We ran a blind test of Nano Banana vs Nano Banana Pro. Here’s the unfiltered verdict

We ran a blind test with our design team, to find out if Nano Banana Pro lives up to the hype.

“Nano Banana Pro uses Gemini’s state-of-the-art reasoning and real-world knowledge to visualize information better than ever before. […] Nano Banana Pro can help you visualize any idea and design anything — from prototypes, to representing data as infographics, to turning handwritten notes into diagrams.” – The product team at Google DeepMind.

We ran a blind test with three members of our brand design team to find out what Google’s latest two image models actually deliver, and which one creative teams should reach for first.

Nano Banana vs Nano Banana Pro: at a glance

Keep scrolling to see the images and comments.

Feature	Nano Banana	Nano Banana Pro
Composition	Useable but can feel less focused and cluttered.	Clear. Intentional. Better use of negative space.
Creative interpretation	Literal, checkbox approach.	More considered. Understands creative approach.
Lighting and texture	Solid, occasionally flat or generic.	Rich, nuanced, and more controlled.
Multi-subject handling	Struggles with busy scenes and crowd layout.	Manages multiple subjects and spatial relationships convincingly.
Best for	Rapid concepting and internal ideation.	Client-facing creative work, complex or surreal briefs.

The three experiments

We tested both models across three distinct creative challenges:

Experiment 1: Lighting, texture, mood, and basic composition

Prompt: “A steaming cup of coffee on a wooden table by a rainy window, soft morning light, cosy café atmosphere.”

Nano Banana

Nano Banana Pro

Result:

Nano Banana: 0

Nano Banana Pro: 3

Experiment 2: Multiple subjects, human figures, spatial relationships, and lighting complexity

Prompt: “A busy farmer’s market at golden hour, diverse crowd of people shopping, colourful fruit stands, hanging flowers, dappled sunlight through canvas awnings, photorealistic.”

Nano Banana

Nano Banana Pro

Result:

Nano Banana: 1

Nano Banana Pro: 2

Experiment 3: Conceptual understanding, creative interpretation, and impossible scenarios

Prompt: “A tree growing upside down from the sky with its roots in the clouds and birds nesting in the branches below, surreal digital art, vibrant colours, dreamlike quality.”

Nano Banana

Nano Banana Pro

Result:

Nano Banana: 0

Nano Banana Pro: 3

Gen Reichel, designer and AI consultant

“Nano Banana Pro brings clearer composition and more thoughtful creative decisions.”

“What stood out immediately with Nano Banana Pro was the clarity. In the coffee shop scene, the composition and details were just sharper, more intentional. I loved that it included a person in the background – it added life and scale without cluttering the frame.

“With the farmer’s market prompt, the standard Nano Banana really struggled. The composition felt chaotic and unfocused. Pro understood the brief better and gave us something we could actually use in a client presentation.

“But it was the upside-down tree that really sealed it for me. Pro’s interpretation felt less obvious, more considered. The paint style had this dreamlike quality that didn’t feel overworked. Nano Banana’s version was cluttered and felt like it was trying too hard to tick every box in the prompt without understanding the creative intent behind it.”

Gen concludes:

“I think what we’re seeing is that Pro has been trained not just on more images, but on better-curated creative work. It understands compositional hierarchy, negative space, and when to hold back. The standard model feels like it’s learned what things look like, but Pro has learned how to compose them. That’s the difference between a render and a piece of creative work.”