Another shutdown today, this time at Google. August 17 is the earliest date on which three Imagen 4 models in the Gemini API are allowed to go offline. For anyone generating images through Google’s API, that means moving. And not just swapping a model name.
Which models it hits
The ones affected are imagen-4.0-generate-001, imagen-4.0-ultra-generate-001, and imagen-4.0-fast-generate-001 – the whole Imagen 4 lineup, from fast to high-res. Google lists August 17 as the earliest possible shutdown date; the deprecations page says exact timing will be communicated in advance. I wouldn’t lean on that, though.
The successor: Nano Banana
As a replacement, Google points you to the Gemini image models – traded internally under the nickname “Nano Banana.” For most cases, gemini-3.1-flash-image is the recommended target. So far, so ordinary.
The catch is in the code. This really isn’t a plain model swap: the generate_images() method is gone entirely. Image generation now runs through generate_content() – the same call you’d use for text. So if you just swap the model string, you’re stuck. The call logic has to be rebuilt.
My take
Two shutdowns in one day – the old Workbench at Anthropic, Imagen 4 at Google. That’s not a coincidence, that’s the rhythm of this industry. Models and APIs have an expiry date, and it comes sooner than you’d like.
What’s interesting is Google’s direction: image generation moves from its own method into the general generate_content() call. Text, image, all through one door. It’s tidy and fits the multimodal way of thinking – but it costs developers work up front. If you’ve got Imagen 4 running anywhere, today’s the day you take that calendar reminder seriously.
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