Nano Banana
Google's Gemini image generation and editing model, also known as Gemini Flash Image.
HN commenters like it for mocking up home remodels and landscaping,1234 for cleanup and editing tasks such as fingerprint and branding work,567 and for high image quality that responds well to annotations drawn on the image.891011The most common caveat is that it struggles with some spatial prompts and text rendering, where GPT Images 2.0 does better,1213 and it can't produce clean transparent or solid backgrounds.14
Why people recommend it
Home visualization · 3
Used to preview remodels, paint, flooring, pools and landscaping.
“I use nanobanana 2 to test changes in paint and flooring/tiling to great success.”
“I used Nano Banana to make some mockups for a bath room remodel I'm doing and it worked pretty great.”
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“Nano banana was better than any tool I found when I used AI to come up with landscaping visualizations.”
Image cleanup · 3
Handles editing tasks like fingerprint cleanup, PII removal and other image operations.
“nano banana is the first model that is able to do the task (it is astonishingly good at it)”
“Nano Banana 2 [gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview] especially is adept at performing arbitrary operations on images.”
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“than using nano-banana to remove non-compliant features (like pii) from the images”
Image quality · 2
Described as producing the highest-quality images and beating rivals on a hard test prompt.
“Also find Nano Banana/Pro (Gemini Flash Image) to consistently generate the highest quality images”
Visual annotations · 3
Follows edits better when arrows or bounding boxes are drawn on the image.
“I thought Nano Banana did a great job!”
“I made nano-banana accept my bounding boxes. Everything is possible with some good prompting”
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“I actually send an image with a red box around where the requested change is needed. And 8 out of 10 times it works well.”
Marketing images · 3
Used for product listing photos, event posters and cover images.
“using Nano Banana for listing images and whitebox photos”
“I use gemini nano banana model to create event posters for instagram”
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“Powerful generative tools like Midjourney and nano banana have shown us the magic of natural language.”
Storyboards · 2
Used to keep characters and style consistent across storyboard frames for video.
“We use nano banana extensively to build video storyboards”
“I actually send an image with a red box around where the requested change is needed. And 8 out of 10 times it works well.”
Caveats and dissent
Spatial prompts · 1
Repeatedly fails some geometric and grid-based prompts.
“I have a few cases where nano banana fails all the time, even gpt image 2 is failing.”
Text rendering · 1
Rendered Chinese text far worse than GPT Images 2.0 in one test.
“I used NanoBanana and Images 2.0 to generate the same written article in Chinese as IMAGES”
Backgrounds · 1
Cannot reliably generate transparent or solid backgrounds for pixel art.
“it cannot seem to generate transparent backgrounds or even solid ones”
Not authoritative · 2
Output shows how something could look and may need a designer to finish.
“I used it recently to explore a few placements of a pool and glass building on my property.”
“I use nanobanana 2 to test changes in paint and flooring/tiling to great success.”
Inconsistent edits · 2
Targeted edits work about 8 out of 10 times and need careful prompting.
“I actually send an image with a red box around where the requested change is needed. And 8 out of 10 times it works well.”
“I made nano-banana accept my bounding boxes. Everything is possible with some good prompting”
Surpassed by rivals · 1
One commenter found it less impressive after trying Seedance 2.
“Nano Banana was technically impressive the first time, but after Seedance it's not really.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- OpenAI Livestream 3 mentions
- Nano Banana can be prompt engineered for nuanced AI image generation 3 mentions
- Qwen-Image-3.0: Rich Content, Authentic Details, Deep Knowledge 2 mentions
- Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2026) 2 mentions
- AI-Generated Images Discourage Me from Reading Your Blog 1 mention
- Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber 1 mention
Also written as Nano Banana 2, NanoBanana, Nano-Banana. Data: nano-banana.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 25
“I thought Nano Banana did a great job!”
“I used it recently to explore a few placements of a pool and glass building on my property.”
“nano banana is the first model that is able to do the task (it is astonishingly good at it)”
“I use nanobanana 2 to test changes in paint and flooring/tiling to great success.”
“I used Nano Banana to make some mockups for a bath room remodel I'm doing and it worked pretty great.”
“The best solution now is to directly use Nano Banana or other AI image models.”
“Nano Banana 2 [gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview] especially is adept at performing arbitrary operations on images.”
“I used NanoBanana and Images 2.0 to generate the same written article in Chinese as IMAGES”
“I have a few cases where nano banana fails all the time, even gpt image 2 is failing.”
“none of them are nearly as good as Nano Banana.”
“Here's an example of where I demonstrate generating better sprite sheets with NB:”
“Or you can just ask Nano-Banana for sprite sheets and it does a pretty good job!”
“Nano Banana was technically impressive the first time, but after Seedance it's not really.”
“I use gemini nano banana model to create event posters for instagram”
“using Nano Banana for listing images and whitebox photos”
“when I was trying to prompt Nano Banana to generate something”
“From a technical standpoint they’re very solid.”
“Nano banana was better than any tool I found when I used AI to come up with landscaping visualizations.”
“Also find Nano Banana/Pro (Gemini Flash Image) to consistently generate the highest quality images”
“than using nano-banana to remove non-compliant features (like pii) from the images”
“it cannot seem to generate transparent backgrounds or even solid ones”
“Powerful generative tools like Midjourney and nano banana have shown us the magic of natural language.”
“I made nano-banana accept my bounding boxes. Everything is possible with some good prompting”
“I actually send an image with a red box around where the requested change is needed. And 8 out of 10 times it works well.”
“We use nano banana extensively to build video storyboards”