Choose Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) if…
- you need image output — to generate images, not just text; OpenAI: o4 Mini High does not advertise it
- you want the newer model — released 2026-06-18, 14 months after the other
Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) vs OpenAI: o4 Mini High
Neither wins outright: Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) is the pick when you need image output, OpenAI: o4 Mini High when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) | OpenAI: o4 Mini High |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $2.00 | $1.10 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $12.00 | $4.40 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $4.50 | $1.93 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 12% | 27% |
| Context window | 131K tokens (~197 pages) | 200K tokens (~300 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 22% | 37% |
| Max output per response | 33K tokens (~24,600 words) | 100K tokens (~75,000 words) |
| Input types | image, text | image, text, file |
| Output types | image, text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2026-06-18 | 2025-04-16 |
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What it costs for real workloads
Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.
| Workload (per month) | Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) | OpenAI: o4 Mini High | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $390 | $171 | OpenAI: o4 Mini High saves $220 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $360 | $176 | OpenAI: o4 Mini High saves $184 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens) | $384 | $185 | OpenAI: o4 Mini High saves $199 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $232 | $114 | OpenAI: o4 Mini High saves $118 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $112 | $59.40 | OpenAI: o4 Mini High saves $52.60 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) | OpenAI: o4 Mini High | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool / function calling | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | call your APIs and run agent loops |
| Structured output (JSON schema) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | return JSON that validates against your schema |
| Reasoning / thinking mode | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems |
| Image input | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | read screenshots, charts and scanned pages |
| Audio input | — | — | take speech or audio directly |
| File / PDF input | — | ✓ Yes | accept documents without your own parsing step |
| Image output | ✓ Yes | — | generate images, not just text |
| Built-in web search | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | answer from live web results |
| Seed (reproducible sampling) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | repeat a generation for tests and evals |
| Log-probabilities | — | — | read token confidence for classification and scoring |
From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.
Price history
- Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image): price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-08-06.
- OpenAI: o4 Mini High: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-03-10.
Which should you choose?
Choose OpenAI: o4 Mini High if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 57% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($171 vs $390 a month for 50,000 support chats)
- you need to fit long inputs in one request — 200K tokens is roughly 300 pages, against 197
- you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) does not advertise it
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 100K tokens (about 75,000 words) per response
Frequently asked questions
Is Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) better than OpenAI: o4 Mini High?
Neither wins outright: Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) is the pick when you need image output, OpenAI: o4 Mini High when cost matters at scale. In short: Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) when you need image output, you want the newer model; OpenAI: o4 Mini High when cost matters at scale, you need to fit long inputs in one request, you need file / PDF input, you generate long outputs in one go.
Which is cheaper, Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) or OpenAI: o4 Mini High?
OpenAI: o4 Mini High is cheaper: $1.93 vs $4.50 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 57% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $171 against $390.
How much do Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) and OpenAI: o4 Mini High cost per million tokens?
Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $12.00 per 1M output tokens; OpenAI: o4 Mini High costs $1.10 input and $4.40 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) or OpenAI: o4 Mini High?
OpenAI: o4 Mini High: 200K tokens, about 300 pages, against 131K (about 197 pages) for Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image).
Do Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) and OpenAI: o4 Mini High support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image): yes, OpenAI: o4 Mini High: yes. JSON-schema structured output — Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image): yes, OpenAI: o4 Mini High: yes.
Can Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) or OpenAI: o4 Mini High read images?
Yes, both accept image input.
Is Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) or OpenAI: o4 Mini High free to use?
No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.
What is the maximum output length of Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) and OpenAI: o4 Mini High?
Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) can write up to 33K tokens (about 24,600 words) per response; OpenAI: o4 Mini High up to 100K (about 75,000 words).
When were Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) and OpenAI: o4 Mini High released?
Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) was listed on 2026-06-18; OpenAI: o4 Mini High on 2025-04-16.
About the two models
Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image)
Nano Banana Pro is Google’s most advanced image-generation and editing model, built on Gemini 3 Pro. It extends the original Nano Banana with significantly improved multimodal reasoning, real-world grounding, and...
Full Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) specs →OpenAI: o4 Mini High
OpenAI o4-mini-high is the same model as [o4-mini](/openai/o4-mini) with reasoning_effort set to high. OpenAI o4-mini is a compact reasoning model in the o-series, optimized for fast, cost-efficient performance while retaining...
Full OpenAI: o4 Mini High specs →