Nano Banana Pro API: 2K Premium Image Generation on hiapi

Nano Banana Pro is the highest-fidelity tier in hiapi's Nano Banana family: Gemini 3 Pro Image under the hood, output up to 4K, sharp on-image text, and a commercial license attached to every render. This guide covers what the Pro tier actually buys you over the standard model, real pricing across the whole family, and a working code sample against hiapi's task API.

What Nano Banana Pro Actually Changes

Three things separate Pro from the rest of the Nano Banana lineup on hiapi:

• Resolution ceiling. Pro outputs 1K, 2K, or 4K. 1K and 2K are priced identically at $0.057/image, so there's rarely a reason to ship at 1K once you're paying the Pro rate — request resolution: "2K" explicitly. 4K runs $0.10/image.
• Text rendering. Pro is noticeably more reliable at rendering legible, correctly-spelled text inside an image — signage, labels, UI mockups. Below is an unedited Pro output demonstrating this, generated from a single prompt with no post-processing or manual retouching:

Prompt: "A hand-painted gold-leaf sign in a modern specialty coffee shop window, elegant serif lettering reading 'MORNING BREW CO.' with a small script subtitle 'est. 2024' beneath it, warm natural daylight streaming through the glass, soft bokeh reflections of a city street, photorealistic commercial photography, crisp perfectly legible typography with correct spelling, shallow depth of field, editorial lighting"

• Commercial license + consistency. Every Pro output ships with a commercial-use license, and the model holds character and product details more consistently across a series of edits than the standard tier — useful if you're generating a multi-shot campaign from one reference image.

Pro also accepts an optional image_input array, so the same endpoint handles both text-to-image generation and image-to-image editing — you can iterate on an existing render instead of re-prompting from scratch.

Nano Banana Pro vs. the Rest of the Family

hiapi runs four models under the Nano Banana name, and the right one depends on whether you need Pro's quality or just volume:

If your use case is simple product shots or social tiles without on-image text, standard Nano Banana and Nano Banana 2 Lite cost less per image. Nano Banana 2 costs less at 1K and 4K and matches Pro at 2K; these alternatives generate faster. Reach for Pro when a shot has visible text, needs to hold a character or product consistent across several images, or ships in a commercial deliverable where the license matters. gpt-image-2-vs-nano-banana-pro has a deeper side-by-side if GPT Image 2 is also on your shortlist.

Quick Start: Calling Nano Banana Pro

hiapi exposes image generation as an async task — submit a job, poll until it completes, then download the result. A minimal request only needs prompt, resolution, and aspect_ratio:

# 1. Submit the task
curl -X POST https://api.hiapi.ai/v1/tasks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "nano-banana-pro",
    "input": {
      "prompt": "Minimalist studio product photography, matte-black earbuds case on a warm gradient backdrop, three-point studio lighting",
      "resolution": "2K",
      "aspect_ratio": "16:9"
    }
  }'
# -> {"id": "task_xxx", "status": "pending", ...}

# 2. Poll until it completes
curl https://api.hiapi.ai/v1/tasks/task_xxx \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
# -> {"status": "completed", "output": [{"url": "https://...", "expireAt": ...}]}

Download output[0].url as soon as the task completes — the link expires, so don't store it as a permanent reference. aspect_ratio accepts 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 3:4, 4:3, 3:2, 2:3, 5:4, 4:5, 21:9, or auto. To edit an existing image instead of generating from scratch, add an image_input array of source URLs to the same request. Full parameter reference and authentication details are in the hiapi docs; current per-model pricing is always on the pricing page.

For a walkthrough of the same task flow against a cheaper sibling model, see how-to-use-nano-banana-2-api; for a production e-commerce workflow, see nano-banana-ecommerce-product-images-hiapi.

FAQ

Does Nano Banana Pro cost more at 2K than 1K? No — 1K and 2K are both $0.057/image on hiapi. Only 4K costs more, at $0.10/image. There's no pricing reason to request 1K once you're on the Pro tier.

Can Nano Banana Pro edit an existing image, or only generate new ones? Both. Pass source image URLs in the image_input array alongside your prompt and it runs as image-to-image editing on the same endpoint used for text-to-image.

Is the commercial license different from the standard Nano Banana model? Pro outputs include a commercial-use license as a stated feature of the tier. If licensing terms are load-bearing for your use case, confirm current terms on the pricing page before shipping.

What resolution should I request for a blog or hero image? 2K (2048px on the long edge) covers most web hero images and product shots with headroom for retina displays, at the same price as 1K. Reserve 4K for large-format or print use where the extra $0.043/image is justified.

Takeaways

• Always set resolution: "2K" explicitly on Nano Banana Pro requests — it costs the same as 1K and hiapi's default without an explicit size falls back to 1K.
• Pro's price is flat across 1K/2K ($0.057); only 4K costs more ($0.10) — factor that into your model choice, not just the headline per-image rate.
• Benchmark against standard Nano Banana ($0.021) or Nano Banana 2 ($0.036 at 1K, $0.057 at 2K, $0.086 at 4K) first if your images don't need on-image text or a commercial license — Pro is priced for the capability, not for volume.
• image_input makes Pro double as an editor: reuse it to keep a product or character consistent across a shoot instead of re-prompting from zero each time.

Ready to try it? Grab an API key and run the quick start above against your own prompt, or check current pricing for the full Nano Banana lineup.