AI image model comparison

Flux 2 vs Nano Banana 2.1

Nano Banana 2.1 makes the stronger images on public leaderboards: Arena ranks it ahead of Flux 2 for text-to-image, text rendering, and image editing. Flux 2 is the open-weights pick, made by Black Forest Labs: it costs fewer Gems per image on Mage and runs unlimited from the Basic plan, against the Pro Plus plan for Nano Banana 2.1.

Try Flux 2 Try Nano Banana 2.1

Flux 2Editorial product still life
Nano Banana 2.1A white dragon perched on a city tower at dusk, in a telephoto news-photo style

Side by side

Prices, plans, resolutions, ratios, and reference limits are Mage's own, for the model compared. Makers, release dates, search grounding, and watermarks are what each maker publishes. Arena ranks come from its text-to-image and text-rendering boards of October 26, 2026 and its image-edit board of October 23, 2026. Arena ranks each open-weights model as Arena runs it, not as Mage hosts it.

	Flux 2	Nano Banana 2.1
Made by	Black Forest Labs Source	Google Source
Where it runs	Open weights, hosted on Mage's GPUs	Run by Google, reached through Mage
Released	November 25, 2025 Source	October 6, 2026 Source
Price on Mage, from	40 Gems ($0.04) per image	51 Gems ($0.051) per image
Unlimited on Mage from	Basic	Pro Plus
Top resolution on Mage	2K	4K
Aspect ratios on Mage	21:9, 16:9, 3:2, 5:4, 1:1, 4:5, 2:3, 9:16, 9:21	1:1, 3:2, 2:3, 3:4, 4:1, 4:3, 4:5, 5:4, 8:1, 9:16, 16:9, 21:9
Reference images on Mage, up to	3	14
Search grounding	None documented Source	Yes, Google Web and Image Search Source
Arena text-to-image	#38 of 82 Source	#5 of 82 (preliminary) Source
Arena text rendering	#31 of 82 Source	#5 of 82 (preliminary) Source
Arena image edit	#45 of 61 Source	#7 of 61 (preliminary) Source
Watermark	A sample pixel-layer watermark in its reference code Source	SynthID on every image Source

Last checked October 2026

Which should you use?

Choose Flux 2 for

Open-weights images from Black Forest Labs, with nothing to install
Long prompts with many conditions that all have to show
Unlimited images from the Basic plan

Choose Nano Banana 2.1 for

The higher-ranked images, text, and edits of the two on Arena
4K images, or panoramas and banners up to 8:1
Up to 14 reference images, and pictures grounded in Google Search

Image quality

In Arena's blind votes, where people pick the better of two images without seeing which model made them, Nano Banana 2.1 ranks fifth of 82 for text-to-image and seventh of 61 for image editing, on scores still marked preliminary. Flux 2 Dev, the version of Flux 2 that Mage runs, ranks 38th and 45th.

Google built Nano Banana 2.1 as a high-efficiency workhorse at Flash speed and cost. Black Forest Labs released Flux 2 on November 25, 2025, with Flux 2 Dev as an open-weights model of the family.

Text in images

Arena's text-rendering board puts Nano Banana 2.1 fifth and Flux 2 Dev 31st. Black Forest Labs says the Flux 2 family handles complex typography, infographics, and UI mockups with legible fine text. Google notes that small text can blur at 1K on Nano Banana 2.1, so render text-heavy images at 2K or higher.

Reference images

Nano Banana 2.1 takes up to 14 reference images on Mage, which Google splits into objects held at high fidelity and characters kept consistent. Flux 2 takes up to 3, enough to edit one image or combine a few.

Resolution and shape

Nano Banana 2.1 renders up to 4K on Mage in 12 aspect ratios, including 4:1 and 8:1 panoramas. Flux 2 renders up to 2K in 9 ratios, from 9:21 to 21:9.

Price on Mage

Flux 2 starts at 40 Gems (about $0.04) per image on Mage and runs unlimited from the Basic plan. Nano Banana 2.1 starts at 51 Gems (about $0.051) per image on Mage and runs unlimited from the Pro Plus plan.

A little more clarity

Questions

Is Nano Banana 2.1 better than Flux 2?

On Arena's leaderboards, yes: Nano Banana 2.1 ranks ahead of Flux 2 Dev for text-to-image, text rendering, and image editing. Flux 2 is the better pick for open-weights output, long prompts with many conditions, and unlimited images on the Basic plan.

Which one is open weights?

Flux 2. Black Forest Labs publishes the Flux 2 Dev weights on Hugging Face, and Mage runs them on its own GPUs, so there is nothing to install or rent. Nano Banana 2.1 is closed: it runs on Google's servers, reached through Mage.

Which costs less on Mage?

Can I use both on Mage?

Yes. Both run in the same prompt box on Mage, on the same Gems and plans, and through the Mage API and the Mage MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT, so you can try a prompt on each and keep the better image.

Try Flux 2 and Nano Banana 2.1 on one prompt

Run the same prompt on both in Mage's prompt box and keep the better image. New accounts get 300 free Gems.

Try Flux 2