Command A vs Nano Banana 2.1
Nano Banana 2.1 costs 1.3x less per output token than Command A ($7.50 vs $10.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $10.00
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $7.50
Command A or Nano Banana 2.1: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Command A for a larger context window (256K against 66K tokens).
No benchmark has tested both yet. Command A has results on AA Coding Index, LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) and SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI); Nano Banana 2.1 on Design Arena: images, Design Arena: graphic design and Design Arena: logos. Compare them on price and context instead.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Command A has a AA Intelligence Index result, 13.1.
Directional only
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Command A has a AA Agentic Index result, 1.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Command A has a GPQA Diamond result, 48.5%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Command A has a AIME result, 13.3%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Command A has a MMLU Pro result, 69.2%.
Directional only
Image generation
Design Arena: images
No call
Only Nano Banana 2.1 has a Design Arena: images result, 1290.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Command A
Command A takes 256K tokens against 66K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nano Banana 2.1
Command A $0.0075, Nano Banana 2.1 $0.0053 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Command A has the number, $2.69.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Command A not benchmarked, Nano Banana 2.1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- None yet: no category has been tested on both models.
- Widest single gap
- None yet: no benchmark has tested both models.
- Output price
- Command A $10.00 against Nano Banana 2.1 $7.50 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
- Context window
- Command A takes 256K tokens, Nano Banana 2.1 66K.
Benchmark by benchmark
Every board either model has a result on, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale. Only one model is measured on each, so no row names a leader.
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index9 boards measured
| Benchmark | Command A | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 27.8 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 35.1% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 7.8% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 17.6% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 28.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| SciCode | 38.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1330 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1336 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board measured
| Benchmark | Command A | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 13.1 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards measured
| Benchmark | Command A | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.0 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 9.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 80.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | 46.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 37 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards measured
| Benchmark | Command A | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 48.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 76.1% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 12.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1326 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1296 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1335 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 28.8% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards measured
| Benchmark | Command A | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 13.3% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 76.2% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 85.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| AA Math Index | 13.0 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 13.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1300 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1312 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards measured
| Benchmark | Command A | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 69.2% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 79.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 64.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 46.0% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 61.4% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 80.5% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 19.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 71.2% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1339 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1334 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1348 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1315 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22 boards measured
| Benchmark | Command A | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 55.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| IFBench | 73.9% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 52.7% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| DTBench | 61.3% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMCA | 10.3% | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text | 1331 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1309 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1319 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1344 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1313 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1327 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1342 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1285 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1285 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1351 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1347 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1314 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1324 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1338 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1334 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1328 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1306 | Not measured | Only Command A measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
Image generationDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards measured
| Benchmark | Command A | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: images | Not measured | 1290 | Only Nano Banana 2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: graphic design | Not measured | 1333 | Only Nano Banana 2.1 measured |
| Design Arena: logos | Not measured | 1277 | Only Nano Banana 2.1 measured |
| LMArena Text to Image | Not measured | 1328 | Only Nano Banana 2.1 measured |
| LMArena Image Edit | Not measured | 1426 | Only Nano Banana 2.1 measured |
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nano Banana 2.1 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Nano Banana 2.1 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Nano Banana 2.1 costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Cohere Command A | Google Nano Banana 2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Cohere | |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | March 13, 2025 | October 6, 2026 |
| Context window | 256K | 66K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.50 | $1.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $7.50 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $2.69 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Command A better than Nano Banana 2.1 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Command A for a larger context window (256K against 66K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Command A or Nano Banana 2.1?
Command A costs $2.50 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Nano Banana 2.1 costs $1.50 and $7.50. Cost per solved task is known for Command A only.
Which has the bigger context window, Command A or Nano Banana 2.1?
Command A, with 256K tokens against 66K.
Has any benchmark tested both Command A and Nano Banana 2.1?
No benchmark has tested both yet. Command A has results on AA Coding Index, LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) and SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI); Nano Banana 2.1 on Design Arena: images, Design Arena: graphic design and Design Arena: logos. Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 21, 2026.