However, based off my personal experiences with general images models, Google in my opinion is the best for my workflows. Granted, I haven't tried far-east providers yet.
What does everyone else think?
Nano Banana is head and shoulders above the rest, but still too steep for personal use, and half off doesn't really mean much for enterprise if the results are worse. Hopefully this drives the rest to catch up at least.
I built an app for my kids that generates illustrated stories for them with them as the characters. I wanted to prioritize likeness while still stylizing the illustrations. I tested a bunch of models but none seem to come close to maintaining likeness when stylized. I find the others generate generic looking characters.
I'm excited to incorporate this into the onboarding of my app since I want the users to experience the aha moment as soon as possible and waiting half a minute+ isn't ideal. I'll still be using the main NB2 for the actual illustrations as this lite version still has slight issues with nuance and consistency as others have pointed out.
It works as advertised here, and it does behave like a distilled Nano Banana 2 with respect to certain elements such as good text rendering, which Nano Banana 1 does much worse with. It is definitely not at the level of the base Nano Banana 2 of course particularly with highly-nuanced prompts. My main criticism is that you cannot programmatically force aspect ratios with NB2L but you can with NB2.
That said, the price of $0.034/image is higher than expected since price is generally correlated with generation time, and it takes half the time to generate than a Nano Banana 1 image which costs $0.039/image. Google's assertion that you can directly replace NB1 pipelines with NB2L is fair.
Yesterday, Google announced that the Gemini app will allow free image generations (https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-app/pe...) but did not specify which model would be used: I suspect it's the main motivation for Nano Banana 2 Lite.
Probably not for free but tbf, Google did scale "AI Mode" globally to its billion+ users, with its Gemini 3 series. Pretty much broke my habit of searching the web with pplx & Chat.
Also a lot of the negative comments are from people who hate the very idea of AI art and want it to fail.
People making images, where the image is the focal point, want to spend more per image.
Where images are parts of reports or throwaways or demos, cheap is the better approach.
I want to do a writeup on ChatGPT Image 2 but at this point I don't think people care about nuanced image generation anymore...even though ChatGPT Image 2 crushes all my existing tests.
It’s just used to be more expensive to hire someone to do it for you.
The altered images always e free stirs the same bright walls and grey magazine style furniture.
AI is just making it cheaper, but this was bound to happen.
(Images altered this way do have a small watermark stating so)
the actual bedroom could only fit queen size bed ;(
Please elaborate.
Many of these ELO comparative tests (ArtificialAnalysis is guilty as hell on this as well) also have other problems such as a considerable number of "amateur judges" tending to prioritize aesthetics over actual instruction-following given the prompt.
Also (less a critique of Arena.AI necessarily), but the MAI models are so incredibly locked down (e.g. censored) as to be functionally useless. I have a sneaking suspicion its fallout from Tay.
And plus thats time the real estate agent could have spent prompting claude to cure cancer so its a double win
Create more for less with Nano Banana 2 Lite. Generate and edit images faster and more efficiently than ever before.
Explore, iterate, and keep your workflow moving with dramatically reduced latency.
Generate thousands of images at a fraction of the cost of heavier production models.
The control and accuracy you expect from Nano Banana, accelerated. Maintain character consistency, edit visuals with precision, and lean on real-world knowledge.
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Space Lift is an interior design app that lets you instantly reimagine any room. Upload an image of your space, and watch the app generate a variety of fully realized concepts, from Mid-Century Modern to Bohemian Chic. Swipe through each custom card to find the perfect design scheme for your home.
Gridscape’s infinite canvas lets you explore and learn about any topic. When you ask a question, an informational "node" maps out ideas using text and images generated with Nano Banana 2 Lite and Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite. Dive deeper using clickable pathways that explore related concepts.
Transforming passive reading into an interactive learning journey, Peek-A-Word turns selected text into AI-generated visuals. Concise definitions and contextual imagery are generated in one space, without any distracting tab-switching to disturb flow of learning with Nano Banana 2 Lite and Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite.
Be transported to dream destinations across the world with Anywhere, an interactive 3D globe created with Nano Banana 2 Lite. Attach an image to generate a series of personalized postcards at iconic global landmarks. Spin the globe, click on any photo, and uncover fascinating travel facts about your virtual vacation spots.
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“Nano Banana 2 Lite is fast and reliable, helping designers explore more ideas to craft unique images on Figma Weave's node-based canvas. It's ideal for rapid iteration while staying in the creative flow.”
Itay Schiff
Co-founder & Creative Director, Figma Weave
“We have been testing Nano Banana 2 Lite to power real-time image generation within Manus’s autonomous workflows—from slide decks to web pages. Its speed suits these scenarios well, allowing our AI Agent to iterate on visuals quickly and deliver results in seconds. The image quality is also impressive, coming close to the full Nano Banana 2. We look forward to continuing our partnership and building better experiences together.”
Tao Zhang
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Manus AI
“Speed is no longer a limitation. When generation is faster than imagination, creators can stay inside the idea instead of waiting on the tool. Nano Banana 2 Lite brings that feeling into the creative process, letting thoughts move into visuals almost instantly. For Artlist’s users, it means less time staring at a progress bar and more time creating, iterating, personalizing, and moving at the speed of culture.”
Idan Yonas
Director of AI Content & Innovation, Artlist
"For our voice-controlled TV game Wit's End, [instant-ramen] delivers consistent, high-quality 1k images ~2.7× faster than Gemini 3.1 Flash Image with incredibly tight latency variance. Its ability to handle text-to-image, edits, and multi-image composition in one drop-in API gives us Flash-Lite speed and cost with Nano-Banana quality. It’s what makes real-time generative play viable at scale."
Max Child
CEO, Weekend
“Our engine generates the world as players explore it, so image speed generation is essential. Instant-ramen is a huge upgrade, enabling accurate visuals, while doing it quick enough to keep up with the player's experience. Instant-ramen's speed and fidelity make on-the-fly art generation something we can use to power living visual worlds.”
Nick Walton
CEO & Co-Founder, Latitude
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Image editing Elo scores against competitors per lmarena.ai
Image generation Elo scores against competitors per lmarena.ai
Use detailed prompts to take more control over the images you generate. Think about what you want to see – the characters, the setting, and the overall feel. The more detail you add, the closer the image will be to what you’ve imagined.
Not every image Gemini generates will be perfect – it can still struggle with small faces, accurate spelling, and fine details in images.
The model's real-world knowledge is extensive but not infallible. When generating infographics, annotating diagrams, or representing complex data, it may misinterpret information or produce factually incorrect results. Always verify data-driven outputs.
The model is capable of generating and translating text in many languages, but it may struggle with grammar, spelling, cultural nuances, or idiomatic phrases.
Advanced features like masked editing, major lighting changes (like day to night), or blending multiple images may sometimes produce unnatural results, visual artifacts, or disjointed scenes.
The model excels at character consistency, but it may not always get it right. We're working to make this consistency even more reliable.
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Large Language Models (LLMs), such as Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Image, may sometimes provide inaccurate or offensive content that doesn’t represent Google’s views.
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Don’t rely on LLMs for medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice. Any content regarding those topics is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional.