Nano Banana and gpt-image-1 API Shutdowns: What to Migrate To in 2026
Two of the cheapest image APIs are going away. Google shuts gemini-2.5-flash-image — the original Nano Banana — on October 2, 2026. OpenAI retires gpt-image-1-mini, gpt-image-1.5 and chatgpt-image-latest on December 1, 2026. Here is what each replacement costs per image, read off the vendor pages on September 19.
For makersBuilt an image app on Nano Banana or gpt-image-1? Once it runs on its new model, list it — free.
I built one — list it →Quick Answer
Best replacement by which model you are on:
- On gemini-2.5-flash-image (Nano Banana): Nano Banana 2 Lite — $0.0336 per 1K image, 14% cheaper than the $0.039 you pay now. Move before October 2.
- On Nano Banana and your users see the image as the product: Nano Banana 2 — $0.067 at 1K, up to 4K
- On gpt-image-1-mini for the price: FLUX.2 [klein] 4B at $0.014 per 1MP image — gpt-image-2 medium is $0.053, 4.8x what you pay now
- On gpt-image-1.5 and want the smallest change: gpt-image-2 — medium square rises $0.034 to $0.053, but non-square medium falls $0.05 to $0.041
- You make logos, icons or illustrations: Recraft V4.1 — $0.035 raster, $0.08 for a real SVG
What Is Being Shut Down, and When
Google, October 2, 2026. The Gemini API pricing page now carries a warning on Gemini 2.5 Flash Image: gemini-2.5-flash-image is deprecated and will be shut down on October 2, 2026, and Google tells developers to migrate to Gemini 3.1 Flash Image or Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image — Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana 2 Lite. Until then it is still billed at $0.039 per image ($0.0195 in Batch).
OpenAI, December 1, 2026. OpenAI's deprecations page records that on June 2 it notified developers using older GPT Image models that gpt-image-1-mini, gpt-image-1.5 and chatgpt-image-latest are removed from the API on December 1, 2026, each with gpt-image-2 as the recommended replacement.
For some teams this is the second move this year. dall-e-2 and dall-e-3 were shut down on May 12, 2026, and OpenAI listed gpt-image-1-mini as one of their replacements. Anyone who took that advice now has to migrate again.
The Google move is the urgent one — thirteen days from the date on this page — and, if you pick Lite, it is the cheap one. The OpenAI move has more runway and a bigger bill.
The 5 Image APIs Worth Migrating To
Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image)
Cheapest Drop-In for Nano BananaGoogle's own successor for gemini-2.5-flash-image — and it is cheaper, not dearer
Best for: Apps on the original Nano Banana that need to be off it by October 2 without re-quoting their own prices
✓ Strengths
- •Named by Google as one of the two migration targets in the gemini-2.5-flash-image shutdown notice
- •14% cheaper per 1K image than the model it replaces ($0.0336 vs $0.039), and Batch halves it again to $0.0168
- •Same Gemini API key, SDK and billing — the change is a model string plus a regression pass on your prompts
- •Google positions it for low latency and high-volume generation and editing
✗ Limitations
- •No free tier on the paid-model pricing line — the free column reads 'Not available'
- •Google quotes it at 1K; if you were rendering larger on 2.5, check the resolution you actually get
- •A lighter model: run your own quality check on your hardest prompts before switching the default
Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
The other named successor — more quality and 4K, at 1.7x the old price
Best for: Products whose users see the image as the deliverable — headshots, product shots, ad creative
✓ Strengths
- •Resolution tiers up to 4K, where the old model was priced as a single 1K image
- •The 0.5K tier at $0.045 is only 15% above the old $0.039 if your UI shows thumbnails or previews
- •Batch at $0.034 per 1K image lands below the old standard price for any job that can wait
✗ Limitations
- •At 1K standard it is $0.067 against $0.039 — a 72% cost increase you either absorb or pass on
- •Paid tier only for image output
- •Nano Banana Pro above it is $0.134 per 1K/2K image — do not reach for it by default
gpt-image-2 (OpenAI API)
Shortest Code Change for OpenAI AppsOpenAI's named replacement for gpt-image-1-mini, gpt-image-1.5 and chatgpt-image-latest
Best for: Apps already on the OpenAI SDK that want the shortest migration, and can live with the new price per quality tier
✓ Strengths
- •The replacement OpenAI names in its deprecation table for all three retiring image models
- •Low quality is nearly flat on price: $0.006 vs gpt-image-1-mini's $0.005 at 1024x1024
- •From gpt-image-1.5, non-square images get cheaper: medium 1024x1536 is $0.041 vs $0.05
- •OpenAI states it supports thousands of valid resolutions, not just the three legacy sizes
✗ Limitations
- •From gpt-image-1-mini, medium goes $0.011 -> $0.053 (4.8x) and high $0.036 -> $0.211 (5.9x) at 1024x1024
- •From gpt-image-1.5, square medium goes $0.034 -> $0.053 and high $0.133 -> $0.211
- •OpenAI's own docs now lead with gpt-image-2.5-sunburst and -flare, so gpt-image-2 may not be the last move
FLUX.2 (Black Forest Labs API)
Cheapest Per ImagePriced per megapixel, with a tier at roughly gpt-image-1-mini money
Best for: High-volume apps that picked gpt-image-1-mini for the price and cannot pass on a 4.8x increase
✓ Strengths
- •[klein] 4B at $0.014 for a 1MP image is the closest per-image price to gpt-image-1-mini medium ($0.011) on this list
- •Pure pay-as-you-go: no subscription or seat fee on BFL's pricing page
