Short answer
Nano Banana 2.1 is gemini-nano-banana-2.1, generally available in the Gemini API since October 6, 2026. It updates Nano Banana 2 (gemini-3.1-flash-image) with better visual quality, prompt adherence, multi-turn character consistency and text rendering, and adds 1:4, 4:1, 1:8 and 8:1 aspect ratios. Google deprecated Nano Banana 2 the same day (no shutdown date yet) and recommends moving to 2.1.
Google charges $30 per million image output tokens, which works out to $0.0336 per 1K image, $0.0504 per 2K and $0.113 per 4K; there is no free tier on the Gemini API. On TeamoRouter you call it under the same model ID, without a Google Cloud billing account.
Specs at a glance
From Google's Gemini API docs:
| Nano Banana 2.1 | |
|---|---|
| Model ID | gemini-nano-banana-2.1 |
| Released | October 6, 2026 (GA) |
| Resolutions | 1K, 2K, 4K (no 512px tier, unlike Nano Banana 2) |
| New aspect ratios | 1:4, 4:1, 1:8, 8:1 |
| Input | Text, images, video |
| Other | Optional Google Search grounding (billed per query by Google); every image carries a SynthID watermark |
Pricing
Google (standard tier, per 1M tokens):
| Price | |
|---|---|
| Input (text, image, video) | $1.50 |
| Text and thinking output | $7.50 |
| Image output | $30.00 |
Per image: 1K (1024×1024) is about 1,120 tokens, $0.0336; 2K about 1,680, $0.0504; 4K about 3,780, $0.113. The Batch API is half price.
TeamoRouter (at the time of writing): $0.75 input and $15 output, with one output price for image, text and thinking tokens. Image output is half of Google's price; text and thinking output costs more than Google's $7.50. A typical image request produces about 2,100 output tokens including thinking, so a 1K image comes to about $0.032 (about $0.041 at Google) and a 2K image to roughly 60% of Google's price. Across about 5,500 real image requests on TeamoRouter from October 19 to 22, the total works out to between 60% and 80% of Google's price. Current prices are on the pricing page.
When TeamoRouter makes sense: you can't set up Google Cloud billing in your country, or you already use GPT Image, Claude or GPT and want Nano Banana on the same key and balance, paid by card or crypto.
Call it through TeamoRouter
Nano Banana uses the native Gemini API (generateContent), not the OpenAI Images endpoint:
curl https://api.teamorouter.com/v1beta/models/gemini-nano-banana-2.1:generateContent \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{
"contents": [{"role": "user", "parts": [{"text": "A minimal 16:9 tech poster with the headline \"Launch Day\""}]}],
"generationConfig": {
"responseModalities": ["IMAGE"],
"imageConfig": {"aspectRatio": "16:9", "imageSize": "2K"}
}
}'
The image comes back as Base64 in candidates[0].content.parts[].inlineData. For editing, Python and JavaScript examples and error handling, see the Gemini image API guide and swap in gemini-nano-banana-2.1; note that 2.1 has no 512 tier and 4K output is about 3,780 tokens.
Paying for usage
No subscription: you top up a balance from $5 and pay only for the tokens you use, by card or with USDT, USDC or ETH from any exchange app (how to pay with crypto).
FAQ
Nano Banana 2.1 or Nano Banana 2? Google has deprecated Nano Banana 2, so use 2.1 for new work. 2.1 is also cheaper at Google ($30 vs $60 per million image tokens); it just drops the 512 tier.
What about Nano Banana Pro? Pro (gemini-3-pro-image) is Google's premium model for the most complex assets, such as brand work; 2.1 is built for speed and cost.
How does it compare with GPT Image 2.5? Both do 4K and editing. See the GPT Image 2.5 API guide for its sizes and limits; one TeamoRouter key covers both, so you can run the same prompt on each.