Google's Nano Banana 2.1 halves the price of 1K and 2K images

Google made Nano Banana 2.1 available to developers through the Gemini API on the 6th of October 2026, according to the Gemini API release notes. The model makes and edits images.

It replaces Nano Banana 2, which Google also calls Gemini 3.1 Flash Image, the notes say.

Why it matters

Standard images now cost about half as much, Google's pricing page shows.

A 1K image costs 0.0336 dollars, against 0.067 dollars before. A 2K image costs 0.0504 dollars, against 0.101 dollars.

Key facts

The update draws text inside images better and keeps characters the same across edits, the release notes say. It also adds very wide and very tall formats.

A 4K image costs about a quarter less, at 0.113 dollars, according to the pricing page.

Other prices went up, the page shows. Sending text, images or video to the model costs three times more.

Text output costs 7.50 dollars per million tokens, against 3 dollars.

The smallest size, 512 pixels, is gone, Google's image guide says. All images carry a hidden SynthID watermark.

What's next

Nano Banana 2 is deprecated, with no shutdown date yet, the release notes say. Google tells developers to move to the new model.