Midjourney vs ChatGPT vs Nano Banana: which one for which job

If you only remember one line, make it this: Midjourney for the look, ChatGPT for the brief, Nano Banana for the edit. Midjourney is built around taste. ChatGPT is the easiest to brief and revise in plain language, one step at a time. Nano Banana, the name Google uses for its Gemini image models, is strongest when you start from a real photo or product that must stay the same while everything around it changes.

The useful answer depends on the job: a moodboard, a product shot, a social post, a campaign series and a retouch each point to a different tool. All three changed a lot in 2026, so everything below is dated October 2026 and comes from each company's own documentation, terms and announcements. No scores and no lab tests.

My AI image generator guide for designers covers nine tools briefly. Here I go deeper on these three, one criterion at a time, as part of my guide to AI in graphic design.

Where the three tools stand in October 2026

• Midjourney. V8.2 became the default model on 24 July 2026. On 27 August Midjourney released an Edit Model for V8 that edits images from written instructions, takes up to four image references at once, and changes regions or extends the canvas. Its docs say it replaces the older Omni Reference, Character Reference and Retexture tools. You use Midjourney on its website or in Discord.
• ChatGPT. Image generation lives inside the chat. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Images 2.0 in April 2026, and in September its API added GPT Image 2.5 in two versions: Sunburst, for work where editing precision matters most, and Flare, for fast everyday generation.
• Nano Banana (Gemini). Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), released in February 2026, is the all-round model; Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) takes the most complex work; Nano Banana 2 Lite is the fastest and cheapest, for developers. They run in the Gemini app, in Google products such as Search, Flow and Google Ads, and through the Gemini API, and Adobe offers them as partner models in Photoshop's Generative Fill. I explain the family, and how to prompt it, in Nano Banana prompts for designers.

1. Image quality and style control

All three can make a beautiful picture. The question is how you steer it.

Midjourney gives you the most tools for taste. A style reference carries the look of an image into new ones, a moodboard builds a style from images you choose, and personalization learns your taste from images you rate. Midjourney says V8.2 focused on aesthetics, with images that are "more creative, bold, sophisticated, edgy and fresh". When its default styling gets in the way, its docs point to Raw mode for closer prompt adherence.

ChatGPT steers through instructions. OpenAI's guide says a useful image prompt is often one to three clear sentences covering the purpose, subject, setting, composition, light and constraints. For style, you attach a reference and say what to take from it: image 1 is the product, image 2 is the style reference.

Nano Banana steers like a brief to a photographer. Google describes control over lighting, camera angle, focus and colour grading, and recommends photographic terms such as wide-angle, macro and low-angle. It also accepts many reference images, up to 14 in the Gemini 3 models according to Google's API docs, which helps when the style lives in a set of pictures rather than in words.

If you can't describe the look yet, start in Midjourney. If you can, ChatGPT and Nano Banana follow you more literally.

2. Editing and consistency

This is where a designer's real work happens: keeping the real product, face or layout, and changing only what you asked for.

Nano Banana was built around this. Google introduced it in August 2025 for "targeted transformations using natural language" and for blending several images into one. Its developer guide calls one technique semantic masking: write "change only the sofa, keep everything else the same", and the model edits that part. Google says the models keep characters and objects consistent, and adds an honest caveat: it "excels at character consistency, but it may not always get it right".

ChatGPT edits in conversation. You attach an image, say what should change and what must stay, and you can select one area and describe the change there. You can combine several reference images, naming each by its order. OpenAI's developer docs are frank about the limit: the model "may occasionally struggle to maintain visual consistency for recurring characters or brand elements across multiple generations".

Midjourney used to be the weakest of the three at editing an existing photo, and 2026 changed that. The V8 Edit Model works from instructions with up to four references, and a September update says targeted edits now change only the pixels you select. Midjourney also mentions "a lot of edge cases" it is still working through, so test it on your own material before you plan a client job around it.

For products, one rule applies to all three: the model can hold a pack's shape and colour well enough for a concept, but the label, logo and ingredients must come from the real artwork.

3. Text in the image: Latin and Arabic

Short English headlines are now within reach of all three, with checking. Arabic is a different story.

• Midjourney: put the words in double quotes. Its text guide says text "works best with the standard Latin alphabet" and with short phrases, and suggests Raw mode, a lower Stylize value or the Editor to fix glitches.
• ChatGPT: OpenAI's guide says to keep in-image text short, quote the exact words, describe the font, size, colour and placement, and spell out uncommon names. Its developer docs add that the model "can still struggle with precise text placement and clarity", and the ChatGPT guide recommends reviewing every word and finishing production typography in a design tool.
• Nano Banana: Google says it renders legible text and can translate the text inside an image. Its model page also warns that it "can still struggle with small faces, accurate spelling, and fine details", and Google's chart of text errors by language includes Arabic. The API docs add a tip: settle the text first, then ask for an image with that text.

So in October 2026, none of the official pages I read promises reliable Arabic. Letters that don't join, misplaced dots and words that run backwards are still common. For anything a client will publish, generate the image with a planned empty area and set the Arabic yourself, as I explain in Arabic text in AI images.

4. Speed and workflow

Where a tool lives matters as much as what it makes.

Midjourney runs on its website and in Discord. Each prompt gives you several options, and Midjourney calls V8.1 its fastest model so far. Its terms forbid automated tools for generating images, so it suits exploration sessions, not production pipelines.

ChatGPT runs in a chat on the web, desktop and phone, next to the conversation where you may also be writing the brief or the captions. Studios can use the same image models through OpenAI's API.

Nano Banana has the widest reach: the Gemini app, Google products such as Search, Flow and Google Ads, and AI Studio, the Gemini API and Vertex AI for teams that build their own tools. In Photoshop's Generative Fill it works on a layer instead of a flat download.

5. Commercial use, privacy and plans

Read this part twice before client work. Each summary comes from the company's current terms or help pages in October 2026; it is a reading of the terms, not legal advice.

Midjourney. Its terms, effective 27 May 2026, say you own the images you create "to the fullest extent possible under applicable law", with an exception: a company with more than 1 million US dollars a year in revenue, or an employee of one, must be on Pro or Mega to own them. You also give Midjourney a broad licence to your prompts, uploads and images. Above all, Midjourney is open by default: your images can appear on its Explore page and be remixed. Stealth mode hides them on the website, only on Pro and Mega, and anything made in a shared Discord channel is visible to that channel.

ChatGPT. OpenAI's terms say that, between you and OpenAI, you own the output. There is no public gallery; images stay in your chats and image library. On personal plans, conversations can be used to improve OpenAI's models unless you turn that off in Data Controls, and OpenAI says it does not train on Business, Enterprise or API data by default. It also says ChatGPT images carry Content Credentials and an invisible SynthID watermark.

Nano Banana. Google's terms say it won't claim ownership of what you generate, and its Gemini API terms add that it may generate the same or similar content for others. In the Gemini app, human reviewers may read some conversations, and Google advises against entering confidential information while activity is kept. Google says work accounts using Gemini in Google Workspace are not reviewed or used for training without permission, and on the API only the unpaid tier is used to improve its products. Every image carries SynthID and Content Credentials. The visible watermark is a setting you can switch off in the Gemini app, except in a few countries where only AI Ultra subscribers see it.

Owning a file is not the same as being able to protect it. In several countries a purely generated image may not be covered by copyright, which I come back to in are AI images copyrighted?.

The comparison table

This summarises what each company documents. It is not a ranking.

How I would choose, job by job

Moodboard

Midjourney. Its moodboards, style references and personalization are made for finding a direction, and its strong default styling helps at this stage. Mix its images with real references, and never show a moodboard tile as a finished design. If the client can't yet say what they want, talk the brief through in ChatGPT first and write the direction in words.

Product shot

Start from a real photo or a 3D render of the actual product, then edit around it. Nano Banana first, ChatGPT as the alternative: both take your image and change the set, light or background. Midjourney's Edit Model can do this now too, but test it on your own products first. Whatever the tool, put the real label artwork back on afterwards.

Social post

For a short English line on a simple background, ChatGPT or Nano Banana can put it in the image, as long as you check every letter. For an Arabic post, or an offer that changes next week, generate the background with empty space for the headline and set the text as live type, so the copy changes in a minute.

Campaign visuals

Here consistency beats any single frame. Lock the look with references (Midjourney style references and moodboards, or a fixed set of reference images in Nano Banana), keep one fixed style paragraph in every prompt, as I explain in prompt writing for designers, and finish every image in the same colour and type pipeline.

Editing an existing photo

Nano Banana or ChatGPT, or Photoshop's Generative Fill with a partner model if you want layers and masks you control. Write what must stay the same as clearly as what should change, and check the account's privacy settings before you upload a client's photo.

From my work

In the video series I direct at SkillUp MENA (AI Video Studio), image generation is one step in a chain: script, stills, motion, voice and edit, with AI as a tool in my hand at every step. That work makes one lesson clear: what matters is not the best single frame but many frames that obviously belong to one world. That is why I weigh references, editing and consistency above raw image quality.

On the Kababgy Al-Sultan project page, some takeaway and menu scenes were generated with AI around the real designs, and each is labelled as an AI scene. Whichever tool you choose, label generated images when you show them.

Conclusion

Midjourney, ChatGPT and Nano Banana are no longer three versions of the same thing. Midjourney is the strongest place to find a look, ChatGPT the easiest to brief and revise in words, and Nano Banana the strongest at editing what already exists and keeping it consistent. None of them writes reliable Arabic yet, and their privacy defaults differ more than their pictures do. Choose by the job, check the plan's terms, and keep the type, the labels and the final decisions in your own hands.

If you want a campaign or a brand where AI speeds up the work and every decision is still designed, tell me about your project.