Nano Banana 2.1 from Google Now Available on Vercel's AI Gateway
Vercel has added Google's Nano Banana 2.1 to its AI Gateway. According to Vercel, the image model improves generation and editing over earlier Nano Banana models, with a focus on product recontextualization, mask- and ink-based editing, and factuality.
- Google's Nano Banana 2.1 is now available on Vercel's AI Gateway.
- Vercel says it improves product recontextualization, mask- and ink-based editing, and factuality over earlier Nano Banana models.
- The model ID is google/gemini-nano-banana-2.1, usable via the AI SDK, Chat Completions API or AI CLI.
- According to Vercel, it runs at the latency and cost of a Flash-tier model.
- AI Gateway reflects provider pricing with no markup and no platform fee on inference, including BYOK.
What Nano Banana 2.1 improves
Vercel says the release targets three areas. The first is product recontextualization, which places an existing product in a new scene. The second is mask- and ink-based editing, where changes apply only to the region marked by a mask or by strokes drawn on the image. The third is factuality, described as how accurately images depict real-world subjects.
On output quality, Vercel states that the model renders photorealistic skin tones, intricate materials, sharp lighting, and coherent backgrounds. According to the company, this comes at the latency and cost of a Flash-tier model.
How developers can call it
The model can be used through the AI SDK, the OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API, or the AI CLI. The AI CLI is an open-source command-line tool from Vercel Labs for generating text, images, video, and audio from a terminal. It runs on AI Gateway, so any Gateway model ID works with the -m flag.
The model name to use is google/gemini-nano-banana-2.1. In the AI SDK, a developer calls generateText with that model and a prompt. Vercel's example prompt is "A studio photo of a ceramic coffee mug on a white background." Generated images are returned in result.files.
Vercel also points to a model playground where Nano Banana 2.1 can be tried, and to a page listing all image models available on AI Gateway.
What AI Gateway offers
AI Gateway provides a unified API for calling models, tracking usage and cost, and configuring retries, failover, and performance optimizations. Vercel says these are meant to deliver higher-than-provider uptime. The service also includes:
- built-in custom reporting
- Zero Data Retention support
- budgets for API keys
- routing rules
On pricing, Vercel says AI Gateway reflects provider pricing with no markup and does not charge a platform fee on inference, including on Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) requests.
What it means for developers
For teams already routing model calls through AI Gateway, the new model is available under a single model ID without a separate integration. The focus on masked and ink-based edits and on product placement points to use cases such as editing existing images and putting products into new scenes, though Vercel does not publish benchmark figures in this announcement. Teams that want to compare it against other options can check the list of image models on the Gateway.
Vercel: Nano Banana 2.1 now available on AI Gateway
