.521, 0.328 and 0.179 respectively. The named tests put numbers against two of Google’s claims — keeping characters stable and getting information into an image — while retaining the distinction between the model’s settings.
In The Decoder’s own image test, the publication chose the better of two Nano Banana 2.1 outputs for a prompt involving a monkey, a tiger, a horse and an astronaut. It judged the result fairly close to the requested scene, but found Nano Banana Pro’s image more natural in its colours and proportions. It also found that Nano Banana 2.1 made the horse too small. That hands-on comparison concerns those generated images, while the scores above come from Google’s benchmark table.
Google Flow and the 29 October deadline
Nano Banana 2.1 is rolling out through the Gemini app, AI Mode in Google Search, Google AI Studio, Flow, Stitch, Google Ads and the Gemini Enterprise Platform, Android Authority reported. That puts the update in products for making images directly as well as services through which developers and businesses can use the model. Android Authority reported that Google announced the launch in a social post and that its developer website set out the model’s features.
A different account appeared on 6 October. Startup Fortune reported that Nano Banana 2.1 had appeared briefly in Flow on 5 October and had been removed by 6 October; it said Google had issued no statement and had published neither a model card nor pricing. The Decoder reported that a model card and prices were available. Android Authority reported Google’s launch announcement and developer specifications.
Google will shut down the previous model, named gemini-3.1-flash-image, on 29 October 2026, The Decoder reported.
