In testing on Arena · Not officially confirmed Last updated:
Google's new image model
Google's current image model is Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, released in August 2025 and reachable through the Gemini API. A successor has not been announced, but an anonymous model called spicy-mayo is being tested on Arena and is widely believed to be it.
What you can use right now
Google's current image model is Gemini 2.5 Flash Image. It shipped in August 2025, and unlike everything else discussed on this site, it is a real product with a stable model ID, published pricing and a documented API.
Three ways in, no waitlist for any of them:
- Gemini API — model ID
gemini-2.5-flash-image, the samegenerateContentcall shape as the text models. Image bytes come back inline as base64, not as a URL. - Google AI Studio — browser, free tier, no code.
- The Gemini app — free tier, subject to rate limits.
If you landed here looking for something to build on today, that is the answer, and the API page has working request examples.
The codename pipeline
Google has been running image models on Arena anonymously before announcing them. That is why the names people use and the names Google ships rarely match.
| Arena codename | Shipped as | Status |
|---|---|---|
| nano-banana | Gemini 2.5 Flash Image | Released, August 2025 |
| spicy-mayo | Not disclosed | In testing on Arena, not officially confirmed as Google's |
The community calls the unreleased one Nano Banana 2.5 by extrapolating from the first row. That is a guess about a name, not a leak — and the row above it is the only precedent behind it.
Telling a launch from a rumour
Search results for unreleased Google models fill up fast with confident spec sheets. Two checks settle almost all of it.
- Is there a model ID? A launched model is callable. If nobody can show you the string you would put in an API request, it has not launched, whatever the article says.
- Is there a Google post? Google announces its own models on its own blog, and for the last image model the API went live the same day. No post plus no model ID means rumour.
Benchmark tables for unreleased models fail both checks by definition — a model that cannot be called cannot be measured. We go through why in detail rather than publishing numbers we cannot stand behind.
Google's image models FAQ
What is Google's newest image model?
The newest released one is Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, which shipped in August 2025 after running anonymously on Arena under the codename nano-banana. It is available in the Gemini API, Google AI Studio and the Gemini app.
Is a newer Google image model coming?
Probably, but nothing is announced. An unclaimed model called spicy-mayo is currently appearing in Arena's blind image battles and the community believes it is Google's next one. No official source has confirmed who built it.
Why does Google test image models anonymously?
Arena's blind battles collect human preference votes without anyone knowing which model produced which image. Running a pre-release model there gives a provider comparative feedback that brand recognition would otherwise distort.
How do the banana codenames relate to the real product names?
They do not, officially. nano-banana was an Arena codename that shipped as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image; the name stuck so thoroughly that Google ended up using it too. Community names like Nano Banana 2 and Nano Banana 2.5 are extrapolations, not product names.
How will I know when the next model actually launches?
A real launch arrives as a Google blog post plus a model ID in the Gemini API, usually the same day. Anything without those two things is a rumour, however confidently it is written.
Get notified at launch
Leave your email and we will send one message when spicy-mayo (or whatever it ends up being called) becomes publicly available. We do not send anything else and we do not share the list.