Google’s new Nano Banana 2 Lite image model is its fastest and cheapest yet
Summary
Google's Nano Banana 2 Lite image model is touted as the fastest and cheapest option in Google's Gemini 3.1 family, designed for rapid prototyping with decent output quality for non-text images. It delivers images in about 4 seconds (vs ~20 seconds for the standard version) and costs around $0.034 per 1K images via the API, though it struggles with small text and infographics. The model includes SynthID watermarks and is accessible via Google AI Studio and the Gemini API, making it a strong option for quick iterations with caveats on accuracy.