Google has introduced the Nano Banana 2 Lite, an image-creation model that produces images in four seconds at a cost of less than four cents per thousand images. It was released on Tuesday and is the fastest and cheapest model in the Nano Banana family of AI. This model is designed for developers who need to create visuals at scale and is immediately available in Google AI Studio, the Gemini API , and the Gemini Enterprise Agent.
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The Nano Banana 2 Lite is built for speed, not quality, targeting “rapid ideation and high-speed development workflows” where latency and cost are more critical than detail. The existing Nano Banana 2, released in February, remains the recommended model for higher-fidelity work, while the Nano Banana Pro is intended for complex professional use cases.
This new model replaces the original Nano Banana, which is now referred to as the “traditional model.” Despite its focus on speed, the Nano Banana 2 Lite maintains reliable command adherence, strong character consistency, and legible text rendering within images. It is also available in consumer surfaces, including AI Mode in Search, the Gemini app, NotebookLM, Google Photos, Stitch, Google Flow, and Google Ads.
In addition to the image model, Google announced the broader release of Gemini Omni Flash, the video creation model first shown at Google I/O in May. Omni Flash is now available to developers through the Gemini API and Google AI Studio, at a cost of ten cents per second of video, with clips limited to ten seconds.
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Google is promoting the two models as a workflow for developers to quickly create and iterate on images with the Nano Banana 2 Lite, then animate those images into video using Omni Flash. A new demo app called Omni Product Studio turns still images into “cinematic e-commerce videos,” while other demos let users place themselves in photos of landmarks or redesign interiors.
These releases come at a time when AI-powered imagery is a polarizing topic. A recent study found that 60 percent of videos on TikTok are now classified as AI-generated content, and the term “AI slop” has emerged to describe the low-quality, machine-generated media flooding the social platform. Google has focused its marketing of these image tools on advertising and business use rather than consumer creativity, which helps avoid some of the backlash.
Google’s relationship with Hollywood is also under scrutiny. Google DeepMind recently signed a $75 million deal with independent studio A24 to develop AI-powered filmmaking tools, a partnership that has faced criticism from fans and creative communities who feel it undermines the artists that A24 has historically supported. A24 has defended the partnership, saying it aims to “determine what tools get built for artists” rather than leave those decisions solely to tech companies.
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The Nano Banana 2 Lite and Omni Flash are the latest additions to Google’s media genetics stack, which the company has been aggressively developing since last year. The strategic goal is to make image and video creation so fast and affordable that these tools can be integrated into developers’ everyday workflows before the broader debate about their social cost is resolved.
