Same Family, Two Jobs
Google ships two current "Nano Banana" image models, and the names hide what matters:
- Nano Banana 2 = Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (
gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview) — the fast, cheap tier. - Nano Banana Pro = Gemini 3 Pro Image (
gemini-3-pro-image-preview) — the high-quality tier.
Both are excellent and both are on LinkModel. The decision is quality-per-dollar vs. top-end fidelity. (There's also the older Nano Banana = gemini-2.5-flash-image, cheaper still.)
Pricing (the Real Gap)
Google bills per output token; here's what it resolves to per image:
| Resolution | Nano Banana 2 (3.1 Flash Image) | Nano Banana Pro (3 Pro Image) |
|---|---|---|
| 512 | ~$0.045 | — |
| 1K | ~$0.067 | $0.134 |
| 2K | ~$0.101 | $0.134 |
| 4K | ~$0.15 | $0.24 |
Nano Banana 2 is roughly half the price at comparable resolutions. Batch mode halves both further. That gap is the whole decision at volume: 10,000 2K images cost ~$1,010 on Nano Banana 2 vs ~$1,340 on Pro.
Quality & Features
Nano Banana Pro is Google's flagship: ~94% text-rendering accuracy, Search grounding (factual geometry/lighting), identity preservation across up to five subjects, studio-grade controls, and native 2K/4K. It's the pick for hero assets, dense infographics, and factual visuals.
Nano Banana 2 keeps the core Gemini image quality — strong text, fast interleaved generation-and-editing, multi-turn local edits — optimized for ultra-low latency and cost. It's built for high-volume interactive apps and prototyping. Both embed SynthID (and Nano Banana 2 adds C2PA) watermarks.
Speed
Both are fast, but Nano Banana 2 is the latency-optimized tier — ideal when users are waiting on each generation (chat-style editing, live previews). Pro's extra reasoning can add a beat on complex prompts.
Which Should You Use?
- Nano Banana 2 → high-volume generation, interactive/real-time apps, prototyping, tight budgets, "good enough" text and quality at half the cost.
- Nano Banana Pro → hero images, factual/grounded visuals, dense multilingual text, 4K masters, maximum fidelity.
- Both → the classic pattern: iterate on Nano Banana 2, finish key assets on Pro.
That last option is why a single-key gateway helps — swap the model string, nothing else changes:
# swap "gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview" ⇄ "gemini-3-pro-image-preview"
curl -X POST https://api.linkmodel.ai/api/v1/image-generation \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LINKMODEL_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "model": "gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview", "prompt": "Clean product poster, headline \"NEW\", 2K" }'On LinkModel both run up to 30% below official rates. For the cross-brand fight, see Nano Banana Pro vs GPT Image 2; for the whole field, best AI image generation APIs; for Pro's full pricing, the Gemini image pricing guide.
Test both free with a $1 credit.