Is Nano Banana 2.1 free in the Gemini API? The price table says no

The short answer

No. Google's Gemini API pricing page lists Nano Banana 2.1 (gemini-nano-banana-2.1) with the Free Tier column marked "Not available" for input and output prices, and a Paid Tier price of $30 per million image output tokens (read 2026-10-09). That works out to $0.0336 per 1K image. So there is no free-tier price to plan around for this model on that page.

What the page shows

The same page also lists a Batch row at half the Standard rate. A "Used to improve our products" line differs between the Free and Paid columns, which is a data-use term, not a price.

Ten test images, three ways

For a small trial, ten 1K images cost 10 x 0.0336 = $0.336 on Google Standard and 10 x 0.0168 = $0.168 on Batch. On Sume, the same model id costs $0.10 per 1K image, so ten images are $1.00. The Sume price is higher, but it covers a single API with a catalog of image models, hosted result URLs, and a job flow for long requests.

Batch is the cheap path on Google

If your goal is the lowest list price rather than a free one, the Batch rows are the ones to look at on Google's page. At 2K, Batch is $0.0252 per image against $0.0504 on Standard, so 1,000 images cost $25.20 or $50.40. Batch trades speed for price, and the page frames it as a separate mode from the interactive one.

Sume does not publish a batch discount for its image rows in the docs read for this post; the Image API describes sync, async, subscribe and webhook modes. Those change how you wait for a result, not what you pay per image.

What the free tier row means in practice

A 'Not available' row means that you cannot call this model without a paid key on Google's side, so a prototype needs a billing account before the first image. It does not say anything about other Gemini models, which have their own rows on the same page. Read the row for the exact model id you plan to use.

On Sume, the cost of an image is the listed tier price, charged from your wallet when the job succeeds. Failed generations are not billed. For a first test, a handful of 1K images at $0.10 each is the smallest meaningful run, and the response carries usage.cost so you can confirm the figure.

Sume's catalog marks the Image Router as needing a balance and offering top-up. A generation that completes is billed in full, and a failed or cancelled one is not charged, per the Image API docs. Check your own plan page for any starting credit, since this post does not make a claim about one.

If you only need to try a model, the cheapest Sume rows are the 2.5-cent ones: grok-image, imagen-4-fast, and qwen-image. Read GET /v1/images/models for the live list and each model's accepted parameters before you send a request.