Nano Banana 2.1 vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Price, context window & benchmark comparison

Google

Nano Banana 2.1

Google
$1.50 / $7.50
Input / Output · per 1M tokens
VS
Qwen (Alibaba)

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Qwen (Alibaba)
$0.18 / $2.10
Input / Output · per 1M tokens
Compare different models
Google
Qwen (Alibaba)
Verdict: Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is 4.5× cheaper than Nano Banana 2.1 on a typical 3:1 input/output mix. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking has the larger context window (131K vs 66K).
Nano Banana 2.1Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Input price / 1M$1.50$0.18
Output price / 1M$7.50$2.10
Blended price (3:1)$3.00$0.66
Cached input / 1M——
Context window66K131K
Max output59K33K
Intelligence index—8.2
Coding index——
Providers1—
Best provider uptime (30m)100.0%—
Vision inputYesYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Released2026-10-062025-10-14
Retirement—2026-10-09

Cost calculator

FAQ

Which is cheaper, Nano Banana 2.1 or Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is 4.5× cheaper than Nano Banana 2.1 on a typical 3:1 input/output mix.

Nano Banana 2.1 vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking: which has a bigger context window?

Nano Banana 2.1: 65,536 tokens. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking: 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, Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking ≈ $1,410.

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