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Model Pareto

Nano Banana 2.1 vs Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)

In image generation, Nano Banana 2.1 scores 72.2 and Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) 61.9 on the 0–100 quality scale. Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) costs 2× as much as Nano Banana 2.1 ($0.067 vs $0.034 per image).
Nano Banana 2.1Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
Focus

Image generation: quality vs price

Compared models are ringed; the other 39 ranked here are greyed.

Lower price is better. Pareto frontier: Z-Image Turbo, Muse Image, MAI-Image-2.6-Flash, Nano Banana 2.1, MAI-Image-2.6, GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst. 2 models are not plotted: Qwen-Image-2.1, Ideogram 4.5.

2 models with no price data — shown in the strip at the left edge

Qwen-Image-2.1, Ideogram 4.5

  • Best-value frontier (nothing is both cheaper and better)
  • Evidencestrong → weak
  • Estimated from other categories

Overview

Metric
Nano Banana 2.1
Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
Lab
Google DeepMind
Google DeepMind
Released
Oct 6, 2026
Feb 26, 2026
Weights
Proprietary
Proprietary
Price per image
$0.034Best
$0.067
Time per image
—
8.9s

Quality by category

0–100 within each category (100 = best tracked model). Rank is among all models ranked there. Click a row to focus it.

Metric
Nano Banana 2.1
Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
Image generation
72.2±4.3Best
#6/41Verifiedbest value
61.9±3.2
#10/41Verified

Image generation benchmarks

Rank among models with a published score, and the leaderboard around each model. ~ italic = no published score, estimated from related benchmarks.

Metric
Nano Banana 2.1
Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
AA Text-to-Image Arena
third-party
~#6/37~1137Estimated
  1. #1GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1196
  2. #5MAI-Image-2.61147
  3. ~#6Nano Banana 2.1Estimated1137
  4. #6Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)1122
estimated from related benchmarks
#6/361122Verified
  1. #1GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1196
  2. #5MAI-Image-2.61147
  3. #6Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)1122
  4. #7Muse Image1112
artificialanalysis.ai · 2026-09-24
AA Image Editing Arena
third-party
~#5/32~1124Estimated
  1. #1GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1181
  2. #4MAI-Image-2.6-Flash1125
  3. ~#5Nano Banana 2.1Estimated1124
  4. #5GPT Image 21122
estimated from related benchmarks
#11/311108Verified
  1. #1GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1181
  2. #10Seedream 5.0 Pro1109
  3. #11Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)1108
  4. #12GPT Image 1.51104
artificialanalysis.ai · 2026-09-24
LMArena Text-to-Image
third-party
#5/321328BestVerified
  1. #1GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1423
  2. #4MAI-Image-2.61334
  3. #5Nano Banana 2.11328
  4. #6Grok Imagine Image 2.01321
arena.ai · 2026-10-06
#8/321260Verified
  1. #1GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1423
  2. #7Muse Image1276
  3. #8Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)1260
  4. #9Seedream 5.0 Pro1256
arena.ai · 2026-09-21
LMArena Image Edit
third-party
#6/261428BestVerified
  1. #1GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1522
  2. #5MAI-Image-2.61429
  3. #6Nano Banana 2.11428
  4. #7Muse Image1402
arena.ai · 2026-10-06
#12/261388Verified
  1. #1GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst1522
  2. #10Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image)1390
  3. #12Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)1388
  4. #13GPT Image 1.51370
arena.ai · 2026-09-21
GenEval
day 0
~#2/4~87.1%Estimated
  1. #1HiDream-O1-Image90.0%
  2. ~#2Nano Banana 2.1Estimated87.1%
  3. #2Qwen-Image87.0%
estimated from related benchmarks
~#3/4~86.9%Estimated
  1. #1HiDream-O1-Image90.0%
  2. #2Qwen-Image87.0%
  3. ~#3Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)Estimated86.9%
  4. #3Z-Image Turbo82.0%
estimated from related benchmarks
DPG-Bench
day 0
~#3/4~87.9%Estimated
  1. #1HiDream-O1-Image89.8%
  2. #2Qwen-Image88.3%
  3. ~#3Nano Banana 2.1Estimated87.9%
  4. #3Z-Image Turbo84.9%
estimated from related benchmarks
~#3/4~87.6%Estimated
  1. #1HiDream-O1-Image89.8%
  2. #2Qwen-Image88.3%
  3. ~#3Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)Estimated87.6%
  4. #3Z-Image Turbo84.9%
estimated from related benchmarks