Claude Opus 4.8 vs Nano Banana 2 Lite
Pricing, benchmarks, and use case comparison
Quick take
- •Claude Opus 4.8 is meaningfully stronger at coding (96 vs 0 on our capability index).
- •Nano Banana 2 Lite is open-weights (free to self-host); Claude Opus 4.8 is paid API only.
Specs comparison
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Nano Banana 2 Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| Type | Closed source | Closed source |
| Context window | ✓1M | Not announced |
| Input / 1M tokens | $5.00 | ✓Not announced |
| Output / 1M tokens | $25.00 | 33.6 |
| Release date | 2026-05 | 2026-06 |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Nano Banana 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 88.6% | - |
| SWE-bench Pro | 69.2% | - |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 74.6% | - |
| GPQA Diamond | 93.6% | - |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index | 61.4 | - |
| Arena.ai Text-to-Image Leaderboard | - | Ranked #5 |
| Text-to-Image Elo Score | - | 1251 |
| Single-Image Editing Elo Score | - | 1308 |
| Multiple-Image Editing Elo Score | - | 1294 |
Scores sourced from official provider release posts and independent benchmark aggregators.
Which should you choose?
Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if...
- →You need top-tier autonomous coding and multi-step agentic reliability
- →You run long-horizon agent traces that previously derailed after compaction
- →You want enterprise-grade reasoning with 1M context and 128k output
- →You need throughput and are willing to pay fast-mode premium for 2.5x speed
Choose Nano Banana 2 Lite if...
- →When cost-per-sample is the primary constraint
- →For workflows requiring 100+ images per session
- →When generation latency must be under 5 seconds
- →For rapid prototyping and exploration