Nano Banana 2.1: 4x Cheaper, But Is It Actually Good?

Google just dropped Nano Banana 2.1, and it starts at about 3 cents a picture, four times cheaper than Nano Banana Pro. So I built a small app and gave it 10 really hard pictures to make, live, with the real time and the real cost of every single one. What I tested: → One sentence written on a banana in English, Hindi, Japanese and Spanish → An 8:1, 4K Austin skyline, new model vs the old Nano Banana 2 → One photo of me, shot on nine different cameras → Today's Austin weather, looked up with Google Search → The Texas State Capitol rebuilt as a toy brick set, using Google Image Search → Rough sketches drawn on a photo, turned into real objects → Four characters across a six-panel comic, new vs old → Ten products plus me on one magazine cover → A napkin sketch and a fabric photo turned into a real armchair → A price infographic, with every number checked automatically The receipt: 16 pictures for $1.34. The same pictures on Nano Banana Pro would have cost about $2.14. Which test surprised you the most? Tell me in the comments, and as always, I'll do my best to answer your questions. Chapters 0:00 Nano Banana 2.1: the price and the vote 0:27 The test app 0:48 Test 1: Writing on a banana in 4 languages 1:32 What Nano Banana 2.1 is, and who it's for 2:34 Test 2: An 8:1 Austin skyline, new vs old 3:13 Test 3: One photo, nine cameras 3:44 Test 4: Today's weather, looked up with Google Search 4:12 Test 5: The Texas Capitol as a toy brick set 4:41 Test 6: Draw on a photo, get the real thing 5:24 Test 7: Four faces, six comic panels, new vs old 6:02 Test 8: Ten products on one magazine cover 6:25 Test 9: Napkin sketch to armchair 6:46 Test 10: A fact-checked price infographic 7:18 The receipt: 16 pictures for $1.34 7:31 My take Try it yourself Google AI Studio: https://aistudio.google.com Gemini API pricing: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing Gemini app: https://gemini.google.com All opinions are my own and do not belong to my employer. #NanoBanana #GoogleAI #Gemini