Google DeepMind's Nano Banana and ByteDance's Seedream 4.0 are two of the best AI image generation models around at the moment. But which is better between the two of them?
We compared them using the same prompts and source images across various tasks, ranging from image generation to editing. Here are the results — let's take a look.
Nano Banana, officially known as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, is Google DeepMind's advanced AI image editing model.
Many consider it to be the world's best image editing model. It excels at maintaining character likeness and identity across multiple edits, making it particularly valuable for personal photos and creative transformations.
With Nano Banana, you can:
Seedream 4.0 is ByteDance's next-generation, multimodal image generation model, unifying text-to-image, image editing and multi-image composition.
Developed by ByteDance's Volcano Engine team, it represents a significant technological achievement in AI-generated images, combining speed, quality and versatility in unprecedented ways.
It can generate 2K resolution images in 1.8 seconds and supports outputs up to 4K resolution.
In theory, Seedream 4.0 can perform all the same functions as Nano Banana: selective image editing and working with multiple images (up to six reference images are supported).
But is it better or worse? First, let's compare the main features of both models.
And now, let’s take a look at how both of the models stack up across a variety of image generation and image editing tasks.
We're going to test them on:
For the image generation tests, we chose three prompts representing different creative challenges:
Photorealistic Portrait: A high-fashion editorial portrait of a woman with platinum blonde slicked-back hair, dramatic red lipstick, wearing an oversized black turtleneck, shot from a low angle, harsh side lighting creating strong shadows, Vogue style, shot on Hasselblad X2D, stark white background.
Cartoon scene: Traditional Japanese garage in a quiet town, with old bicycles and tools, but, small kodama spirits peeking from behind paint cans, a friendly tanuki sweeping the floor, warm afternoon light filtering through, Studio Ghibli animation style, highly detailed cartoon image, shot from a medium-low angle with a 35mm lens.
Product Photography: Apple Watch Ultra with orange band floating in mid air, studio lighting with soft shadows, reflections on the metal parts, product photography style, high-end commercial look.
Here are the results from each model:
For image editing, we tested how well each model handles selective modifications to existing photos using natural language prompts.
We uploaded a portrait photo and asked both models to:
Here’s how they fared:
Nano Banana didn't change the framing in the last test, which is why the last two images are identical.
Seedream 4.0's character likeness was lost in the process of transferringthe style, which is a shame.
We measured the time it took each model to generate an image from the same text prompt.
Seedream 4.0 claims a generation speed of 1.8 seconds for 2K images, while Nano Banana doesn't publicly specify its generation time.
In our tests, Nano Banana was actually faster, while Seedream was way off the claimed time!
These results are still impressive for both models, but it’s a shame Seedream doesn’t live up to the promise of 1.8 seconds per generation.
Text rendering is notoriously difficult for AI image generators. We tested both models with prompts that require accurate spelling and integration of text into complex designs.
Tattoo Design: A script tattoo design spelling 'Chrysanthemum' in flowing calligraphy on a forearm, black ink, fine line style.
Embroidered Patch: A vintage embroidered patch with the text 'WILDERNESS EXPLORER' in bold capital letters, circular design with pine trees and mountains, navy blue background, stitched border, soft studio lightning, beautiful highlights on the embroidery.
Movie Poster: An 80s action-adventure movie poster set in a dense jungle, weathered stone temple in the background, protagonist in leather jacket and fedora holding a torch, dramatic golden lighting, title at top reads 'TEMPLE OF THE SERPENT KING', tagline below reads 'Fortune and Glory Await', credits at bottom in small text, release date 'Summer 1985', vintage film grain, photorealistically painted gouache illustration style, vivid colors.
Here are the results:
Both models performed equally well in this test, technically at least.
Both of these models are accessible in Overchat AI image generator — in fact, this is where we’ve generated all pictures in this article.
Other than that:
Both models are industry-leading and deliver fast results. And both have pros and cons:
