Nano Banana 2 vs GPT Image 2 by job

Rapid stills, text in the frame, and edits are three jobs. Nano Banana 2 and GPT Image 2 do not share a winner across them. Nano Banana 2 is Google, 4 credits flat (7 full, discounted), text-to-image plus image-to-image plus edit-image, ultra-fast lightweight generation for rapid iteration, up to 14 references. GPT Image 2 Text to Image is OpenAI, text-to-image only, 9 credits at SD/HD (17 full) and 17 at 4K (33 full), 4K listed, high-fidelity with strong prompt adherence. Banana 2's catalog date is 26 February 2026. GPT Image 2 T2I's is 21 April 2026. This page is the job split. It is not GPT Image 2 vs Nano Banana 2. That post is the general stills pick: a picture you would print. Here the test is which meter you are actually on.

Live models.json on 19 September 2026 is the sticker this page uses. Banana 2 is a 4-credit flat call. GPT Image 2 T2I is a resolution-flat call. Do not route a volume hour as if the OpenAI row were still a 4-credit generate.

Rapid stills burn Banana 2, not GPT Image 2

Rapid stills means you will throw most of the files away. Mood frames, crop tests, SKU angles, "is this even a shot." The published Banana 2 line is the product: ultra-fast, lightweight, built for that loop. The meter is one completed call at 4 credits, aspect and quality list included. The card lists 1K, 2K, and 4K under qualities. max_output_resolution is unset. Billing type is flat. There is no 4K cell that jumps the price. You are not buying a 4K listing. You are buying another cheap take.

GPT Image 2 T2I is the other machine. High-fidelity. Prompt adherence. 4K as a real max_output_resolution. The price matrix is SD/HD at 9 discounted and 4K at 17 discounted. That is a generate-once hero, not a sketch pad. Twenty drafts on Banana 2 are 80 credits. Twenty drafts on GPT Image 2 T2I are 180 credits at SD/HD, or 340 at 4K. Same cull. Different week.

Keep rate is the term that actually decides the bill. 100 product images bill as calls is the leftover math: discarded takes still charge. A 50 percent keep on 100 keepers is 200 calls. Banana 2 is 800 credits. GPT Image 2 T2I is 1,800 at SD/HD, or 3,400 at 4K. If the brief is a catalogue set you will crop and kill, Banana 2 is the row. If the brief is one plate you already know you will print at 4K, GPT Image 2 T2I is allowed to be expensive. Name that before you confirm.

Do not "test in 4K" on GPT Image 2 T2I because the card lists 4K. 4K is a different cell, not a badge you tick for luck. Draft on Banana 2. When a file would survive a client Slack, then pay 9 or 17 for a GPT Image 2 T2I generate of that same brief if you still need the OpenAI still. Two slugs. Two jobs. The first hour is Banana 2.

Banana 2 also takes a blank prompt. requires_image is false. You can start from text and stay on the cheap meter. Fourteen references are there when you already have a face, a bottle, a colour chip. Use them as locks, not as a mood board that yanks the still toward a random aesthetic. Rapid is still an instruction: "three-quarter pack on white, 9:16, no extra props." A cinematic rewrite is how a volume hour becomes a restyle hour.

The older Google still, Nano Banana, is 4 credits too, text-to-image only, 4K listed, no edit path. Do not grab it because the name is shorter. Rapid and the option to keep editing is Banana 2. Imagen 4 is shut down. Google's Gemini API page (17 September 2026) says the family is gone. Do not open a leftover Imagen card as a print plate. Imagen 4 is shut down. Use Banana 2 is that cutoff. Leave it off this hour.

Open text to image and confirm nano-banana-2. If the UI is sitting on gpt-image-2-text-to-image because last week's hero used it, change the row. Loyalty is how 17-credit 4K sketches happen.

