Google's latest image model combines the quality of Pro with the speed of Flash—giving marketers and designers a viable alternative to Midjourney and DALL-E.
What It Is
Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) is Google's newest image generation model that brings advanced world knowledge, subject consistency, and precise instruction following to rapid image creation. It supports text rendering in multiple languages, maintains character consistency across up to 5 characters, and handles complex scene compositions with 14+ objects. Available across Gemini app, Google Search, Flow, and via API.
How This Helps Today
Marketing teams can now generate campaign visuals, product mockups, and social assets without switching between tools. The subject consistency feature means you can create character-driven storyboards for video campaigns without expensive illustration work. E-commerce teams can rapidly prototype product photography variations—different backgrounds, lighting, contexts—before committing to a full photoshoot. The text rendering capability finally makes AI viable for marketing materials that need legible copy.
The Context
This closes the gap between speed-focused models (that produce generic results) and quality-focused models (that take forever). Google is aggressively integrating AI generation across its product suite—Search, Ads, Workspace—making it the default option for businesses already in the Google ecosystem. For creative teams, this means less tool-switching and more staying in flow.
What to Watch
Pricing for API usage hasn't fully stabilized—budget carefully if you're scaling. Commercial usage rights are still evolving; check current terms before using for client work. The text rendering, while improved, still has edge cases with complex typography. And as with all AI image tools, brand safety requires human review—don't auto-publish without oversight.