Google officially released Gemini 3.5 Flash on May 19, 2026, during its annual Google I\/O conference, signaling a shift in how the industry balances model speed and cost. While the “Flash” moniker usually implies a budget-friendly entry point, this release positions the model as a high-performance engine for long-horizon agentic execution, optimized directly for Google’s new TPU v6 Trillium infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn’t just a minor iteration; it’s a structural pivot. Gemini 3.5 Flash is rolling out globally as the default engine for the free Gemini app and Google Search\u2019s AI Mode, but for developers, the story is more complex. It introduces a massive 1M token context window and a 64K output limit, yet it arrives with a price tag that suggests the era of “cheap-as-free” inference might be cooling off in favor of specialized capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The standout metric for Gemini 3.5 Flash is its raw throughput. According to Ars Technica<\/a>, the model can output nearly 300 tokens per second. For context, that is roughly 4x faster than current competitor frontier models. This speed is specifically tuned for the “Antigravity 2.0” framework, Google’s updated environment for spawning parallel autonomous subagents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key specifications include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n One notable omission is native “Computer Use” support, which remains absent in this version despite being a major focus for competitors like Anthropic. However, the model’s ability to handle massive multimodal inputs\u2014including full-length videos and large PDF repositories\u2014remains its primary moat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first time, we are seeing a “Flash” model that is significantly more expensive than its predecessors. As noted by Simon Willison<\/a>, Gemini 3.5 Flash is 3x the price of the Gemini 3 Flash Preview and 6x the price of the 3.1 Flash-Lite variant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The Pricing Pivot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n \nModel<\/th>\n Input (per 1M)<\/th>\n Output (per 1M)<\/th>\n<\/tr><\/thead>\n \n Gemini 3.5 Flash<\/strong><\/td>\n $1.50<\/strong><\/td>\n $9.00<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Gemini 3.1 Pro<\/td>\n $2.00<\/td>\n $12.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite<\/td>\n $0.25<\/td>\n $0.75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n