GPT Image 2 vs Nano Banana 2 for Image Generation
GPT Image 2 is the stronger choice for prompt-faithful composition, material and lighting control, object binding, and edits that preserve the source image. Nano Banana 2 is the better pick for multilingual typography, human contact, and cross-ratio outpainting, while structured UI graphics ended in a tie.
Side-by-side facts
| Feature | GPT Image 2 | Nano Banana 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | OpenAI | |
| Availability on Banana Pie | Available now | Available now |
| Credits from | 20 credits | 40 credits |
| Max resolution | 4K | 4K |
| Reference images | Up to 8 | Up to 8 |
Scenario by scenario
Same prompt. Two models. Judge the difference in the published images below.
Product material and lighting
Better here: GPT Image 2LEFT more closely satisfies the material and lighting requirements. Its half fill, restrained reflection, refraction, and upper-left light direction are clearer and more physically coherent.
- Exactly one transparent rectangular perfume bottle is visible, with no text, logo, or extra objects: Tie. Both show one upright rectangular bottle and no visible text, logo, plants, or separate props; the bottle-like shape on the right side of RIGHT is visibly a reflection in the wet surface.
- The bottle is visibly filled halfway with amber liquid: LEFT does better. Its amber liquid reaches a clear, level midpoint in the bottle body, while RIGHT's fill level appears somewhat below the midpoint.
- The glass refraction and the reflection on the wet black stone are physically coherent: LEFT does better. Its glass edges and amber tones refract consistently, and the single reflection extends naturally beneath the bottle. RIGHT shows a detached bottle reflection to the right plus a strong projected amber pattern, making the surface optics less coherent and less subtle.
- Upper-left lighting produces consistent highlights and a plausible contact shadow: LEFT does better. The bright upper-left illumination, glass highlights, and shadow extending to the lower right agree clearly. RIGHT also has upper-left light and a rightward shadow, but the intense amber projection and separate-looking reflection make the lighting less consistent.
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
A premium product photograph of exactly one transparent rectangular perfume bottle, half filled with amber liquid, standing upright on wet black stone. Light comes from the upper left, creating coherent refraction, a contact shadow, and one subtle reflection. No text, logo, plants, or extra objects.
Multilingual typography
Better here: Nano Banana 2RIGHT follows the requested four-line poster layout exactly, while LEFT incorrectly splits the first line into two.
- Exactly four centered text lines and no additional text: RIGHT does better. It shows exactly four centered lines, while LEFT renders "MOONLIGHT MARKET" across two lines as "MOONLIGHT" and "MARKET", producing five visible text lines.
- Exact text and order: RIGHT does better. Its lines read exactly "MOONLIGHT MARKET", "月光市集", "18 OCT", and "RIVER HALL" in the requested order. LEFT has the same wording and order, but the first required line is split into "MOONLIGHT" and "MARKET".
- Required colors: Tie. Both render "月光市集" in red and "MOONLIGHT MARKET", "18 OCT", and "RIVER HALL" in black.
- Legibility, spacing, and alignment: RIGHT does better. All four lines are clearly legible, centered on a consistent axis, and spaced cleanly. LEFT is legible and centered, but the oversized first phrase wraps and makes the overall spacing less even.
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Design a clean cream-colored vertical event poster. Show exactly four centered text lines and no other text: "MOONLIGHT MARKET", "月光市集", "18 OCT", and "RIVER HALL". Render "月光市集" in red and all other lines in black.
Human anatomy and contact
Better here: Nano Banana 2Right has the clearer and more plausible pottery-shaping action overall, despite ambiguity and distortion in its upper hand. Left makes the finger counts somewhat easier to read but has more noticeable fingertip and hand-shape artifacts.
- Exactly two fully visible hands: Tie. Both images visibly contain one potter and exactly two hands, with no additional people or hands; neither hand is cut off by the frame.
- Each hand has exactly five distinct, naturally formed fingers: Left does better. Five digits are more readily countable on both left-side hands, although several fingertips overlap; on the right, the upper hand's finger count is ambiguous because digits are partly merged or occluded, and one lateral finger appears unusually elongated.
- The fingers, joints, and contact with the clay are anatomically plausible: Right does slightly better. Its inner hand and outer supporting hand form a clearer, more credible shaping grip, while the left image has swollen-looking fingers and crowded, partly fused-looking fingertips. The right upper hand still has a visibly awkward lateral finger, so the advantage is limited.