Text in the frame is GPT Image 2 T2I

Text in the frame means the letters are the test. A SKU name on a pack. A three-word poster. A badge that has to survive a 9:16 crop. The viewer who screenshots the file still gets the line. That is not a caption. That is not Banana 2's ultra-fast pitch.

Among this pair, GPT Image 2 T2I is the lettering generate. It is on the roster in 8 image models that will letter a label you can read. Banana 2 is not. Quote the string: the label reads "COLD PRESS". Describe type like a brief (bold condensed sans, tight tracking, all caps). One text element per clause, with a place in the frame. Proof at 100 percent and read the letters aloud. A cousin spelling is a miss. Regenerate the still. Do not "fix it in the video model."

The 4K listing is the reason you might pay 17 instead of 9. A pack line that must hold on a site hero is a 4K job. A thumbnail that will be re-encoded into a feed is often SD/HD at 9. 4K does not typeset better because it costs more. It gives you more pixels to inspect. Inspect them. If the letters fail at 100 percent, another 17-credit 4K take is cheaper than animating the miss.

Banana 2 will happily draw word-shaped texture. That is not lettering. Iterating a smear at 4 credits is how a label brief spends 40 credits and still cannot be read. Stop after the first unreadable take and change row. Do not spend the edit path "nudging" letters Banana 2 did not generate as letters.

Leave the pair when the still is a poster or a dense lockup. Ideogram V4 is 5 credits, posters and logos, accurate text rendering listed. Ideogram owns words in the frame is that specialist split. Seedream 5.0 Pro is 6 credits, typography, multilingual text, dense layouts. GPT Image 2 T2I is the OpenAI generate in this comparison, not the graphic-design instinct on the roster. If the brief is eight to twelve words that must read as design, Ideogram. If the brief is a bilingual pack or a panelled layout, Seedream. If the brief is a photoreal scene that happens to carry a short quoted line, GPT Image 2 T2I.

Copy that will change next Tuesday does not belong in the pixels. Add a text overlay burns a line you wrote. Legal disclaimers, a CTA, a price, a date: overlay. The bottle face that is the SKU: generate. Mixing those jobs is how a pack shot ships with a cousin brand, or how a hook gets baked into glass you cannot restyle.

GPT Image 1.5 also letters, at 2 credits, with "legible in-image text" on the card, plus edit paths. Aspects on that card are 1:1, 2:3, and 3:2. It does not list 9:16. A story-sized lettered still is not 1.5 unless you will crop and accept the loss. This page is Banana 2 versus GPT Image 2. 1.5 is the cheap OpenAI cousin when the aspect fits and you wanted a loop, not the 2 T2I generate.

Edit is Banana 2 on the published catalog

Edit means you already have a file. The job is a change in language: swap the jacket, keep the face, move the bottle, kill the extra hand. Banana 2 publishes that contract. Categories are text-to-image, image-to-image, and edit-image. Fourteen references. 4 credits a turn. Requires no image on the generate path, and takes one when the path is a change.

GPT Image 2's published Versely card does not. gpt-image-2-text-to-image is text-to-image only. No image required. No max_reference. If the jacket is wrong, you write a new prompt or you leave the slug. Asking T2I to "edit" is a new still that happens to share a sentence. Identity lock is luck. The meter is 9 or 17 per miss.

The catalog also has a GPT Image 2 image-to-image row: 9 credits at SD/HD, 17 at 4K, requires an image, edit-image plus image-to-image, description lists remixing a reference (up to 16 inputs) at up to 4K. That row is not in the published models list. Do not link it as a /models page. Do not plan a week on a slug the studio does not publish. If you need an OpenAI edit on the published roster, that is GPT Image 1.5 at 2 credits (narrow aspects) or GPT Image 1 Edit at 2 credits, requires an image, max 6 references, 9:16 listed. Different version. Different contract. Not "Image 2, but edit."

Banana 2 lists 9:16. That is the practical fork when the deliverable is a story still and the job is a change. 1.5 will not grow a 9:16 listing because you needed one. Generate or crop on a row that names the ratio.

