tech
Google's new Nano Banana 2 Lite image model is its fastest and cheapest yet
They may not look as good, but Nano Banana 2 Lite images only take a few seconds to create.
TL;DR
- Nano Banana 2 Lite is Google DeepMind's new AI image generation model.
- It offers a balance of quality and speed, creating images in a fraction of the time of beefier models.
- The model is part of the Gemini 3.1 family, specifically Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image.
- It's ideal for rapid prototyping and exploring ideas, though quality may be slightly lower than non-lite versions.
- Nano Banana 2 Lite generates images in about 4 seconds, compared to 20 seconds for the standard Nano Banana.
- API access is significantly cheaper, averaging $0.034 per 1K image.
- Limitations include more trouble with text, incorrect data in infographics, and potential inconsistency in characters across iterations.
- All images produced have SynthID watermarks to identify them as AI-generated.
- The model is available in Google AI Studio, via API, and in Gemini by selecting the Flash-Lite option.
- Google is also expanding access to Gemini Omni Flash for video generation.