- The clay bowl, spinning wheel, and shaping action are clearly recognizable: Right does better. The bowl and rotating wheel are clear in both, but the right image more distinctly shows one hand shaping inside while the other supports the outer wall.
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
A photorealistic close-up of an adult potter shaping a clay bowl on a spinning wheel. Both hands are fully visible, each with five natural fingers touching the clay. No other people or hands. Soft window light.
Counting and attribute binding
Better here: GPT Image 2LEFT follows the requested composition more completely. Both images handle the counts, attributes, and mug orientation correctly, but RIGHT violates the requirement that no additional objects be visible.
- Criterion 1: Tie. Both images visibly contain exactly three red cubes in a row on the left, exactly two blue spheres on the right, and one yellow mug centered behind the groups.
- Criterion 2: Tie. Both bind red to cubes, blue to transparent glass-like spheres, and yellow to a ceramic-looking mug. The RIGHT cubes show more obvious wood grain, while the LEFT objects still visibly match the requested categories and materials.
- Criterion 3: Tie. The mug handle is clearly attached on and extends toward the right in both images.
- Criterion 4: LEFT does better. LEFT shows only the requested objects and no text, while RIGHT visibly includes a potted plant and other room elements in the background. No text is visible in either image.
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
On a matte gray table, exactly three red wooden cubes form a row on the left, exactly two blue glass spheres sit on the right, and one yellow ceramic mug stands centered behind them. The mug handle points right. No other objects or text.
Advertising composition
Better here: GPT Image 2Left follows the requested composition more closely, primarily through the clearer bottom-left trail origin and more definite empty top area. Both violate the no-other-text requirement by placing "AERO" on the shoe.
- Exactly one silver shoe and orange trail: Left does better. Both show one silver shoe in the lower-right, but Left's orange trail clearly enters from the bottom-left and curves into the scene; Right's trail crosses the lower portion from the right edge before curving toward the left.
- Only visible text: Tie. Both correctly render "RUN LIGHT" and "42 KM", but both also visibly render the prohibited extra text "AERO" on the shoe.
- Top spacing and headline placement: Left does better. Left leaves a clearly uncluttered area substantially taller than the requested top margin, with "RUN LIGHT" directly beneath it in the upper-left. Right also has empty sky above its headline, but the margin is closer to the threshold.
- Element visibility and hierarchy: Tie. Both keep the headline, badge, trail, and single shoe fully visible with a clear headline-to-product hierarchy; neither has a significant crop or overlap that obscures a required element.
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Create a vertical social ad for a fictional running shoe named AERO. Keep the top 15 percent empty. Directly below it, place the headline "RUN LIGHT" in the upper-left. Show exactly one silver shoe in the lower-right, an orange trail curving from the bottom-left, and a round badge reading "42 KM". No other shoes or text.
Structured UI graphic
Depends on the taskBoth images satisfy all four rubric criteria. Their stylistic differences do not produce a meaningful rubric-based advantage.
- Title and columns: Tie. Both render the exact title "CHOOSE YOUR PLAN" and exactly three columns labeled "STARTER", "PRO", and "TEAM".
- Rows: Tie. Every column in both images contains exactly three aligned rows labeled "PROJECTS", "STORAGE", and "SUPPORT".
- Buttons: Tie. Each column in both images has exactly one blue button labeled "SELECT".
- Alignment and additional content: Tie. Both show three evenly arranged columns and no additional rendered text. LEFT includes row icons, while RIGHT uses divider lines, but neither conflicts with this criterion.
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Create a clean horizontal pricing comparison graphic titled "CHOOSE YOUR PLAN". Use exactly three equal columns labeled "STARTER", "PRO", and "TEAM". Under each column, show exactly three aligned rows labeled "PROJECTS", "STORAGE", and "SUPPORT", followed by one blue button labeled "SELECT". White background, dark navy text, no additional columns or text.
Six-reference object binding and edit
Better here: GPT Image 2Left follows the multi-reference edit more faithfully overall, especially in preserving the base scene and the original positions of the four replaced objects. Right reproduces the lemon pair more accurately, but its broader spatial changes are more significant.
- Mug and towel replacement: Left does better. Both show the navy mug with its gold rim and the green-and-white striped napkin, but Left preserves the original mug footprint, handle orientation, and towel placement more closely; Right makes the mug smaller and substantially changes the napkin's angle and folded shape.
