Nano Banana 2 Price: The Real Per-Image Cost, Every Tier (2026)
Search for the Nano Banana 2 price and you’ll get one number back, usually quoted as if it settles the question. It doesn’t. Nano Banana 2 — Google’s gemini-3.1-flash-image model — is billed by the token, and the per-image cost climbs across four resolution tiers, from about $0.045 for a small image to $0.15 for 4K on Google’s own list. There’s also an edit variant, a cheaper Lite version, and at least two resale channels, each with its own rate. So “the price” was never going to be a single figure.
This guide gives the full ladder for Nano Banana 2 specifically — not the whole Nano Banana family (that’s a separate breakdown), and not Nano Banana Pro (also its own page). Just the “2”: every tier, the token math that proves each number, the edit and Lite variants, where “2” sits against the rest of the family, and how to pay the least. One scope note up front: this is about cost, not image quality — whether Nano Banana 2 beats another model on output is a different question. Every figure here was pulled from Google’s and Modellix’s own pages on July 23, 2026.
The short answer: the Nano Banana 2 price is a 512→4K ladder
Nano Banana 2 costs $0.045 to $0.151 per image on Google’s own API, depending on resolution (512px to 4K), and $0.0403 to $0.1248 per image through the Modellix aggregator. Google prices it by token — $60 per million output tokens — and every per-image figure is that token count times the rate. Google’s Batch mode halves the API prices for work that can run asynchronously.
Resolution (imageSize) |
Google API, Standard | Modellix, per image |
|---|---|---|
| 512 (0.5K) | $0.045 | $0.0403 |
| 1K (1024²) | $0.067 | $0.0575 |
| 2K (2048²) | $0.101 | $0.0851 |
| 4K (4096²) | $0.151 | $0.1248 |
Sources: Google Gemini API pricing (model gemini-3.1-flash-image) and the Modellix Nano Banana 2 model page, both retrieved July 23, 2026. Google’s Batch API takes 50% off every Google row.
Modellix’s live pricing card for Nano Banana 2 — the metered per-image ladder ($0.0403 / $0.0575 / $0.0851 / $0.1248 at 512px / 1K / 2K / 4K) that sits below Google’s Standard list at every tier. Captured from modellix.ai/models/google/nano-banana-2, July 23, 2026.
Two things jump out. First, the price more than triples from the smallest tier to 4K — resolution is the single biggest cost dial on this model. Second, the aggregator’s metered rate sits below Google’s Standard list at every tier here. That’s a real per-image gap, but as the last section explains, it doesn’t make it the cheapest way to run Nano Banana 2 overall — Google’s Batch mode goes lower still.
Why Nano Banana 2 is priced by the token
Google doesn’t bill Nano Banana 2 per image directly. It bills per output token, at $60 per 1,000,000 tokens, and each resolution consumes a fixed number of tokens. The per-image prices you see on Google’s page are just that arithmetic, done for you. Here it is spelled out, straight from Google’s pricing footnote:
| Resolution | Output tokens | Token math | Per image |
|---|---|---|---|
| 512 (0.5K) | 747 | 747 × $60 ÷ 1,000,000 | $0.045 |
| 1K (1024²) | 1,120 | 1,120 × $60 ÷ 1,000,000 | $0.067 |
| 2K (2048²) | 1,680 | 1,680 × $60 ÷ 1,000,000 | $0.101 |
| 4K (4096²) | 2,520 | 2,520 × $60 ÷ 1,000,000 | $0.151 |
Google’s own pricing page for gemini-3.1-flash-image (Nano Banana 2): image output is billed at $60 per 1M tokens, which the footnote breaks down as 747 / 1,120 / 1,680 / 2,520 tokens = $0.045 / $0.067 / $0.101 / $0.151 per image. Captured from ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing, July 23, 2026.
That mechanism is why price scales with resolution: a 4K image is 2,520 tokens versus 747 for a 512px one — 3.4× the tokens, so 3.4× the cost. It’s also why any “Nano Banana 2 price” that can’t be reconciled with the token count is a guess. If a page quotes a number that isn’t 747, 1,120, 1,680, or 2,520 tokens times $60/million, treat it skeptically.
