How to use Nano Banana: free, with prompts we tested
Add a photo, pick a look or write a prompt, get four pictures. We ran four Nano Banana looks on four people, fixed what failed and share the prompts.
To use Nano Banana for free, add a photo to our Nano Banana image generator, pick a look such as a figurine, an oil painting, a toy brick figure or a cartoon, or type your own prompt, and you get four pictures in about a minute and a half. We ran all four looks on four people and share the exact prompts.
A note before we start: we run Nano Banana inside our own tool, and our test covers only that. What Google offers in its Gemini app comes from Google's own help page, linked where it appears and checked the day this guide went live.
Four photos of adults (a woman with long straight hair, a woman with coily hair, a man with wavy hair and stubble, a man in a denim jacket), each run through the four presets: Figurine, Oil painting, Toy brick figure and Cartoon frame. Four pictures a run, 81 to 91 seconds. First run: the cartoon was right in 16 of 16; the figurine came back as a real person or a photo-like miniature in 8 of 15 we could open, the oil painting as a photo in a frame in 4 of 15, the brick figure as a real person in 2 of 15. We rewrote those three prompts and ran them again: 16 of 16 toys, 16 of 16 paintings, 16 of 16 brick figures, but 4 brick faces turned toy yellow. A third run of the brick prompt, asking for the skin tone of the photo: 15 of 16 brick figures in the person's own skin tone, and one real person on the baseplate.
What is Nano Banana?
Is Nano Banana free?
| Where | Price | Nano Banana | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini app, no paid plan | Free | Nano Banana 2 | Standard limits |
| Gemini app, Google AI Plus | Paid plan | Nano Banana 2, plus Nano Banana Pro to redo images | 2x the standard limits |
| Gemini app, Google AI Pro | Paid plan | Nano Banana 2, plus Nano Banana Pro to redo images | 4x the standard limits |
| N33 | Free to start, a little energy per try | Nano Banana, with four ready looks | Four pictures per try |
The Gemini rows are as Google lists them; Google gives no picture count for its standard limits. Our row is from our own tool.
How do you use Nano Banana?
Which Nano Banana prompts work?
Why does Nano Banana keep the real person?
How do you write a better Nano Banana prompt?
To try it, open our Nano Banana image generator. For more on prompts, read how to write AI image prompts, and to compare cartoon styles, see our test of the best AI cartoon generator.
Questions and answers
Is Nano Banana free to use?
In the Gemini app, Nano Banana 2 is available with no paid plan, at standard limits. Ours is free to start, with a little energy per try.
What is Nano Banana Pro?
Google's higher-end version for redoing images, included in the paid Google AI plans. Our tool runs Nano Banana.
Can Nano Banana make videos?
No, it makes and edits pictures. To turn a picture into a short clip, use an image to video tool such as our animate picture tool.
Do I need a photo?
For the four looks, yes: each one redraws the photo you add. With your own prompt, the photo is optional.
Will the picture still look like me?
The looks keep your hair and the colours of your clothes. The toy and cartoon looks simplify the face by design; the oil painting keeps it closest to the photo.
Arthur Down is a journalist with more than 12 years of experience writing about technology, personal finance, health and everyday consumer topics. He studied Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Sheffield, started as a reporter at a regional newspaper and has worked freelance since 2014. At N33 he writes and edits the blog's practical guides to AI tools.
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