The Nano Banana series has been a major driver of user growth for Google. The original Nano Banana AI editor, launched in August 2025, went viral, attracting 13 million first-time users to the Gemini app in just four days and generating over 5 billion images by mid-October. An upgraded Nano Banana Pro followed in November.
Nano Banana 2 leverages Gemini’s Flash models, which are faster and more cost-efficient, enabling quicker image generation and editing. Google also highlighted improved instruction-following capabilities and sharper image details.
This move comes amid Google’s broader push in the AI space, following the release of Gemini 3 in November. Gemini 3 significantly boosted engagement, with the Gemini app reaching over 750 million monthly active users by the end of December. The success of these models has intensified competition with OpenAI, prompting the latter to issue an internal “code red” to accelerate its AI development efforts.
Over the past six months, Google’s AI advancements have contributed to a 47% surge in its stock, cementing the company’s position at the forefront of the AI race.