Nano Banana vs. GPT Image: Tests show no clear winner

Which AI image model is best? Several tests have tried to answer that question. They pit Google's Nano Banana 2 against OpenAI's GPT Image 2, which can also be used through an API. An API is a technical access point that lets developers have their own programs ask the model to generate images.

I was unable to open the specific article about building a benchmark, so below are results from other tests of the same two models.

Who scores highest?

On Image Arena, where users vote on images without knowing which model made them, GPT Image 2 sits in first place with 1339 Elo points. Nano Banana 2 has 1255 points and ranks sixth. Elo is a scoring system known from chess.

In a blind test with ten tasks from Vidguru, GPT Image 2 scored 48 out of 50 points versus 40 for Nano Banana 2. But eWeek tested six practical tasks, and there Nano Banana 2 won four of six rounds. The result, in other words, depends on what you test.

Strengths and weaknesses

Decrypt tested seven categories. GPT Image 2 won on realism, classical painting, signatures, text-heavy images and image editing. Nano Banana 2 won on cartoon and anime style, spatial composition and clear layout of information.

GPT Image 2 writes text in images very precisely, according to Decrypt with around 99 percent correct characters across several writing systems. On the other hand, it can produce oversharpened images when the task is complicated. Nano Banana 2 is more consistent and polished, but sometimes overlooks individual requirements in the prompt.

Other comparisons suggest that Nano Banana 2 is strong at natural photos and portraits. It also supports 10 aspect ratios versus four for GPT Image 2.

Pricing

Through the API, GPT Image 2 costs $8 per million input tokens and $30 per million image tokens. Nano Banana 2 costs $60 per million output tokens at comparable resolution. Tokens are the small chunks of text that AI models bill by. In ChatGPT, the price is listed as 1-3 cents per image.

What does it mean for you?

There is no clear winner. If the image needs to contain legible text, such as posters or signs, tests point to GPT Image 2. If it needs to look like a natural photo or have a specific aspect ratio, Nano Banana 2 is a good choice. If you are building something for work, you should test both models on your own tasks.