Nano Banana
The most recommended of 22 image generation models
Recommended for precise image edits that keep the rest of the scene intact and for legible in-image text, though it still slips on counts, complex scenes, and consistency.
Recommended for precise image edits that keep the rest of the scene intact and for legible in-image text, though it still slips on counts, complex scenes, and consistency.
424 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 265
- criticize it
- 159
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 6 months
Median of the 5 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 265 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Precise edits preserve the scene
“I'm deeply impressed, especially with the "replace window by mirror". It did not only do the window thing right, it also changed the illumination of the whole room while keeping all the other details unchanged.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Nano Banana 2: Google's latest AI image generation model” “for good edit models (such as Nano Banana Pro) you can annotate the image, and it'll only edit one part, keeping the rest almost entirely consistent”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC” “Being able to try out multiple paint colors in seconds, or add real furniture or wall decor from Ikea, or move objects around instantly”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Nano Banana 2: Google's latest AI image generation model” - Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “AI-Generated Images Discourage Me from Reading Your Blog”
- Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana can be prompt engineered for nuanced AI image generation”
- Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “It’s been a very hard year”
- Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Nano Banana 2: Google's latest AI image generation model”
Accurate, legible text rendering
“Solves major AI image generation problems: accurate in-image text rendering, character consistency across generations, and fast iteration”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Nano Banana 2 – Google's Free 4K AI Image Generator” “I figured that if you write the text in Google docs and share the screenshot with banana it will not make any spelling mistake.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana can be prompt engineered for nuanced AI image generation” “something about how nano banana pro handles text and tons of detail so coherently really sparks a childlike sense of delight”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro” - Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “I built a proper UI for e-com product image generation (chat doesn't scale)”
- Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro”
- Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “OpenAI are quietly adopting skills, now available in ChatGPT and Codex CLI”
Replaces designers for real work
“Nano Banana has been the only model I’ve really loved. As a small businesses who makes products, it’s been a game changer on the marketing side.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro” “I'm sitting here with Nano Banana Pro creating infographics, and it's doing as good of a job as my human designer”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “OpenAI are quietly adopting skills, now available in ChatGPT and Codex CLI” “These turned out great, and she decided to ditch the designer and use the designs created by nano banana.”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Nano Banana 2: Google's latest AI image generation model” - Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Simpler than Photoshop but for free AI Landscaping”
Consistent characters across images
“Solves major AI image generation problems: accurate in-image text rendering, character consistency across generations, and fast iteration”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Nano Banana 2 – Google's Free 4K AI Image Generator” “Nano Banana makes it easy to create character and location consistent shots that adhere to film language and the rules of storytelling.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Agent design is still hard” “The new model is dramatically better - I'm asking for an image in comic book style, prompted with some images of him.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Fails on counts and complex scenes
“I was surprised to see NBP able to do that (however, it seems to only work with fewer pieces, after a certain amount it makes mistakes or even generates a completely wrong image)”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “GPT Image 1.5” “Much better than previous attempts. Still has an extra lane with the cars on the right cutting off the cars in the middle.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro” “one of my goto bench marks is a "historical piano" - meaning the naturals are black and the sharps/flats are white”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro” - Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “We Built a Video Rendering Engine by Lying to the Browser About What Time It Is”
- Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “AI World Clocks”
Inconsistent quality and identity drift
“No, that simply is not true. If you actually compare the before and after you can see it still regenerates all the details on the "unchanged" aspects.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana can be prompt engineered for nuanced AI image generation” “Image quality seems to vary wildly; the first image I tried looked really good but then I tried to refresh a few times and it kept getting worse.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro” “at least in terms of maintaining consistency between input and output for Asian faces, it has even regressed”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro” - Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana can be prompt engineered for nuanced AI image generation”
Overly polished, glowing style
“Googles Nano Banana generation is particularly susceptible to generating that cozy glow kind of style than many gravitate to”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “People prefer A.I. art because people prefer bad art (2024)” “I can't seem to prompt NB to get similar results”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Nano Banana 2: Google's latest AI image generation model” Confusing access and paywalls
“When you select the "Create images" tool, it doesn't tell you it's using Nano Banana Pro until it actually starts generating the image.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Nano Banana Pro” “I can generate a Banana 2 image in gemini interface but on aistudio it says I need to pay for an upgrade (which I can't).”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Nano Banana 2 Lite”
Other image generation models people recommend
The four most recommended other image generation models, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano BananaThis page | 265 | 159 | 63% | 12 | 6 mo5 owners | — |
| gpt-image-1 | 79 | 79 | 50% | 12 | — | — |
| FLUX.2 | 66 | 51 | 56% | 10 | — | — |
| gpt-image-2 | 63 | 26 | 71% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Qwen-Image | 47 | 38 | 55% | 10 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 596 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Googles Nano Banana generation is particularly susceptible to generating that cozy glow kind of style than many gravitate to”
“It seems like the model does a better job of instruction compliance when you annotate on the image itself rather than provide text.”