Count the turns. One Banana 2 generate plus four language edits is 20 credits, and the face you signed can stay in the file. Five GPT Image 2 T2I regenerations of the same prompt are 45 credits at SD/HD, or 85 at 4K, and you are hoping the fifth still is the same person. Edit path beats loyalty. It also beats "the arena liked GPT Image 2 at editing" as a reason to hammer the T2I slug. Arena preference is not a category on the published card.

Write edits as specs. "Matte navy jacket, same face, same bottle, same crop." A vibe rewrite ("make it more premium") is how you restyle the talent you already have a release for. Fourteen references are a ceiling, not a starter pack. Two good locks beat nine random stills. Point at objects. Name what must not move.

If you generated the keeper on GPT Image 2 T2I, you can still edit on Banana 2. Download the print. Upload it. Change the one named thing. That is a two-slug workflow, not a failure of 2. Paying 17 for a 4K hero and then 4 for each Banana 2 turn is often the honest week: OpenAI for the plate, Google for the loop. Do not reverse it. Banana 2 first, then 17-credit regenerations of a still you already liked, is how the cheap row gets abandoned the moment the file matters.

Do not pay one slug for three jobs

Name the job before you pick the row.

• Rapid stills, high cull, this hour: Banana 2, 4 credits a call. Confirm nano-banana-2.
• Letters in the pixels, short quoted string, you will proof at 100 percent: GPT Image 2 T2I at 9 or 17. Leave the pair for Ideogram or Seedream when the still is a poster or a dense lockup. Overlay when the line will change.
• A file you already have, one named change, identity must hold: Banana 2. Published GPT Image 2 is not that editor. 1.5 or 1 Edit if you needed the OpenAI edit contract specifically.

A campaign can use all three. A carousel of twenty crops is Banana 2. The one pack hero with "12 OZ" on the sleeve is GPT Image 2 T2I, proofed. The wardrobe swap on the approved face is Banana 2 again. That is not indecision. That is a router. Forcing GPT Image 2 T2I to do the volume hour, or Banana 2 to letter the SKU, is how you spend the other job's meter and still miss.

After the still is a file you would print, motion is a different slug. Image to video takes the plate. Do not animate unlocked type. Do not spend a video row hoping the model will spell the line Banana 2 smeared. Letter first, or overlay later. Captions sit on the clip, not inside GPT Image 2. Add captions to video is that pass.

Neither stills row is video. Durations are empty. Audio is empty. Prompting five seconds of motion on either returns a still of a camera. Lock the frame. Then change family.

If you want both published stills rows on one bill, sign up and run the job you are actually in. Rapid on Banana 2. Letters on GPT Image 2 T2I. Edits back on Banana 2. Keep the print. Animate last.

FAQ

Is GPT Image 2's published Versely card an editor?

No. The published slug is gpt-image-2-text-to-image: text-to-image only, 9 credits at SD/HD, 17 at 4K. A GPT Image 2 image-to-image row exists in the catalog at the same 9 or 17 sticker and is not published as a model page. For a published OpenAI edit, use GPT Image 1.5 at 2 credits or GPT Image 1 Edit at 2 credits. For this pair, the editor is Banana 2 at 4 credits.

Should I draft twenty stills on GPT Image 2 T2I?

Not if they are drafts. Twenty Banana 2 calls are 80 credits. Twenty GPT Image 2 T2I calls are 180 at SD/HD or 340 at 4K. Use GPT Image 2 T2I when the first still has to be the 4K, prompt-adherent plate, especially when a quoted string in the pixels is the test. Use Banana 2 when you expect to cull.

Does Nano Banana 2 letter a SKU I can read?

Treat it as no for this job. Banana 2 is the rapid and edit row. GPT Image 2 T2I is the lettering generate in this pair. Ideogram V4 at 5 credits is the poster specialist. Proof every character at 100 percent before you animate. If the wording will change, overlay it instead of generating it.