Nano Banana 2.1 vs Granite 4.2 8B

Price, context window & benchmark comparison

Google

Nano Banana 2.1

Google
$1.50 / $7.50
Input / Output · per 1M tokens
VS
IBM Granite

Granite 4.2 8B

IBM Granite
$0.06 / $0.15
Input / Output · per 1M tokens
Compare different models
Google
IBM Granite
Verdict: Granite 4.2 8B is 36.4× cheaper than Nano Banana 2.1 on a typical 3:1 input/output mix. Granite 4.2 8B has the larger context window (131K vs 66K).
Nano Banana 2.1Granite 4.2 8B
Input price / 1M$1.50$0.06
Output price / 1M$7.50$0.15
Blended price (3:1)$3.00$0.0825
Cached input / 1M—$0.015
Context window66K131K
Max output59K118K
Intelligence index—5.1
Coding index—22.4
Providers1—
Best provider uptime (30m)100.0%—
Vision inputYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Released2026-10-062026-08-31
Retirement——

Cost calculator

FAQ

Which is cheaper, Nano Banana 2.1 or Granite 4.2 8B?

Granite 4.2 8B is 36.4× cheaper than Nano Banana 2.1 on a typical 3:1 input/output mix.

Nano Banana 2.1 vs Granite 4.2 8B: which has a bigger context window?

Nano Banana 2.1: 65,536 tokens. Granite 4.2 8B: 131,072 tokens.

How much would 1 million requests cost?

At 2,000 input + 500 output tokens per request: Nano Banana 2.1 ≈ $6,750, Granite 4.2 8B ≈ $195.00.

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