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AI image model comparison

Seedream 5.5 vs Nano Banana 2.1

Seedream 5.5 is ByteDance's newest image model, released on November 9, 2026, and Arena has not ranked it yet. In ByteDance's own tests, published with the launch, it leads Nano Banana 2.1 and GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst on text structure and shows a clear advantage in text-to-image realism. Nano Banana 2.1 ranks seventh on Arena's text-to-image board, renders up to 4K, and can ground images in Google Search, while Seedream 5.5 costs less on Mage and runs unlimited from the Pro plan, against the Pro Plus plan for Nano Banana 2.1.

Try Seedream 5.5Try Nano Banana 2.1

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 and image-edit boards of November 7, 2026. "Not ranked" means the board does not list the version Mage runs.

Seedream 5.5Nano Banana 2.1
Made byByteDance SourceGoogle Source
ReleasedNovember 9, 2026 SourceOctober 6, 2026 Source
Price on Mage, from24 Gems ($0.024) per image51 Gems ($0.051) per image
Unlimited on Mage fromProPro Plus
Top resolution on Mage2K4K
Aspect ratios on Mage21:9, 16:9, 3:2, 5:4, 1:1, 4:5, 2:3, 9:16, 9:211:1, 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 to1014
Search groundingNone documented SourceYes, Google Web and Image Search Source
Arena text-to-imageNot ranked Source#7 of 84 (preliminary) Source
Arena text renderingNot ranked Source#7 of 84 (preliminary) Source
Arena image editNot ranked Source#9 of 63 (preliminary) Source
WatermarkNone stated SourceSynthID on every image Source

Last checked November 2026

Which should you use?

Choose Seedream 5.5 for

  • Photographic realism: skin, light, and materials closer to a real photo
  • Dense small text, such as captions, labels, and infographics
  • Long editing sessions that keep everything you did not ask to change
  • Unlimited images from the Pro plan

Choose Nano Banana 2.1 for

  • A model with independent rankings: it is on every Arena board we checked
  • 4K images, or panoramas and banners up to 8:1
  • Up to 14 reference images, and pictures grounded in Google Search

Image quality

Arena's text-to-image, text-rendering, and image-edit boards of November 7, 2026, do not list Seedream 5.5 yet, so there are no blind votes to set against Nano Banana 2.1's. There, Nano Banana 2.1 ranks seventh of 84 for text-to-image and ninth of 63 for image editing, on scores still marked preliminary.

ByteDance released Seedream 5.5 on November 9, 2026 and tuned it for realism: skin, light, and materials closer to a real photograph, with less of the excess gloss and overexposure image models often add. In ByteDance's own side-by-side tests, Seedream 5.5 shows a clear advantage over Nano Banana 2.1 and GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst in text-to-image realism. Those are the maker's tests, not independent votes. Google built Nano Banana 2.1 as a high-efficiency workhorse at Flash speed and cost.

Text in images

ByteDance reports that Seedream 5.5 leads Nano Banana 2.1 and GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst on text structure, in new images and in edits, and that it sets dense small text and complex characters more accurately than earlier Seedream models. On Mage it also letters in languages beyond English and Chinese, such as Spanish, Japanese, and Russian. Arena's text-rendering board puts Nano Banana 2.1 seventh, and Google notes that small text can blur at 1K on Nano Banana 2.1, so render text-heavy images at 2K or higher.

Edits and reference images

ByteDance built Seedream 5.5 for long editing sessions: it keeps the parts of an image you did not ask to change at the pixel level, so colors do not drift and detail does not wear away from one round to the next, and its launch demo runs one portrait through 100 successive edits. On Mage it takes up to 10 input images and follows points and boxes placed on an image.

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.

Resolution and shape

Nano Banana 2.1 renders up to 4K on Mage in 12 aspect ratios, including 4:1 and 8:1 panoramas. Seedream 5.5 renders up to 2K in 9 ratios, from 9:21 to 21:9.

Price on Mage

Seedream 5.5 starts at 24 Gems (about $0.024) per image on Mage and runs unlimited from the Pro plan. Nano Banana 2.1 starts at 51 Gems (about $0.051) per image on Mage and runs unlimited from the Pro Plus plan.

On Seedream 5.5, each input image you attach adds to the price.

A little more clarity

Questions

Is Seedream 5.5 better than Nano Banana 2.1?
There is no independent vote yet: Arena has not ranked Seedream 5.5. ByteDance's own tests put Seedream 5.5 ahead of Nano Banana 2.1 on text structure and on realism in new images. Nano Banana 2.1 ranks seventh on Arena's text-to-image board and is the pick for 4K images, panoramas, and pictures grounded in Google Search. Run the same prompt on both on Mage and keep the better image.
Is Seedream 5.5 on Arena?
Not yet. Arena's text-to-image, text-rendering, and image-edit boards of November 7, 2026, do not list Seedream 5.5, which ByteDance released on November 9, 2026. Nano Banana 2.1 is on each of them.
Which costs less on Mage?
Seedream 5.5 starts at 24 Gems (about $0.024) per image on Mage and runs unlimited from the Pro plan. Nano Banana 2.1 starts at 51 Gems (about $0.051) per image on Mage and runs unlimited from the Pro Plus plan.
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 Seedream 5.5 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 Seedream 5.5