Google Ships Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite While Pro Flagship Stays Delayed
Google released three new non-flagship Gemini models on July 21, including a security-tuned Cyber variant, and said pretraining has begun on Gemini 4, even as the overdue Gemini 3.5 Pro remains in partner testing.
Google shipped three new Gemini models on July 21: Gemini 3.6 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, and a security-focused Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber built on its CodeMender agent. All three landed immediately via the Gemini API, AI Studio, Android Studio, Gemini Enterprise, and the Gemini app, filling the gap while the flagship Gemini 3.5 Pro stays in partner testing after missing three earlier target dates.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: $1.50/$7.50 per million input/output tokens, cuts output token usage 17% versus 3.5 Flash
- 3.6 Flash coding: DeepSWE 49% (up from 37%), OSWorld-Verified 83.0% (up from 78.4%), MLE-Bench 63.9% (up from 49.7%)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: $0.30/$2.50 per million tokens, runs at 350 output tokens/sec, SWE-Bench Pro 54.2% (up from 49.6%)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber: restricted to governments and trusted partners in a limited pilot for vulnerability detection
Google also confirmed pretraining has begun on Gemini 4, describing it as the company's most ambitious pretraining run to date, a signal it is looking past the delayed 3.5 Pro toward its next frontier model.