Published: October 7, 2026
Image Model
Nano Banana 2.1 is the update to Nano Banana 2, Google's non-pro Gemini image model. The gains are in prompt understanding and prompt adherence: it executes complex prompts more closely, handles composition better, and keeps subjects more consistent.
Editing is more precise as well. It generates at 1K, 2K and 4K, and adds web search, video input and a thinking-level control, so you can trade speed for reasoning job by job.
Key Features
Prompt Following & Editing
- Prompt adherence: Better prompt understanding and adherence than Nano Banana 2, including complex prompts.
- Composition: Better control over how elements are framed and arranged.
- Subject consistency: Subjects stay more consistent.
- Editing: More precise edits.
Reasoning, Grounding & Inputs
- Thinking levels: Minimal, Medium (default) and High. Lower is faster, higher reasons longer.
- Web search: Can look things up on the web to ground a prompt in real-world subjects.
- Video input: Accepts video as an input.
Technical Capabilities
Details |
|
|---|---|
| Modalities | Text-to-image, image editing, video input |
| Resolution | 1K, 2K, 4K |
| Thinking levels | Minimal, Medium (default), High |
| Web search | Supported |
Limitations
- Medium is the default thinking level, so drafts and high-volume runs are slower than they need to be unless you drop to Minimal.
- Minimal applies less reasoning to complex prompts.
Prompting Tips
- Minimal to explore quickly, High for the final pass on complex or text-heavy prompts.
- Spell out composition (placement, framing, camera angle); it's an area that improved.
- For edits, say what to change and what to keep; reuse the subject description for consistency.
- Turn on web search for named places, products and other real-world references.