Short answer
If you often upload your own photos to swap a background, combine several pictures or edit while keeping the same person, try Nano Banana in the Gemini app first. If you often want images with text in them, or like to keep talking and refining drafts, try ChatGPT first. Which one is better flips whenever a model changes, so this article sticks to facts that stay put (names, how limits work, how watermarks work) and tells you to run the same request through both for quality.
Nano Banana is a nickname
"Nano Banana" is the nickname for the image feature in Google's Gemini app, and Gemini's help page uses the name as a model name. The help page lists three.
- Nano Banana 2 Lite: used when the Gemini model is set to Flash-Lite. It is built for speed, and the page says it is not suited to multiple reference images or many rounds of edits.
- Nano Banana 2: used when the model is set to Flash or Pro. A balance of speed and quality, and it accepts several reference images.
- Nano Banana Pro: for Google AI plan subscribers. You use it to regenerate when you need more detailed results.
Side by side
Where you start
- Nano Banana (Gemini)
- Create or edit images in the Gemini app
- ChatGPT images
- Ask for an image in a ChatGPT chat
Editing an uploaded photo
- Nano Banana (Gemini)
- Supported. Several reference images (model 2 and up)
- ChatGPT images
- Supported. You keep giving edit instructions in the chat
Free access
- Nano Banana (Gemini)
- There is a daily image quota. After you reach it, you cannot regenerate with Pro
- ChatGPT images
- Free users can generate images. The limit is separate from text and varies by plan
Saved resolution
- Nano Banana (Gemini)
- 2K with a Google AI plan, up to 1K without one
- ChatGPT images
- No figure confirmed in the official help pages
Age limits
- Nano Banana (Gemini)
- Editing is 18 and over. Creating a personal account is 13 and over (varies by country)
- ChatGPT images
- Not confirmed
AI labeling
- Nano Banana (Gemini)
- An invisible SynthID watermark. You can upload an image in the app to check
- ChatGPT images
- Said to include C2PA information in images
Pricing
- Nano Banana (Gemini)
- See the official pricing page
- ChatGPT images
- See the official pricing page
Scenario 1: changing only the background of a family photo
A typical request is "keep the people as they are and change only the background to a cherry blossom path." Gemini's help page describes an editing flow where you upload one photo and keep editing it over several turns. Model 2 accepts several reference images, so you can upload a portrait and a background photo separately.
ChatGPT lets you carry on in the same chat with "change this part like so." In both, faces can drift a little. With photos of people, the fewer editing rounds, the more likely the original face survives. Photos of family members or children count as personal data once you upload them to an AI service, so think about that first.
Scenario 2: putting text on a poster
A picture with words in it, like an opening notice for "Corner Coffee," is a task where both services tend to produce wrong letters. A common fix is to make only the picture with AI and add the text yourself in Canva or PowerPoint.
If you do leave the text to the AI, keep the wording short, put it inside quotation marks to specify it exactly, and if a letter comes out wrong, ask it to fix just that letter. If three tries do not work, laying the text on yourself is faster.
Watermarks and AI labels
Google describes SynthID as a technology that puts a signal you cannot see into the image. If you upload an image to the Gemini app and ask whether it was made with Google AI, it checks for SynthID and tells you. According to Google's guidance, Nano Banana Pro images also carry C2PA information.
I could not confirm the rules for visible watermarks, like a logo on the image, in the official documents I opened. They may differ by plan, so open the saved image and look. SynthID is invisible, and a screenshot or heavy compression can make it harder to detect. For what labels you need when you publish AI-made images, see the AI video labeling article.
Compare them with the same request
In the uploaded photo, keep the subject exactly as it is and change only the background to a cafe window on a rainy evening. Do not change the subject's face, clothes or proportions. After you make it, tell me in two lines what you changed and what you did not.
If the subject is a person, use only a photo of yourself or of someone who agreed. A cat photo or a photo of an object is a low-stakes way to practice.
Make a picture of a small sandwich-board sign outside a bright cafe entrance. The sign should say exactly "Corner Coffee Today's Beans Kenya" and nothing else. Do not add any other text.
What trips people up when switching
A prompt that worked well does not give the same result on another service. If you paste your usual sentence in as it is, the mood changes. Chat history does not follow you either, so save the original image and the prompt together when you like a result. Many limits reset daily, so some people alternate between the two services on days when they need a lot of drafts.
FAQ
What model exactly is Nano Banana?
It is a nickname for the image models in the Gemini app. Gemini's help page separates them into Nano Banana 2 Lite, Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana Pro.
Is Nano Banana free?
You can make images for free, with a daily limit. Nano Banana Pro is for Google AI plan subscribers. Saved resolution also depends on your plan, 1K or 2K.
Can I check whether an image was made by AI?
If you upload an image to Gemini and ask whether it was made with Google AI, it checks for SynthID. Images made with other companies' tools cannot be identified this way.
Can I use the images commercially?
Terms of service and copyright are separate questions. Read each service's terms for the scope of commercial use.
Keep going
Checked against sources on 2026-11-05. Sources: Gemini Apps Help: create and edit images (model names and limits), Google blog: checking AI images in the Gemini app (SynthID, C2PA). How we write