Google's new Nano Banana 2 Lite image model is its fastest and cheapest yet
There are plenty of AI image-generation models these days, but the ones capable of quality outputs tend to be slow and expensive. Google DeepMind says its new image model, known as Nano Banana 2 Lite, offers the best balance of quality and speed. It's available today across the Google ecosystem, creating images in a fraction of the time it takes Google's beefier models. The new model is part of the Gemini 3.1 family—it's technically called Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image. On one hand, Google says th
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Google DeepMind has released a new image-generation model called Nano Banana 2 Lite that prioritizes speed and cost over image quality. The model can generate images in about 4 seconds compared to 20 seconds for the standard version, and costs half as much to use via API at an average of $0.034 per 1,000 images. While the model produces lower quality outputs, particularly with small text and infographics, it is designed for rapid prototyping and exploration where speed matters more than perfection. The model is available across Google's ecosystem and all images it produces include watermarks to identify them as AI-generated.
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