Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) vs Inkling
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) costs 2.7x less per output token than Inkling ($1.50 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $1.50
- Coding
- 31.5
- Overall
- 46.5
- Output $/M
- $4.05
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) or Inkling: which to pick
Only Inkling has a coding score, 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) for output tokens 2.7x cheaper ($1.50 vs $4.05 per million).
No benchmark has tested both yet. Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) has results on Design Arena: images, Design Arena: graphic design and Design Arena: logos; Inkling on LiveBench coding, LMArena WebDev and AA Coding Index. 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
Only Inkling has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Inkling has a AA Intelligence Index result, 25.0.
Directional only
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Inkling has a AA Agentic Index result, 22.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Inkling has a GPQA Diamond result, 87.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Inkling has a MMLU Pro result, 86.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Inkling has a Design Arena: websites result, 1224.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling has a Vals Index result, 29.0%.
Directional only
Image generation
Design Arena: images
No call
Only Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) has a Design Arena: images result, 1239.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling
Inkling takes 524K tokens against 66K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image)
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) $0.0010, Inkling $0.0030 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Inkling has the number, $0.76.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) not benchmarked, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
- 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
- Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) $1.50 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 2.7x apart.
- Context window
- Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) takes 66K tokens, Inkling 524K.
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 Index23 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1414 | Only Inkling measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 52.1 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 77.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 19.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 47.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 14.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 4.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 32.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 946.0 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1466 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1465 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1404 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1399 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 25.0 | Only Inkling measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 148.4 | Only Inkling measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 22.5 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1196 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 59.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 16.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 14.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 46.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 33.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 87.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 78.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 78.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 87.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 31.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 79.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 21.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1451 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1466 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 33.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1479 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1460 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 86.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1447 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1438 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1224 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1201 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1166 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1159 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1161 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1206 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1110 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1089 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 58.3% | Only Inkling measured |
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index26 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 49.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 77.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 87.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 37.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1442 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1425 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1390 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1442 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1434 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1493 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1445 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1449 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1430 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1450 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1437 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1435 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1404 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1394 | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
Image generationDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards measured
| Benchmark | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: images | 1239 | Not measured | Only Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) measured |
| Design Arena: graphic design | 1249 | Not measured | Only Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) measured |
| Design Arena: logos | 1214 | Not measured | Only Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) measured |
| LMArena Text to Image | 1250 | Not measured | Only Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) measured |
| LMArena Image Edit | 1313 | Not measured | Only Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) 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 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) 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 | Google Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) | Thinking Machines Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Thinking Machines | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | June 30, 2026 | July 17, 2026 |
| Context window | 66K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.975 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.50 | $4.05 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 31.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.76 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) better than Inkling for coding?
Only Inkling has a coding score, 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) for output tokens 2.7x cheaper ($1.50 vs $4.05 per million).
Which is cheaper, Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) or Inkling?
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling only.
Which has the bigger context window, Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) or Inkling?
Inkling, with 524K tokens against 66K.
Has any benchmark tested both Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) and Inkling?
No benchmark has tested both yet. Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image) has results on Design Arena: images, Design Arena: graphic design and Design Arena: logos; Inkling on LiveBench coding, LMArena WebDev and AA Coding Index. Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 21, 2026.