Restaurant menu: 12 dish photos on Nano Banana 2.1 for $1.80

Twelve dish photos for a restaurant menu cost $1.80 at 2K on Nano Banana 2.1 through Sume: $0.15 per image, one request per dish. At 1K the set is $1.20, at 4K it is $2.40. Google released Nano Banana 2.1 as generally available on October 6, 2026 (read 2026-10-09) and Sume lists it as google/nano-banana-2.1.

Cost by resolution

Image requests are billed per generated image. A menu with 12 dishes and one picture each is 12 requests. Generating three takes per dish would triple the figures below.

Generate the set

POST /v1/images is synchronous by default and waits up to 30 seconds. Put the dish, plating and light in the prompt. Keep the same wording for background and lighting across dishes so the menu looks like one shoot.

import os, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SUME_API_KEY']}"}
style = "overhead shot on a dark slate table, soft window light, no text"
dishes = ["margherita pizza", "beef tartare", "miso ramen"]  # ... 12 in total

for dish in dishes:
    r = requests.post("https://api.sume.com/v1/images", headers=H, timeout=90, json={
        "model": "google/nano-banana-2.1",
        "prompt": f"{dish}, {style}",
        "resolution": "2K",
        "aspect_ratio": "1:1",
    })
    r.raise_for_status()
    print(dish, r.json()["data"][0]["url"])

Limits and gotchas

• A generated dish is an illustration, not a photo of your kitchen. Do not use it where a menu must show the real plate.
• Failed generations are not charged.
• Generated URLs are Sume-hosted; store the URL, then use the images as first frames for a short vertical clip if you want motion.
• The aspect ratios 1:4, 4:1, 1:8 and 8:1 are new on Google's side; check the live model list before relying on them.