What is Nano Banana 2.1?

What is Nano Banana 2.1?

Nano Banana 2.1 is a Google image generation and editing model, released and generally available on 2026-10-06. Google calls it an update to Nano Banana 2, the model whose formal name is Gemini 3.1 Flash Image. In the Gemini API it is called gemini-nano-banana-2.1.

The thing worth understanding is which line it belongs to. Google ships image models in two tiers: a Pro tier, currently Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image), and a Flash tier built for speed and low cost. Nano Banana 2.1 is the Flash one, and Google positions it as the efficient counterpart to Nano Banana Pro, not as its successor.

In Google's own framing, 2.1 outperforms its previous image models across the board, with the biggest leaps in visual design, mask-based editing (changing only a selected region of an image instead of regenerating the whole scene) and subject consistency (people and objects keeping their identity across edits and across related images). The developer documentation adds better visual quality, better prompt adherence, better multi-turn character consistency and better text rendering, naming infographics and marketing assets as the use cases.

What does not exist yet is independent measurement. As of 2026-10-06 there is no arena placement and no third-party evaluation of 2.1. Community impressions run two ways: some people say the output looks close to Nano Banana Pro, which is a compliment at Flash prices, and some say they hoped for a bigger leap over Nano Banana 2.

Nano banana 2.1 release date, and the timeline to GA

The nano banana 2.1 release date is 2026-10-06. Google released it and made it generally available in the same announcement, so there was no preview window to wait through.

The run-up matters, because the sightings came first:

• 2026-09-24: a Google Flow web build referenced a model called "Nano Banana 2.5 Flash". It was a string inside the build, not something anyone could select.
• 2026-09-27: that same string was relabeled "Nano Banana 2.1". Same slot, new name, three days later.
• 2026-10-05: "Nano Banana 2.1" became a selectable option in Google Flow's image model picker.
• 2026-10-06: official release, and general availability across Google's products and the Gemini API.

The relabel that puzzled everyone in late September now reads clearly. The thing in the Flow picker was the model Google shipped days later, and the version number moved because the positioning moved: from something called 2.5 Flash to a point update on Nano Banana 2.

One theory can be retired. Before the release, the popular guess was that 2.1 might be Nano Banana Pro under a new label, because some Flow testers thought the outputs looked like Pro's. It was not a relabel. It is a new Flash-line model, and Nano Banana Pro continues to exist alongside it.

What is new in Nano Banana 2.1

Google's release describes improvements across the board, with three areas singled out:

• Visual design. The largest leap in Google's description, covering layout, composition and the look of designed images rather than photographs.
• Mask-based editing. Change only a selected region of an image instead of regenerating the scene, so a retouch stops being a gamble on the rest of the frame.
• Subject consistency. People and objects hold their identity across edits and across a series of related images, which is what makes a model usable for a campaign rather than a single picture.

The developer documentation adds better visual quality, better prompt adherence, better multi-turn character consistency and better text rendering for infographics and marketing assets.

The concrete new capabilities:

• Extreme and panoramic aspect ratios: 1:4, 4:1, 1:8 and 8:1 at 2K and 4K. Earlier models could only approximate those by tiling, which left visible artifacts. They sit on top of the usual 1:1, 3:2, 2:3, 3:4, 4:3, 4:5, 5:4, 9:16, 16:9 and 21:9.
• Output at 1K, 2K and 4K. The 512 pixel tier that Nano Banana 2 offered has been dropped.
• Up to 14 reference images in one request: up to 10 objects and up to 4 characters for consistency.
• Google Search grounding that now includes Google Image Search, so a prompt about a real place or a real product can be grounded in pictures and not only in text.
• Three thinking levels: minimal, medium (the default) and high.
• A SynthID watermark on every output.

Source photo

Edit: only the sky

Infographic, exact text

Same subject, four panels

8:1 panorama

Nano banana 2.1 api: model id, price, and the Nano Banana 2 shutdown

There is a nano banana 2.1 api from day one. The Gemini API model id is gemini-nano-banana-2.1, and the price is per image by resolution:

Batch mode is 50 percent off, which is the right mode for bulk jobs that can wait. At 1K the list price works out to roughly half of what Nano Banana 2 cost, which was $0.067 per image.

Nano Banana 2, gemini-3.1-flash-image, is now deprecated. Google has set its shutdown for 2026-10-29 and tells developers to migrate to 2.1. If you have anything in production pinned to the old id, that is a short clock, and the migration is mostly a model-id change plus a check on the resolutions you request, since the 512 pixel tier is gone.

Two things are still unpublished: the plan limits for the consumer products, and the list of countries where they offer 2.1. If you need to know whether a particular Gemini plan caps your image count, that answer is not available yet.

Where you can use Nano Banana 2.1

It shipped broadly rather than in one place:

• The Gemini app, for ordinary prompting and editing.
• AI Mode in Google Search, through the Google app: tap the banana icon under the search box.
• Google AI Studio, for trying prompts and parameters against the API without writing code.
• Google Flow, Google's creation tool for video and images, where the name first appeared.
• Stitch, for interface and product design work.
• Google Ads, for ad creative.
• Gemini Enterprise, for business accounts.
• The Gemini API, for developers, as gemini-nano-banana-2.1.

Which of those you can reach depends on your account and your country, and Google has not published the country list or the per-plan limits. Our Google Flow guide covers how to select the model in Flow and how the AI Mode route works.

The nano banana naming map, now complete

The nicknames and the formal Gemini names run on separate tracks, which is why this family confuses people. The mapping:

• Nano Banana is Gemini 2.5 Flash Image. The original, and the model that made the nickname stick.
• Nano Banana Pro is Gemini 3 Pro Image. The Pro tier: output up to 4K, the strongest in-image text rendering in the family, up to 14 reference images.
• Nano Banana 2 is Gemini 3.1 Flash Image. The previous Flash tier, now deprecated, shutting down on 2026-10-29.
• Nano Banana 2 Lite is the lighter option that sits next to the others in Flow's picker.
• Nano Banana 2.1 is the new Flash tier, an update to Nano Banana 2, called gemini-nano-banana-2.1 in the API.

So "2.1" is a point update on "2", and neither is a step toward "Pro": Flash and Pro are two lines, not two patch levels. If you want the two current models put side by side on specs, the comparison guide does that row by row.

What you can do on this site

nanobanana21.app is a web image generator and editor built on these models, independent of Google. Nano Banana 2.1 is the default entry in the prompt box and uses Nano Banana Pro. Nano Banana Pro, Nano Banana 2, Nano Banana 2 Lite and the original Nano Banana remain available in the same picker.

What works today:

• Text to image, and image editing from your own uploads.
• Reference images for character and product consistency, with the per-model limit shown in the picker.
• Aspect ratios from 1:1 through 21:9, plus panoramic 4:1, 8:1, 1:4 and 1:8 on Nano Banana 2, and output at 1K, 2K or 4K.
• Credits, pay as you go: credit packs if you work in bursts, monthly plans if you work steadily. See pricing.
• Google sign-in, automatic credit refunds on failed images, and a library private to your account.

A habit worth keeping whichever model you use: draft at 1K to find the composition, then re-render the keeper at 2K or 4K. For prompts written around what 2.1 is good at, including regional edits and panoramic banners, see the prompts guide.

FAQ