Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Nano Banana 2.1
Gemini 3.8 Flash costs 2.0x less per output token than Nano Banana 2.1 ($3.75 vs $7.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle
- Coding
- 61.6
- Overall
- 69.0
- Output $/M
- $3.75
Nano Banana 2.1Google
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $7.50
vs $3.75 vs $7.50 per 1M output tokens. Gemini 3.8 Flash is 2.0x cheaper.
Gemini 3.8 Flash or Nano Banana 2.1: which to pick
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a coding score, 61.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nano Banana 2.1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
Model AGemini 3.8 FlashGoogle61.6/1006 independent benchmarks$2.74 per solved taskModel BNano Banana 2.1GoogleNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved task
No benchmark has tested both yet. Gemini 3.8 Flash has results on LiveBench coding, LMArena WebDev and AA Coding Index; 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
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a AA Intelligence Index result, 40.9.
Directional only
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a AA Agentic Index result, 40.2.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a GPQA Diamond result, 94.4%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a MMLU Pro result, 90.2%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a Design Arena: websites result, 1300.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a Vals Index result, 56.0%.
Directional only
Image generation
Design Arena: images
No call
Only Nano Banana 2.1 has a Design Arena: images result, 1291.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash takes 1.05M tokens against 66K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.0026, Nano Banana 2.1 $0.0053 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has the number, $2.74.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3.8 Flash 61.6 from 6 benchmarks, 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
- Gemini 3.8 Flash $3.75 against Nano Banana 2.1 $7.50 per million output tokens, 2.0x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3.8 Flash takes 1.05M 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 Index30 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 82.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1585 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| AA Coding Index | 76.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 89.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 80.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 19.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 78.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 36.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 1.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 56.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 81.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 40.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 18.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 58.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 43.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SciCode | 56.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| FrontierCode | 41.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| FrontierSWE | 19.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| WeirdML | 84.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1269.7 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1508 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1507 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1577 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1616 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1593 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SciCode | 12.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | 94.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SWE Atlas: Codebase QnA | 47.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SWE Atlas: Refactoring | 44.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SWE Atlas: Test Writing | 53.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 40.9 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 157.4 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index25 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 40.2 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1238 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1244 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1236 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1078 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1273 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1152 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1037 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LiveBench research | 79.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LiveBench browser | 64.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 30.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 11.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 61.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 32.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 38.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 12.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 72.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 62.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 8.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Vals Science Index | 35.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Time Horizon Index (Vals AI) | 18.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| CUA-bench (Vals AI) | 4.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| APEX-Agents | 64.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Remote Labor Index | 5.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $5,094 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index17 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 89.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 36.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 89.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 95.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 47.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 95.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 89.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Chess puzzles | 58.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 47.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1509 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1526 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1504 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1345 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1351 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | 34.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 98.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 68.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 22.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| ProofBench | 48.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1532 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1519 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| MathArena | 34.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 90.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 87.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 74.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 65.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 69.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1523 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1508 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1497 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1479 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 69.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| PRBench Finance | 49.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| PRBench Legal | 48.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash 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 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1300 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1316 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1304 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1271 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1294 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1303 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1295 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1264 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LiveBench design | 72.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index33 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 56.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 54.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 65.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 35.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 84.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 84.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| DTBench | 95.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMCA | 52.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 76.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Furniture assembly | 31.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text | 1499 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1492 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1488 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1315 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1498 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1491 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1553 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1501 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1507 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1464 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1496 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1487 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1514 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1497 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1503 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1507 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1494 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1480 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1318 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1416 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1333 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1321 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1299 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Image generationDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nano Banana 2.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: images | Not measured | 1291 | 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
Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.0026Fits in one request
Nano Banana 2.1$0.0053Fits in one request
Gemini 3.8 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.049Fits in one request
Nano Banana 2.1$0.098Fits in one request
Gemini 3.8 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.188Fits in one request
Nano Banana 2.1$0.375Exceeds the context window
Gemini 3.8 Flash 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 Gemini 3.8 Flash | Google Nano Banana 2.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | ||
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | September 2, 2026 | October 6, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 66K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.75 | $1.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.75 | $7.50 |
| Coding index | 61.6 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 6 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $2.74 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.8 Flash better than Nano Banana 2.1 for coding?
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a coding score, 61.6 on the Vibe Coding Index; Nano Banana 2.1 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Nano Banana 2.1?
Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens; Nano Banana 2.1 costs $1.50 and $7.50. Cost per solved task is known for Gemini 3.8 Flash only.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Nano Banana 2.1?
Gemini 3.8 Flash, with 1.05M tokens against 66K.
Has any benchmark tested both Gemini 3.8 Flash and Nano Banana 2.1?
No benchmark has tested both yet. Gemini 3.8 Flash has results on LiveBench coding, LMArena WebDev and AA Coding Index; 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 22, 2026.