- Pear and notebook replacement: Left does better. Both remove the original pear and blue notebook and show exactly one orange plus the mustard-yellow hardcover notebook with a black elastic band, but Left places both replacements closer to their corresponding positions and orientations in the base scene.
- Two lemons: Right does better. Both place exactly two lemons to the right of the mug with no additional objects, but Right more closely preserves the reference pair's touching arrangement and includes the leaf attached to the left lemon; Left omits the leaf and spreads the pair farther apart.
- Base-scene preservation: Left does better. Its camera placement, framing, tabletop grain, object spacing, and overall shadows remain notably closer to Reference 1, while Right shifts and rescales several objects and changes more of the original composition.
Reference images
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Use Reference 1 as the base tabletop scene. Replace the red mug with the exact dark navy-blue mug from Reference 2 in the same position and orientation. Replace the folded white towel with the exact green-and-white striped napkin from Reference 3 in the same folded area. Replace the green pear with exactly one orange from Reference 4 in the same position. Replace the blue notebook with the exact mustard-yellow hardcover notebook from Reference 5 in the same position. Add exactly the two lemons from Reference 6 to the right of the mug. Preserve the wooden table, camera, framing, wood grain, lighting, shadows, and all other spatial relationships from Reference 1. Do not copy the white product backgrounds from References 2–6, duplicate any asset, or add other objects.
In-image text replacement
Better here: GPT Image 2Both outputs achieve a clean and exact text replacement, but the left output follows the edit-only instruction much more faithfully by preserving the original image outside the lettering.
- Exact text replacement: Both sides render exactly "NIGHT OWL", with "MORNING BEAN" completely removed.
- No malformed characters: Both sides show clean, correctly formed letters with no extra, duplicated, or malformed characters.
- Font, spacing, and perspective: Left is closer to the reference, preserving the tall uppercase sans-serif character, broad tracking, letter scale, and original sign perspective. Right is also convincing, but its lettering is somewhat smaller and more tightly grouped within a substantially altered viewpoint.
- Material, lighting, and scene preservation: Left clearly does better. It retains the reference framing, storefront geometry, sign texture, lamp positions, shadows, plants, windows, door, and bench almost exactly. Right changes the crop and viewpoint and visibly reconstructs many surrounding details, including the facade proportions, windows, planter, bench, lamps, and foliage.
Reference images
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Replace only the sign text with exactly "NIGHT OWL". Preserve the original font style, spacing, perspective, sign material, lighting, and everything else.
Multi-reference identity and garment transfer
Better here: GPT Image 2Left is the stronger transfer overall: it preserves the person and original composition more faithfully while matching the clean, light-wash reference jacket more closely.
- Identity, expression, hair, pose, body proportions, and framing: Left does better. Its face, expression, hair placement, hand pose, shoulder width, and crop closely match Reference 1, while Right noticeably changes the facial structure, expression, hair arrangement, body proportions, and framing.
- Jacket material, color, collar, buttons, pockets, and sleeve patch: Left does better. It more closely reproduces Reference 2's pale blue clean denim, thick cream sherpa collar, chest-pocket geometry, bronze hardware, seam layout, and red upper-sleeve patch. Right introduces darker denim and distressed white marks absent from the reference, and its patch is less fully visible.
- Full replacement without mannequin or product background: The two are even. Both fully remove the black suit jacket and depict the denim jacket in the original indoor scene without carrying over the ghost mannequin or white product background.
- Hands, garment fit, occlusion, shadows, and lighting: Left does better. It retains the original hands and their overlap more faithfully, while the sleeves, cuffs, folds, and left-side illumination integrate coherently with the scene. Right is also plausible, but changes the hands and pose more visibly and has a flatter, looser-looking jacket fit.
Reference images
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Use the portrait in Reference 1 for the person and the isolated jacket in Reference 2 for the garment. Dress the person from Reference 1 in the exact jacket shown in Reference 2. Preserve the person's identity, face, expression, skin, hair, hands, pose, body proportions, background, framing, and lighting from Reference 1. Preserve the jacket's material, color, collar, buttons, pockets, and sleeve patch from Reference 2. Do not copy the ghost mannequin or white product background.
Coherent scene relighting
Better here: GPT Image 2Left provides convincing golden-hour relighting while preserving the original room far more faithfully. Right has stronger directional shadows, but its extensive composition and object changes violate the core editing constraint.
- Warm golden-hour light clearly enters from the left window: Left does better; the low sun is visibly glowing through the left window and produces a clear warm beam across the room, while Right is also warm but the source is less visually direct.
