Google Releases Nano Banana 2 Lite: 4-Second Images at $0.034 per 1,000
Google DeepMind
Google released Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Image) to general availability on June 30, generating images in approximately 4 seconds at $0.034 per 1,000 images. Available in Google AI Studio, the Gemini API, and rolling out to AI Mode in Google Search, Gemini app, NotebookLM, and Google Photos. All outputs include SynthID watermarking.
Why it matters
Nano Banana 2 Lite sets a new low-cost bar in production image generation APIs. At under four cents per thousand images with 4-second generation, high-volume image pipelines become economically practical at frontier quality.
Importance: 3/5
New low-cost frontier image generation API from Google; 4-second generation at $0.034/1K; GA across consumer surfaces including Google Search and NotebookLM