- •Open-weights licences for the [klein] models if you later want to self-host (Builder tier: 10K images a month)
- •Reference images are billed per megapixel too, so edit workflows are predictable
✗ Limitations
- •A different API shape from both OpenAI and Gemini — this is a real adapter rewrite, not a model string
- •[pro] and [max] add a per-megapixel charge above 1 MP, so large outputs cost more than the headline
- •Credits are prepaid (1 credit = $0.01)
Recraft V4.1 API
Flat per-image prices, and the only one here that returns vectors
Best for: Logo makers, icon and illustration tools, anything that needs SVG out rather than a PNG
✓ Strengths
- •Flat per-image pricing — the easiest number here to quote to your own customers
- •Native vector generation ($0.08), where every other API on this list returns raster
- •Background removal, vectorization and upscaling priced on the same balance ($0.004 to $0.25 a request)
✗ Limitations
- •Units are prepaid and non-refundable (1,000 units = $1)
- •The Pro tiers ($0.21 raster, $0.30 vector) cost more than gpt-image-2 medium
- •A style-led model — test photoreal prompts before moving a photo product
The Retiring Models vs the Replacements
| Aspect | Retiring models | Best Replacement | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shutdown date | gemini-2.5-flash-image: Oct 2, 2026. gpt-image-1-mini / 1.5 / chatgpt-image-latest: Dec 1, 2026 | — | Both dates are on the vendors' own deprecation pages |
| Per-image price, square ~1K | $0.039 (Nano Banana); $0.011 (1-mini medium); $0.034 (1.5 medium) | FLUX.2 [klein] 4B — $0.014 | Nano Banana 2 Lite $0.0336; Recraft V4.1 $0.035 |
| Same vendor, same SDK | — | Nano Banana 2 Lite (Google); gpt-image-2 (OpenAI) | Model string change plus a prompt regression pass |
| Price change on the vendor's own path | — | Google: -14% (Lite) | OpenAI 1-mini -> 2 at medium: +382% |
| Batch / async discount | Nano Banana Batch $0.0195 | Nano Banana 2 Lite Batch — $0.0168 | Gemini Batch halves every image price |
| 4K output | Not priced on either retiring model | Nano Banana 2 — $0.151 at 4K | Nano Banana Pro $0.24 at 4K |
| Vector (SVG) output | None | Recraft V4.1 Vector — $0.08 | The only vector API in this list |
What Changes in the Migration, and What Doesn't
Staying with your vendor is a model string — leaving is an adapter. Nano Banana to Nano Banana 2 Lite, and gpt-image-1-mini to gpt-image-2, keep your SDK, auth and billing. FLUX.2 and Recraft mean a new request body, new size enums and a new way of getting the image back. Budget a day for the first case and a sprint for the second.
Re-price before you re-point. If you sell image generation — per credit, per headshot pack, per logo — work out your margin on the new model before you flip the default. The gpt-image-1-mini to gpt-image-2 move is where this bites: a product that charged a user $0.05 an image at medium quality had a $0.039 margin at $0.011 and loses $0.003 an image at $0.053. On the Google side the same exercise usually comes out in your favour if Lite is good enough.
Quality is a prompt regression, not a benchmark. Every one of these models reads the same prompt differently. Pull the last few hundred real prompts from your logs, render them on the candidate, and look at the ones your users would complain about — text in the image, faces, product shape — before the deadline, not after.
Watch the size you request. gpt-image-2 prices non-square images below square ones at every quality tier; FLUX.2 [pro] and [max] add a charge for each megapixel past the first; Nano Banana 2 prices 0.5K, 1K, 2K and 4K separately. The cheapest migration is often the same model at a different size.
Your app outlives the model it launched on
If you built an image product on Nano Banana, gpt-image-1-mini or DALL·E, list it on AISO Tools free — it gets its own page in the image generation category, the one ChatGPT and Perplexity read when someone asks which AI image tool to use. Paid Verified listing is optional, one-time, on the same form.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does gemini-2.5-flash-image (Nano Banana) shut down?
October 2, 2026, per the deprecation warning on Google's Gemini API pricing page. Google recommends migrating to Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (Nano Banana 2) or Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image (Nano Banana 2 Lite).
What is the cheapest replacement for gemini-2.5-flash-image?
Nano Banana 2 Lite at $0.0336 per 1K image, which is cheaper than the $0.039 gemini-2.5-flash-image costs now. In Batch mode it is $0.0168.
When are gpt-image-1-mini and gpt-image-1.5 retired?
December 1, 2026, along with chatgpt-image-latest. OpenAI's deprecations page names gpt-image-2 as the replacement for all three.
How much more does gpt-image-2 cost than gpt-image-1-mini?
At 1024x1024: low quality $0.006 vs $0.005, medium $0.053 vs $0.011 (4.8x), high $0.211 vs $0.036 (5.9x), from OpenAI's per-image cost table.
What is the cheapest image generation API to replace gpt-image-1-mini?
Of the APIs compared here, FLUX.2 [klein] 4B from Black Forest Labs at $0.014 for the first output megapixel, which covers a 1024x1024 image.
Is the DALL·E 3 API still available?
No. OpenAI shut down dall-e-2 and dall-e-3 on May 12, 2026, recommending gpt-image-2, gpt-image-1 or gpt-image-1-mini — and gpt-image-1-mini itself retires on December 1, 2026.
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