Google Says Gemini 3.5 Flash Rivals 'Large Flagship Models' For Coding And Agentic Tasks

Google unveiled Gemini 3.5 Flash at Google I/O 2026, positioning it as a faster, lower-cost model with near-flagship performance.

Google says Gemini 3.5 Flash beats Gemini 3.1 Pro on several coding and tool-use benchmarks and runs about 4x faster than other frontier models.

The model is now the default in the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search, and is also available through Google’s developer and enterprise products.

Google also said Gemini 3.5 Pro is expected next month, underscoring a broader push to refresh its AI lineup.