How to Use Nano Banana 2: Every Setting, and What Each Image Costs

Most "how to use Nano Banana 2" writing describes the Gemini app, where image generation sits behind a single button and the settings are hidden from you. This guide is about running the model with the controls exposed — which matters, because two of those controls change what you pay by 50% and one of them changes whether the model can read your instructions at all.

Everything below is the real configuration from the SynthPulse Image studio.

What you are actually picking

Three Nano Banana generations run side by side, and they are not priced the same. Per finished image:

• Nano Banana (original) — 10 credits, 1K only. The drafting model.
• Nano Banana 2 — 20 credits at 1K, 30 at 2K. The default.
• Nano Banana Pro — 45 credits, and the price does not change with resolution.

That last line is worth a second read. Nano Banana 2 charges a 50% premium for 2K; Nano Banana Pro charges one flat rate. So the gap between a 2K Nano Banana 2 image (30) and a Nano Banana Pro image (45) is 15 credits, not the 25 you would guess from the headline prices.

The five settings, in the order they matter

1. Direction. Text-to-image, or image-to-image with references attached. Nano Banana 2 does both, and they cost exactly the same — starting from a frame you already like never costs extra here.

2. Reference images. Up to ten per prompt on both Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana Pro. This is the setting people under-use. Ten slots is enough to hand the model a character sheet, a background plate, a product shot and a style reference in one submission, which covers most of what people open a separate editing tool to do.

3. Resolution. 1K or 2K. 1K is the base tier and what the 20-credit price buys; 2K costs 30. Draft at 1K, upscale the winner by re-running it at 2K.

4. Aspect ratio. 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:3 or 3:4 — no price difference between them. Pick it before you write the prompt, because framing instructions that fight the aspect ratio are the most common reason a composition comes back wrong.

5. Quantity. One, two or four images per submission. Each one is charged at full price, so four 1K images is 80 credits, not a bulk rate. Four at once is still the right call when you are exploring: same prompt, four different rolls, and you pick.

The generate button carries the total for whatever combination you have selected, and the number is computed by the same code that charges you — the quote and the charge cannot drift apart.

The prompt-assist toggle

There is an AI enhance toggle next to the prompt box. It sends your prompt to a chat model that expands it into a fuller description before generation, and it costs 1 credit — the cheapest thing on the platform by an order of magnitude.

Use it when you have a one-line idea and no patience. Skip it when you already know your lighting and your lens, because it will pad a precise prompt into a vaguer one.

A first run, start to finish

1. Open the Image studio and pick Nano Banana 2 from the model list.
2. Choose text-to-image or attach references.
3. Write one paragraph — subject, framing, light, medium, then what you do not want.
4. Set aspect ratio and 1K.
5. Set quantity to 4 if you are exploring, 1 if you are finishing.
6. Read the credit total on the button, then generate.
7. Results appear beside the form as they land, and stay in your Library.

Failed generations are refunded automatically, so a provider-side failure costs you nothing but time.

Two worked examples

Text-to-image, with text in the frame. Nano Banana 2's most useful upgrade over the original is that lettering inside an image comes out readable instead of decorative. The way to get that is to quote the exact words and say where they sit:

A matte navy coffee bag standing on a pale concrete surface, three-quarter view, 50mm, soft window light from the left with one soft shadow. The label reads "MORNING ORDER" in a wide sans-serif, centered, upper third of the bag, with "single origin · ethiopia" in small caps beneath it. Clean studio background, no props, no reflections on the bag, no extra text anywhere in the frame.

Image-to-image, keeping one thing fixed. With references attached, the failure mode flips: the risk is no longer that the model invents the wrong subject, it is that it redraws the subject you gave it. So say what must not change:

Keep the product in the reference image exactly as it is — same label, same shape, same proportions. Replace the background with a sunlit kitchen counter, shallow depth of field, warm morning light from the right. Do not alter the product, its colour, or the text on it.

Is Nano Banana 2 free?

Google lets you try it inside the Gemini app free, with daily limits. On SynthPulse it is not free: an image costs 20 credits at 1K and 30 at 2K. Creating an account costs nothing and needs no card, so you can build a prompt and read the exact price before you decide to buy anything — but there is no free generation credit at the moment, so a plan or a one-time credit pack comes before your first render.

If a free daily allowance is genuinely all you need, use Google's app. What you get here instead is the settings above, ten reference slots, a library, and the same balance spending on video and music.

Is there a Nano Banana 2 API?

Not one we run. Google serves the model through the Gemini API, and SynthPulse reaches it through a hosted endpoint rather than its own hardware. There is no key to provision here, no rate limit to negotiate and no per-request invoice. If what you want is raw programmatic access, Google's own API is the place to start; if what you want is to generate images without any of that, this is the shorter path.

Which Nano Banana for which job

• Drafting twenty variations. Original Nano Banana, 10 credits. Four at a time is 40.
• The default for anything real. Nano Banana 2, 20 credits. Better instruction-following, legible text, ten reference slots.
• A render that has to survive being printed or zoomed into. Nano Banana Pro, 45 credits.
• Text-heavy layouts specifically. Worth also trying GPT Image 2 at 15 credits — it is the other model here that holds typography well.

Before you hit generate

• Are you at 1K? 20 credits a try instead of 30.
• Is the aspect ratio set to match the composition you are describing?
• If you have references attached, did you say what must not change?
• If there is text in the image, is it in quotes with a stated position?
• Exploring? Set quantity to 4. Finishing? Set it to 1.

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More on the model and its full price table: Nano Banana on SynthPulse. Ready-made prompts: Nano Banana 2 prompts. Or just open the Image studio — and if the still is headed for a video, the Video studio draws on the same balance.