Google image model
Nano Banana 2 Lite AI Image Generator
The sketchbook Nano Banana: try ideas fast, then finish the winner on 2 or Pro.
Prompt length 0
At a glance
- Provider
- Best for
- Quick drafts, social trials, and concept sketches.
- Reference images
- Up to 14
- Price
- 4 Credits at default settings
Character
Nano Banana 2 Lite is the sketchbook of the line. It is for directions, alternates, and the first honest look at an idea.
Lite keeps the Nano Banana sense of color and scene, and spends less effort on a final surface. That is the point. Use it to see whether a concept has a picture in it: the crop, the joke, the palette, the product in a place.
Text to Image and Image to Image are both available, so a reference can enter at the sketch stage. When a direction holds, carry the prompt to Nano Banana 2 or Pro for the finished image.
Style
How Nano Banana 2 Lite tends to see a picture.
Idea first
The picture explains the concept. Fine texture is secondary.
Open color
Palettes can be tried boldly. A wrong color is useful information at this stage.
Loose finish
Edges and tiny detail may stay soft. Treat that as the sketch, and move up a tier to resolve it.
Same family voice
A prompt that works here sounds like Nano Banana when you continue it on 2 or Pro.
In practice
The work this model is built to carry.
Quick drafts
Several readings of one sentence, side by side.
Social trials
Posts and stories tested before a final frame.
Concept sketches
Whether an idea has a picture at all.
Reference edits
Early changes to a source, before a fidelity pass.
Briefing
Write short prompts and make several. Change one thing between them: time of day, lens, or palette. Lite is for comparison.
Keep a sketch prompt short. 'Soft campaign photo, three color options of the same pose' teaches more than one over-specified masterpiece prompt.
Change one variable
The useful Lite session is a set of siblings, not a single perfect prompt.
Promote the winner
Copy the prompt that worked into Nano Banana 2 or Pro when you need the surface to hold up.
Keep references simple
One source image and one change. Lite is for the decision, not a composite of many notes.
How Nano Banana 2 Lite compares
Not sure it is the right pick? Here is when another model is the better start.
- Nano Banana 2
Choose Nano Banana 2 when a direction holds and you want 0.5K, 1K, 2K, or 4K and a broad aspect set.
- Nano Banana Pro
Choose Nano Banana Pro for the finished, high-fidelity version of the idea.
- Flux.1 [schnell]
Choose Flux.1 [schnell] for text-only composition studies and layout drafts.
Nano Banana 2 Lite FAQ
Nano Banana 2 Lite is the sketchbook of the line. It is for directions, alternates, and the first honest look at an idea: the crop, the palette, the product in a place.
Yes. Image to Image lets a reference enter at the sketch stage. Keep it simple: one source image and one change.
When a direction holds, copy the prompt that worked into Nano Banana 2 or Nano Banana Pro for the finished surface.
Lite spends less effort on a final surface, so edges and tiny detail may stay soft. Treat that as the sketch and move up a tier to resolve it.
The price depends on the resolution, the number of outputs, and whether you use a reference image. At default settings, Nano Banana 2 Lite costs 4 Credits. Create always shows the exact price before you start.
Yes. Images generated while a paid kitchen is in force include commercial use, including through the end of a period you already paid for. That permission stays with those images after the kitchen ends, subject to our Terms. Images generated with starter Credits, or while no paid kitchen is in force, are for personal, non-commercial use. See Pricing.
More in the Nano Banana family
Same family, different jobs. Pick by the work in front of you.
- Nano Banana
The original Nano Banana: playful ideas, made to look intentional.
- Nano Banana Pro
Bold color, finished for publication: faces, fabrics and fine detail hold up close.
- Nano Banana 2.1
Nano Banana color in extreme frames, from 1:8 tall strips to 8:1 banners.
- Nano Banana 2
The main Nano Banana for imaginative scenes, product stories and social frames.
Cook with Nano Banana 2 Lite
Create opens on this model. Write the prompt, set the frame, and keep the image on your private shelf.
Create with this modelNano Banana 2 Lite is a model made by Google. Model names and logos belong to their owners, and image.cooking is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
Cook with something else.
Every model opens in the same workspace, with the same prompt box. Nothing to relearn when you switch.
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