Google releases Nano Banana 2.1 and cuts prices
What happened
AI digest
In February 2026, Google released the image generation and editing model Nano Banana 2. On 7 October 2026, according to The Decoder, Google released Nano Banana 2.1, replacing Nano Banana 2, at roughly half the price of the previous generation: 1K images fell from 6.70 cents to 3.36 cents, and 4K from 15.10 cents to 7.56 cents.
Written by AI from the reports · updated 9 d ago
Timeline
Follow the reports to see the event from each side.
Oct 7
- The DecoderGoogle's new image model Nano Banana 2.1 generates better images for less money
Google's new Nano Banana 2.1 image model uses Gemini 3.6 Flash and beats the previous Pro model in some benchmarks at a lower cost. But its predecessor also scored well in tests, while Pro often produced better images in practice.