After seeing all the banana-fanfare for Google’s newest generative AI tool, I knew I had to take it for a spin. Named Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, the model upgrades your ability to edit your photos natively in Gemini. AI enthusiasts have referred to it as the «nano bananas» model, spurred on by a series of banana-themed teasers from Google execs. 

In the few weeks it’s been out, people have created over 200 million AI images, and over 10 million people have signed up to use the Gemini app, according to Josh Woodward, Google’s vice president of Google Labs and Gemini.

Google has invested heavily in its generative media models this year, dropping updated versions of its image and video generator models at its annual I/O developers conference. Google’s AI video generator Veo 3 stunned with synchronized audio, a first among the AI giants. And creators have made more than 100 million AI videos with Google’s AI filmmaker tool, Flow. 

I’ve spent a lot of time testing AI creative software, and I was excited to see what Google had cooked up. But my testing of 2.5 Flash Image showed that just because something has a flashy entrance doesn’t mean it’ll always lives up to its hype. Here’s how my experience with Gemini nano bananas went: the good, the bad and the frustrating.

What worked

The Gemini bananas model is spookily good at adding elements to existing images, blending AI-generated elements well into any picture you snapped. It also maintains a decently stable level of character consistency — meaning the people in my photos weren’t too distorted or wonky after going through the AI processing. Those are both important distinctions for AI image programs, and something Google said it had worked to improve.

You can see both of these characteristics in this picture of my sister and me. Our general appearances are unchanged in the edited version (right), showing off that character consistency. I asked Gemini to add a third sister who looked similar to the two of us, which it did scarily well by adding a third woman in between the two of us.

I was also pretty impressed with how quickly Gemini could spit out completed images. Anywhere under a minute gets a gold star from me, and Gemini was regularly handling requests in under 15 seconds. I also appreciated how it added a watermark to all the images it created and edited — even if I don’t love how tech companies have corrupted the sparkles emoji for AI, it’s extremely important to have some markers of AI-generated content. Google’s SynthID and behind-the-scenes work also help differentiate AI content from human-created imagery.

Gemini is good at wholesale AI image creation, too, but I recommend using its Imagen 4 or another AI image generator instead — they have more hands-on controls and settings that get you closer to what you want with less work.

What really didn’t work

There are serious limitations to Gemini bananas. It automatically generated square images, and follow-up prompts asking for images to be adapted into other dimensions were ignored or failed.

I also noticed that Gemini reduced the resolution of many of my photos. I primarily take photos with my iPhone 16, which has stellar cameras, but after going through the Gemini bananas model, those fine details were often blurred. That’s annoying and won’t win over any photographers.

I tried repeatedly to get Gemini to handle photo edits that would’ve been difficult for me to do manually. That’s one area in photo editing where AI is supposed to excel — automating mundane but detail-intensive edits. Sadly, Gemini really struggled with prompt adherence here, meaning it didn’t do what I asked. 

I tried many times to get Gemini to remove reflections from a snap of a Freakier Friday movie poster, but they stubbornly remained. And the more I tried to get it to remove the reflections, the poorer the quality of the image became with every prompt. Once-clear text was ultimately illegible after I finally gave up, not to mention the accidental, scary-looking damage done to the faces of Lindsey Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Gemini nano bananas struggled to generate images in different dimensions. Resizing and cropping images is a core photo editing process, but Gemini didn’t — or couldn’t — handle simple sizing guidelines in my prompts.

I reached out to Google about the resolution and dimension issues and a spokesperson said the tech company is «aware and actively working on both issues. It’s been a big update from our previous model but we’ll continue to improve on the model.»

Overall, Gemini nano bananas proved to me that Google is serious about continuing to dominate in generative media. But it has significant pitfalls, with too big a focus on generating new elements rather than using AI to improve and tweak common photo issues. For now, the nano bananas model is best suited for Gemini fans who want to make big edits quickly. For those of us looking for more precise tools, we’ll have to wait for Google’s next big update or find another program.

Gemini nano bananas availability, pricing and privacy

You don’t need to do anything to access the new model; it’s automatically added to the base Gemini 2.5 Flash model. Gemini is available for free, with more models and higher usage caps available in Google’s AI plans starting at $20 per month. 

If you’re a paying subscriber, you may also be able to access the model through Google AI Studio. From there, all you have to do is upload an image and type out your prompt. Each prompt uses anywhere from one to two thousand tokens, depending on the level of detail required. Adobe Express and Firefly users can also access the new model now. 

Google’s Gemini privacy policy says it can use the information you upload for improving its AI products, which is why the company recommends avoiding uploading sensitive or private information. The company’s AI prohibitive use policy also outlaws the creation of illegal or abusive material.

For more, check out the best AI image generators and everything announced at the Made by Google Pixel 10 event.