- Highlights and shadow directions respond coherently to the new light source: Right does slightly better; the table, sofa, plant, and lamp cast strong, consistently rightward shadows from the left-side light, with especially clear directional shadows across the rug and wall. Left is coherent but some shadows are softer and less consistently defined.
- The result is more than a uniform yellow color filter: Right does better; localized bright patches, strong cast shadows, and alternating light and shade across the sofa, rug, floor, and wall create pronounced spatial relighting. Left also adds localized illumination and shadows rather than only shifting color.
- No furniture or decor is moved, added, removed, or redesigned: Left does substantially better; it closely preserves the reference composition, object positions, proportions, and designs. Right changes the framing and noticeably relocates or resizes the window, plant, sofa, lamp, table, and rug, while also altering details such as the table structure and sofa proportions.
Reference images
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Change the lighting to warm golden-hour sunlight entering from the left window. Do not move, add, remove, or redesign any object. Update highlights and shadows coherently.
Cross-ratio outpainting
Better here: Nano Banana 2Right preserves the reference composition substantially more faithfully while producing an equally natural, seamless landscape expansion.
- 16:9 with natural new content on both sides: Both outputs present convincing landscape expansions with continuous sky, ocean, and beach on the left and right; they are even on this criterion.
- Complete original image remains centered without cropping or stretching: Right does better. Its horizon, shoreline, cabin position, and cabin scale retain the reference's vertical proportions almost exactly, while Left makes the cabin smaller and shifts the horizon and shoreline slightly downward.
- Original cabin, shoreline, and internal composition remain unchanged: Right does better. The cabin's width, roofline, door placement, supports, shoreline, and horizon align much more closely with the reference. Left alters the cabin proportions and several structural details more noticeably.
- No visible seams, mirrored filler, or repeated objects: Both are seamless and show no conspicuous mirroring or repeated objects. Right is slightly cleaner because its side extensions continue the open coastline without Left's newly introduced distant landform at the far-right horizon.
Reference images
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Expand the canvas to a 16:9 landscape by naturally continuing the beach, ocean, and sky on both sides. Keep the complete original image centered without cropping, stretching, letterboxing, or modifying it.
Product preservation across scene change
Better here: GPT Image 2Left is the stronger preservation edit. Right integrates the sneaker into the wet dusk court slightly more naturally, but Left retains the reference sneaker's geometry, construction details, viewing angle, and distinctive side mark substantially more faithfully.
- Wet basketball court at dusk: Right does slightly better. Both show a wet outdoor court with a hoop, fencing, dusk sky, and reflective pavement, but Right's court markings and warm-to-cool evening lighting make the setting more immediately readable and cohesive.
- Sneaker consistency: Left does better. Its silhouette, padded collar, tongue height, panel construction, stitching paths, textured toe bumper, sole thickness, and three-quarter camera angle remain notably closer to the reference. Right shifts toward a flatter side view and changes several proportions, especially around the collar, toe, and sole.
- Black geometric side mark: Left does better. Its mark retains the reference's short rear horizontal segment, rising diagonal, upper branch, and descending front branch with closer placement and proportions. Right's upper branch is shorter and the overall symbol is more compressed and rotated.
- Physical coherence: Right does slightly better. The shoe sits firmly against the pavement, its inverted reflection aligns naturally beneath it, and the sunset colors carry consistently across the wet surface. Left also has strong contact and reflections, but its foreground reflection is unusually large and visually distorted relative to the shoe.
Reference images
Prompt & settings used
Prompt
Place the sneaker on a wet outdoor basketball court at dusk. Preserve the exact sneaker shape, black geometric side mark, materials, stitching, sole geometry, and camera angle. Add physically coherent contact, reflections, and dusk lighting.
Cost & latency
GPT Image 2 starts at 20 credits, while Nano Banana 2 starts at 40 credits, so GPT Image 2 is the lower-credit option per generation. In this run's small latency sample, GPT Image 2 ranged from 81370 ms to 189546 ms, while Nano Banana 2 ranged from 57125 ms to 122746 ms; these observations are specific to this run, not benchmark figures.
How we compared & disclosure
We used one fixed prompt per scenario with each model and published the selected outputs. Public images carry a Banana Pie watermark. Banana Pie sells paid access to both GPT Image 2 and Nano Banana 2.
Banana Pie sells paid access to this model alongside other models in one studio. Our verdicts come from tests run through the same pipeline our users get.