Nano Banana 2.1

Google's latest image generation and editing model, with its largest gains in visual design, mask-based editing and subject consistency: paint over part of a frame and change only that, and keep a character or product looking the same from one image to the next. It outputs at 1K, 2K and 4K, went generally available the day it was announced, landed in AI Mode in Search the same day, and costs half what Nano Banana 2 did, which Google retires on October 29.

For AI filmmakers the Nano Banana line is the first frame of the shot: the character sheets and start frames that Seedance, Kling and Veo animate. Better masked edits mean fixing one detail of a keyframe without regenerating the whole image, and steadier subjects mean fewer continuity breaks once those frames are in motion.