Google launches Gemini 3.5 Flash. How to try it for free.

Google just unveiled a new family of models for Gemini at its annual Google I/O developers conference: Gemini 3.5.

The first model will be Gemini 3.5 Flash, a new AI model that's available now at no cost to billions of people around the world.

In the keynote address of Google I/O 2026, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Gemini 3.5 flash is launching immediately via the Gemini app and other Google products. Google also announced that a new frontier AI model, Gemini 3.5 Pro, would be released in June.

"We are also excited for 3.5 Pro,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, at a pre-Google I/O media briefing. “We are using it internally. It's showing great improvements. We are still testing and refining it, and it will roll out to everyone next month."

Introducing Gemini 3.5 Flash from Google

Starting Tuesday, Gemini 3.5 Flash will become the default model for both the Gemini app and AI Mode worldwide. Google leaders said the new model excels at coding, better supports AI agents, and uses tokens more efficiently.

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Gemini 3.5 Flash is the first model in the 3.5 family, and Google says it outperforms Gemini 3.1 Pro on most benchmarks while also delivering much faster performance. In a blog post announcing the new model, Google said Gemini 3.5 Flash is four times faster than other frontier models in output tokens per second (TPS). This AI performance metric measures response speed.

"[Gemini] 3.5 Flash is especially good when deploying multiple agents simultaneously and completing long-running tasks with massive improvements in coding and tool use," said Koray Kavukcuoglu, CTO of Google DeepMind and Chief AI Architect at Google, at a media briefing. "It can independently execute complex coding pipelines or manage iterative research projects entirely by itself. We have even managed to successfully test it by having our agents build a working operating system entirely from scratch."

Because of its massive customer base and the ubiquity of Google Search, Google has major advantages in the AI arms race. In the past year, Gemini has grown significantly. The Gemini AI chatbot now has 900 million monthly active users, up from 400 million at this time last year, according to Google.

Like other Big Tech companies, Google has invested hugely in AI infrastructure. This year, Pichai said the company's capital expenditures would reach $180 to $190 billion, up from $31 billion in 2022, before the launch of ChatGPT.

How to try Gemini 3.5 Flash

Gemini 3.5 Flash is generally available starting today.

You can access the model through a variety of Google products, including:

• Gemini app on iOS, Android, and desktop

• Google AI Mode

• Google Antigravity

• The Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Android Studio

• Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform

• Gemini Enterprise

Looking for more Google I/O announcements? Follow the Mashable Google I/O live blog to see all of the latest news on Gemini, Chrome, and Android.