Nano Banana 2 Lite and Gemini Omni Flash: What's Actually New in Google's Gemini API

Google added two new models to the Gemini API today: Nano Banana 2 Lite (image generation) and Gemini Omni Flash (video generation + editing). Neither is the Gemini 3.5 Pro release people have been waiting for, so it's easy to miss. Here's what's actually in them.

TL;DR

• Nano Banana 2 Lite: gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image = text-to-image in ~4s, $0.034/1K images
• Gemini Omni Flash: gemini-omni-flash-preview = video gen + conversational editing, $0.10/sec
• Both are built to be chained: generate an image fast, then animate it into video
• Neither model is positioned as a quality upgrade = both are cost/speed plays

Nano Banana 2 Lite

Model ID: gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image

• Text-to-image output in about 4 seconds
• $0.034 per 1K-resolution image
• Positioned as the direct replacement for the original Nano Banana (gemini-2.5-flash-image) - if you're on that model, this is a drop-in upgrade
• Available in Google AI Studio, Gemini API, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, and consumer surfaces (Search AI Mode, Gemini app, Photos, NotebookLM, Flow, Google Ads)

Gemini Omni Flash

Model ID: gemini-omni-flash-preview

• Public preview in Google AI Studio and the Gemini API
• Conversational editing - refine a generated video using plain-language instructions instead of re-prompting from zero
• Multimodal referencing - combine text, image, and video inputs to keep a scene consistent
• $0.10 per second of video output (same rate as Veo 3.1 Fast)

Known limitations right now

• Generations capped at 10 seconds
• No audio reference uploads yet
• No scene extension yet
• Video references under 3 seconds are accepted by the API schema but not correctly processed yet
• Character consistency across scene changes/pans still has rough edges

Google says longer durations are coming. The part worth paying attention to: chaining them

1. Generate an image with Nano Banana 2 Lite (fast, cheap)
2. Pass that image as a reference into Omni Flash
3. Omni Flash animates it into a video

Both models are optimized for throughput and cost, not for topping a quality benchmark. If you're running high-volume image or video generation and speed/price matter more than peak output quality, these are worth testing. If you need top-tier quality, Nano Banana Pro is still the model for that. Has anyone here built the chained image-to-video workflow yet? Curious how the multi-turn editing holds up in practice.