Google last week launched Nano Banana 2 Lite—officially gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image—as the entry point in its image generation stack, sitting below Nano Banana 2 and well below Nano Banana Pro. It delivers text-to-image outputs in roughly four seconds, 2.7 times faster than Nano Banana 2, and is positioned as the direct replacement for the original Nano Banana (gemini-2.5-flash-image). The explicit pitch: same Google ecosystem, less money, less waiting.