# Google Launches Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite; Pro Remains in Partner Testing

Times of AI Desk · 2026-07-21 · Models

[https://timesof.ai/2026/07/google-gemini-3-6-flash-and-flash-lite](https://timesof.ai/2026/07/google-gemini-3-6-flash-and-flash-lite)

> Google introduced Gemini 3.6 Flash at $1.50/$7.50 and 3.5 Flash-Lite at $0.30/$2.50 per million tokens. It planned restricted Flash Cyber access, while 3.5 Pro remained in partner testing. Performance and efficiency comparisons are attributed to Google.

Enterprise agent spend is increasingly **Flash-class**, not flagship-only. A cheaper, less verbose **3.6 Flash** plus a **350 tok/s Lite** changes unit economics—while **Pro partner-testing phase + Cyber lock** show Google still managing capability and dual-use risk carefully. Read this as a **production stack refresh**, not the Pro partner-testing story ending.

**Google** introduced **Gemini 3.6 Flash**, **3.5 Flash-Lite**, and a limited **3.5 Flash Cyber** pairing with **CodeMender**. **3.6 Flash** is the new workhorse for coding, knowledge work, and multimodal agents at **$1.50 / $7.50 per 1M input/output tokens**. **3.5 Flash-Lite** targets high-throughput agentic tasks at **$0.30 / $2.50** and **~350 output tokens/s** (Artificial Analysis). **3.5 Pro** is still **partner testing only**; Google also says **Gemini 4** pre-training has started.

## What shipped

From Google’s Keyword / DeepMind primary (Tulsee Doshi) and DeepMind Flash Cyber post:

| Model / product | Role | Price (per 1M tok) | Access day one |
|-----------------|------|--------------------|----------------|
| **3.6 Flash** | Workhorse: coding, knowledge work, multimodal agents | **$1.50 in / $7.50 out** | Gemini API (AI Studio, Android Studio), Antigravity, Gemini Enterprise, Gemini app |
| **3.5 Flash-Lite** | Fastest 3.5-class; high volume / low latency | **$0.30 in / $2.50 out** | Same developer surfaces; also rolling into **Google Search** |
| **3.5 Flash Cyber + CodeMender** | Cyber find/fix at scale | Lower token price than larger cyber models (not full public list) | **Governments + trusted partners only**, planned soon as a limited pilot |
| **3.5 Pro** | Flagship | — | **Still not GA** — partner testing; “as soon as ready” |
| **Gemini 4** | Next gen | — | **Most ambitious pre-training run yet** started (no ship date) |

Vendor-claimed gains for **3.6 Flash** vs **3.5 Flash** include better DeepSWE (49% vs 37%), MLE Bench (63.9% vs 49.7%), OSWorld-Verified (83.0% vs 78.4%), and GDPval-AA v2 (1421 vs 1349), with **computer use** as a built-in client-side tool. Google says **3.6 Flash** is **more token-efficient** and **cheaper per agentic task** than 3.5 Flash despite higher capability. **3.5 Flash-Lite** is pitched as beating **3 Flash** on several agentic/coding boards (e.g. SWE-Bench Pro 54.2% vs 49.6%; OSWorld-Verified 74.0% vs 65.1%).

**Flash Cyber** is explicitly dual-use controlled: multi-agent CodeMender stacks for vulnerability discovery and patching, competitive on CyberGym in Google’s charts, **not** open Chat/API GA.

## Claims vs checks

The prices, benchmark comparisons, 17% token-use reduction and quoted 350-token-per-second throughput above come from Google’s launch account. Its AA references do not turn the entire vendor table into an independent audit. A dated independent launch ranking is not established here.

## Limits

- Lab DeepSWE/MLE/OSWorld gains are vendor tables.
- Throughput and token-use comparisons depend on the test configuration and workload.
- 3.5 Pro remained in partner testing; the announcement gave no Gemini 4 release date.

**Correction (October 14, 2026):** Distinguished the planned Cyber pilot from immediate access and removed unsupported historical leaderboard comparisons.

## Sources

- [Google: Flash-family launch (July 21, 2026)](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-6-flash-3-5-flash-lite-3-5-flash-cyber/)
- [Google DeepMind: Flash Cyber (July 21, 2026)](https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-gemini-3-5-flash-cyber/)