A couple of practical notes that ride along with the number. Setting imageSize is a budget decision, not just a quality one — asking for 4K when 1K would do more than doubles your per-image cost ($0.067 → $0.151). And every image Google generates carries an invisible SynthID watermark; that’s a policy, not a price line, but worth knowing before you build on it.
The edit and Lite variants: the rest of the “2” family’s prices
“Nano Banana 2” isn’t one endpoint. On the aggregator side there are four models wearing the “2” badge, and the price differs by job. All rates below are from Modellix’s own model pages, retrieved July 23, 2026:
| Model | What it does | 512 | 1K | 2K | 4K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano Banana 2 | text-to-image | $0.0403 | $0.0575 | $0.0851 | $0.1248 |
| Nano Banana 2 Edit | image/video-to-image editing | $0.0419 | $0.0598 | $0.0869 | $0.1265 |
| Nano Banana 2 Lite | fast, cheap text-to-image | — | $0.0274 | — | — |
| Nano Banana 2 Lite Edit | fast, cheap editing | — | $0.0276 | — | — |
Rates from Modellix’s model pages for nano-banana-2, -2-edit, -2-lite, and -2-lite-edit, retrieved July 23, 2026.
The Edit endpoint (nano-banana-2-edit) modifies existing images — up to 14 image URLs, or a frame pulled from a video — for a text instruction, and costs a hair more than plain generation at each tier ($0.0598 vs $0.0575 at 1K). Same four resolutions.
The Lite models run on Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image (gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image), which supports 1K only and is priced at $30 per million tokens on Google — half the standard model’s rate — for $0.0336 per image direct, or $0.0274 through the aggregator. Lite is the model to reach for when throughput and cost matter more than peak fidelity: drafts, thumbnails, high-volume batches.
How Nano Banana 2 compares to base, Lite, and Pro
Here’s the comparison that trips people up, because the naming actively misleads. Lined up at the same 1K resolution on Google’s Standard prices, the family runs like this:
| Model (Google id) | Per image, 1K | vs Nano Banana 2 |
|---|---|---|
Nano Banana 2 Lite (gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image) |
$0.0336 | half the price |
Nano Banana, original (gemini-2.5-flash-image) |
$0.039 | ~40% cheaper |
Nano Banana 2 (gemini-3.1-flash-image) |
$0.067 | — |
Nano Banana Pro (gemini-3-pro-image) |
$0.134 | 2× the price |
Two traps to name. First, “2” is not the cheap, newer version — it costs more than the original Nano Banana, not less. The original (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) is $0.039 at 1K; Nano Banana 2 is $0.067, roughly 1.7× more. The “2” buys you a newer, faster model, not a discount. Second, the version numbers don’t rank the tiers: Nano Banana 2 runs on Gemini 3.1, while Nano Banana Pro runs on Gemini 3 — a smaller number for the higher-end, pricier tier. “2” and “Pro” are product tiers, not generations.
So Nano Banana 2 sits in the upper-middle of the family: twice the price of Lite, a bit above the original, and half the price of Pro. For the full four-model family priced side by side, see the Nano Banana price breakdown; for a deep dive on the top tier, the Nano Banana Pro pricing page. This page stays on the “2.”
How to pay the least on Nano Banana 2
Three levers, in order of how much they move your bill.
1. Pick the smallest model that clears your quality bar. This is the biggest lever, not the channel. Dropping from Nano Banana 2 to Lite roughly halves your per-image cost ($0.067 → $0.0336 at 1K on Google). Draft and iterate on Lite; reserve the full “2” for the images that actually ship. If you were about to default to Pro, note that Nano Banana 2 is already half Pro’s price — step down unless you specifically need Pro’s fidelity.
2. Set imageSize deliberately. Because billing is by token, 4K costs 3.4× what 512px does on the same model. Iterate at 512 or 1K for fast, cheap feedback and only render 2K or 4K for the final asset. Requesting 4K by habit is the most common way to overpay on this model.