“I can generate a Banana 2 image in gemini interface but on aistudio it says I need to pay for an upgrade (which I can't).”
“Don't sleep on NB2/NB Pro either, they're surprisingly decent at taking a few screenshots and incorporating them into a showcase image.”
“Google has better AI models (Gemini, Nanobanana) and they've integrated them successfully into way more products than Meta has.”
“the rim can not change number of spokes or the like (that's what latest gen models like Nano Banana v2 still do)”
“Solves major AI image generation problems: accurate in-image text rendering, character consistency across generations, and fast iteration”
“These turned out great, and she decided to ditch the designer and use the designs created by nano banana.”
“many of the latest AI image models (NB and NB2 included), they feel almost too polished, calculated, and rigid”
“I can't seem to prompt NB to get similar results”
“the multimodal model actually altered the overall lighting in the room by eliminating all the reflections”
“I'm deeply impressed, especially with the "replace window by mirror". It did not only do the window thing right, it also changed the illumination of the whole room while keeping all the other details unchanged.”
“Being able to try out multiple paint colors in seconds, or add real furniture or wall decor from Ikea, or move objects around instantly”
“for good edit models (such as Nano Banana Pro) you can annotate the image, and it'll only edit one part, keeping the rest almost entirely consistent”
“Gemini 3 pro image handles product geometry and details (such as text rendering) significantly better than other models”
“Transform your creative visions into stunning AI-generated artwork with identity-consistent edits, multi-image blending, and precise control.”
“Nano banana was better than any tool I found when I used AI to come up with landscaping visualizations.”
“easy-to-use AI image generator designed for creators, designers, and anyone who wants to turn ideas into visuals instantly”
“I was surprised to see NBP able to do that (however, it seems to only work with fewer pieces, after a certain amount it makes mistakes or even generates a completely wrong image)”
“NB Pro successfully assembled a jigsaw puzzle it had never seen before, generated semi-accurate 3D topographical extrapolations”
“I'm sitting here with Nano Banana Pro creating infographics, and it's doing as good of a job as my human designer”
“Image editing is now working so well, last week i used nano banana instead of doing anything in photoshop.”
“Now we have nano Bananan Pro and Gemini 3.”
“something about how nano banana pro handles text and tons of detail so coherently really sparks a childlike sense of delight”
“Nano Banana makes it easy to create character and location consistent shots that adhere to film language and the rules of storytelling.”
“if you ask it to generate eight or 10 frames of a sprite performing a particular action from scratch it gets it pretty spot on”
“When you select the "Create images" tool, it doesn't tell you it's using Nano Banana Pro until it actually starts generating the image.”
“at least in terms of maintaining consistency between input and output for Asian faces, it has even regressed”
“The new model is dramatically better - I'm asking for an image in comic book style, prompted with some images of him.”
“one of my goto bench marks is a "historical piano" - meaning the naturals are black and the sharps/flats are white”
“Even so, this is a real advancement. It's impressive to see existing techniques combined to meaningfully improve on SOTA image generation.”
“Nano Banana Pro is the best model for creating images with correctly rendered and legible text directly in the image”
“Nano Banana has been the only model I’ve really loved. As a small businesses who makes products, it’s been a game changer on the marketing side.”
“Image quality seems to vary wildly; the first image I tried looked really good but then I tried to refresh a few times and it kept getting worse.”
“Much better than previous attempts. Still has an extra lane with the cars on the right cutting off the cars in the middle.”
“try asking Nano Banana to do something simpler, like "draw a picture of 13 circles." It likely will not work.”
“Once errors occur you've basically introduced a poison pill which will continuously make things to haywire”
“Nano Banana is different and much better at edits without changing texture/lighting/sharpness/color balance”
“I figured that if you write the text in Google docs and share the screenshot with banana it will not make any spelling mistake.”
“No, that simply is not true. If you actually compare the before and after you can see it still regenerates all the details on the "unchanged" aspects.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.