Google releases Nano Banana 2.1 image model
Google released Nano Banana 2.1, an image model built on Gemini 3.6 Flash. It beats the previous Pro model on some benchmarks at a lower cost, though the predecessor also scored well in tests.
First seen 6 Oct, 15:33 UTC on OpenRouter3 sourcesLast update 2h ago
Google DeepMindLaunch · 6 Oct
Nano Banana 2.1
New model
$1.50 / $7.50per M tokens, in / out
64Kcontext
How Nano Banana 2.1 compares
List prices per million tokens, context and Arena's text leaderboard, against Google's other top models and the leading labs' best. The percentages are Nano Banana 2.1's price against each.
| Model | Released | Input | Output | Context | Arena |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano Banana 2.1 | October 2026 | $1.50 | $7.50 | 64K | not ranked yet |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $2.00 -25% | $12.00 -37% | 2M | #15 1487 | |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | September 2026 | $4.00 -62% | $20.00 -62% | 1M | #4 1504 |
| GPT-6 Astra | September 2026 | $10.00 -85% | $50.00 -85% | 1.05M | #26 1477 |
| Qwen3.8 Max Prime | September 2026 | $4.00 -62% | $12.00 -37% | 1M | not ranked yet |
Arena ranks the best effort setting of each model among all models on its text leaderboard. Every model and price.
What the sources say
Linked, never rewritten. Official means the lab itself.
Official0
No word from Google DeepMind yet.
How it unfolded
Every source in the order it appeared. Times in UTC.
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