Gemini Nano Banana 2.1
GoogleProprietary
Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 is an AI image model from Google. On LMArena’s Text-to-image leaderboard it ranks 6 of 82 with 1328±9 from 5,310 votes. On LMArena’s Image editing leaderboard it ranks 5 of 60 with 1426±6 from 12,938 votes. License: Proprietary.
Key figures
- Developer
- License
- Proprietary
- Released (per AA)
- Oct 2026
Who it is for (from the data)
- Best-quality seekers: #6 of 82 on Text-to-image, in the top 10.
- Generating and editing images: it is ranked on both boards.
- Use via Google's service or API: LMArena lists it as proprietary.
- Existing Google users: this vendor has 10 models on Text-to-image.
Neighbours on Text-to-image
| # | Model | Score | Votes | AA Elo | License | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 |  GPT Image 2 (Medium) OpenAI | 1383 | 93,334 | 1186 | Proprietary | +55 |
| 4 |  Grok Imagine Image 2.0 (Canvas) xAI | 1334 | 3,113 | – | Proprietary | +6 |
| 5 |  MAI Image 2.6 Microsoft AI | 1332 | 25,091 | 1166 | Proprietary | +4 |
| 6 | Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 Google | 1328 | 5,310 | 1176 | Proprietary | |
| 7 |  Reve 2.1 Reve | 1302 | 8,249 | – | Proprietary | -26 |
| 8 | Grok Imagine Image 2.0 (20260801) xAI | 1294 | 14,483 | – | Proprietary | -34 |
| 9 |  Muse Image Meta | 1274 | 42,262 | 1127 | Proprietary | -54 |
Alternatives · More from Google
| # | Model | Score | Votes | AA Elo | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (Nano Banana 2) [Web Search] Google | 1262 | 60,515 | – | Proprietary |
| 15 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image (Nano Banana 2 Lite) Google | 1250 | 17,804 | – | Proprietary |
| 16 | Gemini 3 Pro Image 2K (Nano Banana Pro) Google | 1248 | 175,734 | – | Proprietary |
| 18 | Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview (Nano Banana Pro) Google | 1234 | 86,464 | – | Proprietary |
| 34 | Gemini 2.5 Flash Image Preview (Nano Banana) Google | 1150 | 890,539 | – | Proprietary |
Alternatives · Top open-weight models
| # | Model | Score | Votes | AA Elo | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 |  Qwen Image 2.1 Alibaba | 1223 | 11,441 | 1042 | qwen-research |
| 20 |  Ideogram 4.0 Quality Ideogram | 1205 | 60,591 | – | Ideogram Open Model |
| 27 |  Cosmos3-Super-Text2Image (Agentic) NVIDIA | 1165 | 10,805 | – | OpenMDW-1.1 |
| 33 | Cosmos3-Super-Text2Image NVIDIA | 1152 | 18,485 | – | OpenMDW-1.1 |
| 35 |  Hunyuan Image 3.0 Tencent | 1150 | 180,518 | 989 | tencent-hunyuan-community |
How to read the scores
- LMArena score: people blind-pick the better of two anonymous images for the same prompt, and the votes are fitted into an Elo-style rating; "±" is the 95% confidence interval.
- Text-to-image and image edit are separate boards, so scores are not comparable across them; AA Elo comes from Artificial Analysis on a different scale.
- If the gap between two models is smaller than their combined intervals, the order is not statistically reliable; treat them as the same tier. More votes mean narrower intervals.
FAQ
Where does Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 rank among AI image models?
Text-to-image rank 6 (1328); Image editing rank 5 (1426) (LMArena, data as of Oct 26, 2026).
Is Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 open-weight?
No. LMArena lists it as Proprietary; it is available only through Google’s products or API.
Can Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 edit images?
Yes. Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 is #5 of 60 on the LMArena image-edit board (1426, 12,938 votes).
Who makes Gemini Nano Banana 2.1?
According to LMArena, Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 is made by Google.
How reliable is Gemini Nano Banana 2.1's score?
The scores are based on 5,310 votes on Text-to-image (95% CI ±9); 12,938 votes on Image editing (95% CI ±6). More votes and narrower intervals mean a more stable rank.
How far is Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 from #1 on Text-to-image?
#1 on Text-to-image is GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst (1425); Gemini Nano Banana 2.1 scores 1328, 97 points behind.
Sources
LMArena Text-to-image data published on Oct 7, 2026.
LMArena Image editing data published on Oct 20, 2026.
17NAS syncs the upstream leaderboards daily; this page's data was synced on Oct 26, 2026.
Price, resolution and speed have no reliable public data yet and are omitted; all values come from the snapshot, blanks show –.