Google launches Nano Banana 2.1 with stronger image editing and roughly half-price image API output
Google has released Nano Banana 2.1, an upgraded version of Nano Banana 2 that remains focused on efficient image generation and editing. The update centers on image quality, instruction following, text rendering, and character consistency across multi-turn workflows. The model is already rolling out across Gemini, AI Mode, AI Studio, Flow, Stitch, and Google Ads, with the API listed as gemini-nano-banana-2.1.
Image editing is the main focus of the release. Nano Banana 2.1 supports 1K, 2K, and 4K output, can use up to 14 reference images at once, and is designed to keep as many as four characters and 10 objects consistent. Google also said it improved mask-based editing, infographic layout, image text, and ultra-wide image generation. Users can choose among minimal, medium, and high thinking settings.
According to Google’s model card, Nano Banana 2.1 with thinking enabled posted higher point estimates than Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana Pro across all 10 evaluations, including text-to-image, general editing, multi-person consistency, and mask editing. An independent Arena ranking also showed gains, placing the model fifth in text-to-image and sixth in single-image editing, both the best results among Google models so far. Pricing moved in two directions: image output got cheaper, while input and text or thinking output became more expensive.
