The Lab Notes

Google

Nano Banana 2.1 cuts image prices up to half and triples text input

Google priced Nano Banana 2.1 at $0.0336 for a 1K image, about half the Nano Banana 2 rate, while text input rose from $0.50 to $1.50 per million tokens.

The Lab Notes ·

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Google priced its new Nano Banana 2.1 image model at about half the Nano Banana 2 rate for 1K and 2K images, and at roughly 25% less for 4K. Text input and text output cost more than they did on the older model.

Google released Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 (model ID gemini-nano-banana-2.1) as generally available in its Gemini API changelog entry dated Oct. 6, 2026. Google’s models page, read Oct. 11, lists it as Stable and New. The changelog describes it as the company’s latest high-efficiency image generation and conversational editing model. It updates Nano Banana 2 (gemini-3.1-flash-image).

Google Says Quality Improved at Flash-Level Speed

Google said Nano Banana 2.1 keeps Flash-level speed and cost efficiency. The changelog lists gains in visual quality, prompt adherence, multi-turn character consistency and text rendering. It also lists wide and panoramic aspect ratios (1:4, 4:1, 1:8 and 8:1) across 1K, 2K and 4K resolutions.

Image Prices Fall by Half at 1K and 2K

Google’s pricing page, read Oct. 11, lists Nano Banana 2.1 at $0.0336 per 1K image, $0.0504 per 2K image and $0.113 per 4K image. Those are Standard paid-tier rates. Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) is listed at $0.067, $0.101 and $0.151 for the same sizes.

By our calculations from those listed prices, the 1K and 2K images cost about half as much on 2.1, and the 4K image costs about 25% less. Image output is priced at $30.00 per million tokens on 2.1 and $60.00 on 2. A 1K image uses 1,120 tokens on both models and a 2K image uses 1,680. A 4K image uses 3,780 tokens on 2.1 against 2,520 on 2.

Batch rates on 2.1 are half the Standard rates: $0.0168, $0.0252 and $0.0567 per 1K, 2K and 4K image, and $15.00 per million image output tokens. Google lists the free tier as not available for 2.1.

Text Input Costs Three Times as Much

Text input on Nano Banana 2.1 is $1.50 per million tokens, against $0.50 on Nano Banana 2, according to the same pricing page. Output for text and thinking is $7.50 per million tokens, against $3. Those are 3 times and 2.5 times the older rates, by our calculations.

Search grounding on 2.1 includes 5,000 free search requests a month, shared across Gemini 3 and newer models. After that it costs $14 per 1,000 requests.

Google Deprecates Nano Banana 2

Google deprecated Nano Banana 2 in the same Oct. 6 changelog entry and told developers to migrate to gemini-nano-banana-2.1. The entry announces no shutdown date.

What We Think

For teams generating images at volume, the image cut is the main number. The higher text rates matter more for prompts that carry long instructions or ask the model to think at length. With Nano Banana 2 deprecated, we would price a team’s own mix of images, prompt text and thinking on both models before moving over.