3. Use Batch if your work can wait. Google’s Batch API runs the same model at 50% off in exchange for asynchronous processing (results within 24 hours, not instant). That takes Nano Banana 2 at 1K from $0.067 down to about $0.034 — which is roughly what Lite costs at Standard. For background jobs, overnight renders, or bulk generation, Batch is the floor.
Where does an aggregator fit? Modellix’s metered rates sit below Google’s Standard list at every tier ($0.0575 vs $0.067 at 1K), so for real-time work it’s a little cheaper than going direct to Google Standard, with one pay-as-you-go key that also reaches the rest of Google’s image models and other providers, no monthly fee, and per-call cost logging. But to be straight about it: that per-image edge does not make it the cheapest option overall. Google’s Batch mode ($0.034 at 1K) undercuts the aggregator’s $0.0575 — so if you can run async and don’t mind managing Google billing, Batch wins on raw price. The honest framing is: Batch is cheapest when you can wait; a metered aggregator is cheapest for real-time if you’d rather not juggle Google Cloud directly and want the whole catalog behind one key. And either way, Nano Banana 2 is Google’s model (gemini-3.1-flash-image) — an aggregator distributes it, it doesn’t build it.
On free access, don’t count on it for production. Google’s paid API bills every image; the only free path is Google’s AI Studio, which is rate-limited and not meant for production workloads. Modellix advertises $10–30 in starter credit without a card (a client-stated figure — confirm the current amount in the console before you rely on it). Nobody is giving away unlimited Nano Banana 2 images.
FAQ
How much does Nano Banana 2 cost per image?
$0.045 at 512px, $0.067 at 1K, $0.101 at 2K, and $0.151 at 4K on Google’s Standard API, priced at $60 per million output tokens. Through the Modellix aggregator it’s $0.0403 / $0.0575 / $0.0851 / $0.1248 for the same tiers. Google’s Batch mode halves the API prices. Figures as of July 23, 2026.
Is Nano Banana 2 cheaper than the original Nano Banana?
No — it’s more expensive. The original Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) is about $0.039 per 1K image; Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) is $0.067, roughly 1.7× more. The “2” is a newer, faster model, not a cheaper one. If you want the lowest price in the family, that’s Nano Banana 2 Lite at ~$0.0336.
Is Nano Banana 2 free?
Not on the paid API — every image is billed. The only free route is Google’s AI Studio, which is rate-limited and not intended for production. Aggregators may offer starter credit, but there’s no genuinely unlimited free Nano Banana 2.
How much is Nano Banana 2 at 4K?
$0.151 per image on Google’s Standard API (2,520 tokens × $60/million), or about $0.076 with Batch mode. On Modellix it’s $0.1248. It’s the most expensive tier on the model, so only render 4K when you actually need it.
What’s the difference between Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana Pro in price?
Pro costs about double. At 1K, Nano Banana 2 is $0.067 on Google Standard versus Pro’s $0.134; at 4K it’s $0.151 versus Pro’s $0.24. Pro runs on Gemini 3 Pro and buys higher fidelity and native 4K quality — worth it for hero and print assets, overkill for high-volume work. See the dedicated Nano Banana Pro pricing breakdown.
What’s the cheapest way to run Nano Banana 2?
Three levers: use Lite for drafts (half the price), keep imageSize as low as the job allows (4K is the priciest tier), and use Google’s Batch API for anything that can run asynchronously (50% off). For real-time work, a metered aggregator sits just under Google’s Standard list price with no monthly fee.
All prices and model details were retrieved from first-party pages on July 23, 2026: Google Gemini API pricing (model gemini-3.1-flash-image) and Modellix model pages. Nano Banana 2 is billed on Google’s token-based pricing and is a preview-stage model; rates can change without notice — verify against the linked pages before budgeting. Nano Banana 2 is Google’s model; Modellix is one distribution layer that resells Google’s endpoints and does not build it.
