Google releases Nano Banana 2.1 with 4K output, better Chinese text, halved API prices
Google released Nano Banana 2.1, a new image-generation model with upgrades in visual design, mask editing, subject consistency and realism, native 4K output and noticeably improved Chinese text rendering. Citing the Arena leaderboard, Chinese tech media report an average gain of about 61.7 points over Nano Banana 2 across text-to-image, multi-image editing and single-image editing, with text-to-image ranking fourth behind GPT, while API prices were halved for 1K/2K images and cut about 25% for 4K. It is available in the Gemini app and Google AI Studio (running on Gemini 3.6 Flash, with 50 free credits daily) and via the paid gemini-nano-banana-2.1 API; some users report a possible watermark-stacking bug that degrades images after repeated edits, and comparisons suggest its overall finish still trails ChatGPT Images 2.5.
Cheaper 4K generation plus better Chinese text keeps Google competitive in image generation, though user tests suggest it has not clearly overtaken GPT's image models.