Recraft V4.1 Utility vs Nano Banana 2
Newest: Nano Banana 2 · Widest inputs: Nano Banana 2 · Image editing: Nano Banana 2. Not enough arena votes yet for a quality score, so this is a spec comparison.
RecraftRecraft V4.1 Utility
- Arena—
- From—
- Max size—
GoogleNano Banana 2
- Arena1,387
- From$0.045/image
- Max size4K
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Where they differ
Quality is the arena score from blind, side-by-side human votes. Price, length and resolution come from each lab’s own listings.
- NewestNano Banana 2Recraft V4.1 Utility May 14, 2026 · Nano Banana 2 May 28, 2026
- Widest inputsNano Banana 2Recraft V4.1 Utility: Text prompts · Nano Banana 2: Text prompts, Reference images, PDFs, Video
- Image editingNano Banana 2Takes a reference image as input: Recraft V4.1 Utility no · Nano Banana 2 yes
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs and apps
- Most API hostsNano Banana 2Recraft V4.1 Utility: 1 · Nano Banana 2: 13
Every spec in one table
Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Recraft V4.1 UtilityRecraft | Nano Banana 2Google |
|---|---|---|
| Quality (blind human votes) | ||
| Text to image arenaElo-style score · higher is better | — | 1,257 ±4#11 of 82 · 73,278 votes |
| Image editing arenaElo-style score · higher is better | — | 1,387 ±3#15 of 61 · 262,911 votes |
| Price | ||
| Starting price | — | $0.045/image 512 |
| Top price | — | $0.15/image 4K |
| How it is billed | — | Billed per token; Google’s listed cost per image. |
| Output | ||
| Produces | Images | Images |
| Resolutions | — | 512 · 1K · 2K · 4K |
| Highest resolution | — | 4K |
| Largest image | — | 4K (about 16 MP) |
| Images per request | — | Up to 1 |
| Text in the reply | — | Yes |
| Inputs | ||
| Text prompts | Yes | Yes |
| Reference images (editing) | No | Yes |
| Max reference images | — | 14 |
| Access | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | gemini-3.1-flash-image |
| API hosts | 1 | 13 (best) |
| Released | May 14, 2026 | May 28, 2026 |
Which should you choose?
Which is better, Recraft V4.1 Utility or Nano Banana 2?
Neither model has enough arena votes for a reliable quality score yet, so this page compares specs only. Run the same three or four prompts through each and judge the results.
Which is cheaper?
Nano Banana 2 costs from $0.045/image (512), up to $0.15/image (4K). Recraft V4.1 Utility has no published per-image price. Prices are list rates and change often; check the lab before budgeting.
What is the difference between Recraft V4.1 Utility and Nano Banana 2?
Recraft V4.1 Utility is an image model from Recraft (May 14, 2026), taking text prompts and producing images. Nano Banana 2 is an image model from Google (May 28, 2026), taking text prompts, reference images, pdfs and video and producing images.
Which is newer?
Recraft V4.1 Utility May 14, 2026; Nano Banana 2 May 28, 2026.
Which can edit an existing image?
Takes a reference image as input: Recraft V4.1 Utility no; Nano Banana 2 yes.
Can I run any of these on my own hardware?
No open weights. Both are available only through APIs and apps.
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- Nano Banana 2 vs Recraft V4.1Recraft · May 14, 2026
- Nano Banana 2 vs GPT Image 2OpenAI · Apr 21, 2026
- Nano Banana 2 vs Seedream 5.0 ProByteDance Seed · Jul 11, 2026
