Google (Gemini) Gemini 3.5 Flash — what it is, when to use it and what to use instead

Summary

Gemini 3.5 Flash is a Gemini 3 Flash release from mid-2026, at $1.5 per million input tokens and $9 per million output tokens. That is twice the input price and 2.4 times the output price of the newer Gemini 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 Flash models, which offer the same limits and modalities.

Gemini 3.5 Flash is listed with a May 2026 update and is positioned by Google for the agentic era, for multi-step workflows and complex coding iterations. Its pricing is the reason to look closely: at $1.5 / $9 it is the highest-priced Flash model in this dataset, while the three later Flash releases cost $0.75 / $3.75 for the same 1,048,576-token input limit and 65,536-token output limit.

It takes text, image, video, audio and PDF input and returns text, with structured outputs, caching, function calling, code execution, search grounding, URL context, file search, thinking, the Batch API and computer use in preview. The Live API is not supported.

No deprecation has been announced.

Modality

• Text
• Vision

Use case

• Chat
• Coding
• Reasoning
• Agents & tool use
• Long context

Tier

• Mid-tier

Access

• Hosted API

Specifications

Input price

$1.50 / M tokens

Output price

$9.00 / M tokens

Price band

Premium

Context window

1M tokens

Max output

65.5K tokens

Input

Text, image

Output

Text

Knowledge cutoff

unknown

Tool use

Yes

Structured output

Yes

Weights licence

not published

Model maker

Google (Gemini)

“unknown” means the figure has not been published, or we have not verified it yet — never that the answer is no. “not published” under the weights licence means this model is not offered with downloadable weights. The price band is ours: it bands the blended price (three parts input to one part output) as budget (≤ $0.50), standard (≤ $3), premium (≤ $12) or flagship.

Lifecycle

Google (Gemini) has not announced a deprecation or shutdown date for this model. That is a statement about what has been published, not a guarantee — providers typically announce a shutdown months ahead, and this page updates when they do.

1. Released 19 May 2026
2. Deprecated not announced
3. Retired not announced

Use it for

• Keep an existing Gemini 3.5 Flash integration running while you evaluate a newer Flash release.
• Pin a specific Flash generation where output has to stay comparable across releases.

Avoid it when

• You are starting a new integration; Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 / $3.75 against $1.5 / $9 here, with the same limits.
• You need more than 65,536 output tokens in a single response.
• You need a live, low-latency session; the Live API is not supported on this model.

Alternatives to consider

• Gemini 3.8 Flash Curated

  Google (Gemini) ● Active

  $0.75 / $3.75 against $1.5 / $9, with the same limits and modalities, and three releases newer.

  $0.75 in · $3.75 out / M tokens · 1M context

• Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Curated

  Google (Gemini) ● Active

  A fifth of the input price at $0.3 / $2.5 with the same modalities and the same context window.

  $0.30 in · $2.50 out / M tokens · 1M context

• Claude Sonnet 5 Curated

  Anthropic ● Active

  Anthropic's mid tier at $2 / $10 with a 1M-token window and 128K max output.

  $2.00 in · $10.00 out / M tokens · 1M context

• GPT-5.6 Terra Curated

  OpenAI ● Active

  OpenAI's balanced tier at $2 / $12 with a 1.05M-token window and 128K max output.

  $2.00 in · $12.00 out / M tokens · 1.1M context

• Claude Sonnet 4.5 Derived

  Amazon Bedrock ● Active

  Alternative from Amazon Bedrock, same tier (mid-tier), similar price; shares chat, coding, reasoning, agents and long-context.

  $3.00 in · $15.00 out / M tokens · 200K context

Curated suggestions were picked by a reviewer, with the reason written by hand. Derived suggestions are ranked from the data — shared tags, the same tier and a comparable price band — not from benchmark scores. Check the capability fit yourself: we track lifecycle, price and specifications.

Sources

• ai.google.dev ↗ https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/models
• ai.google.dev ↗ https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
• ai.google.dev ↗ https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations
• ai.google.dev ↗ https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/models/gemini-3.5-flash

Verified against the source on 10 September 2026. Dataset snapshot 10 September 2026. Providers can change a date without notice — the link above is always the final word.

About this profile

The specifications and dates above are facts from Google (Gemini), with the sources listed. The summary, the use-for and avoid-when lists and the curated alternatives are our assessment: editorial profile reviewed on 21 September 2026 by llm-researcher.