GOOGLE
Image source: Google
The Rundown: Google just rolled out Nano Banana 2, the upgraded version of its viral image model with enhanced resolution, consistency, text rendering, and speed at half the price of its predecessor — taking the #1 spot on text-to-image leaderboards. The details:
- The model beat both NB Pro and GPT Image 1.5 for the No.1 text-to-image spot on Artificial Analysis and LM Arena, also coming in at No. 3 on editing tasks.
- Output resolution scales to 4K across aspect ratios, with up to five characters and 14 objects staying visually consistent throughout a scene.
- At ~7 cents per image, it undercuts both Nano Banana Pro and OAI's GPT Image 1.5 by nearly 2x — while providing speed at Gemini Flash levels.
- Nano Banana is now integrated as the default image generator across Gemini and Google’s tool ecosystem, with Pro still available for paid subscribers.
Why it matters: The Nano Banana models have been on the frontier of image gen since the original launch in August, and this latest version brings new SOTA capabilities at the speed and price points of a flash model. With the release, the tradeoff of having to choose between best quality and affordability appears to be on its way out.