Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite tune for token cost per agent task
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Today, we're introducing not one but TWO new models, striking the balance between efficiency and quality to enable you to build production AI agents. — Gemini 3.6 Flash: Addresses efficiency feedback we received from Gemini 3.5 Flash with upgrades in coding, knowledge work, and multimodal tasks faster, more accurately, and with substantially fewer tokens per task — Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: Our fastest, most cost-effective 3.5-class model yet built for agentic workflows, hitting ~350 output tokens/sec with improved coding and overall quality Start building with these today via the Gemini API in @GoogleAIStudio or try them out in the @GeminiApp
Context
Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite address different parts of the cost of running AI agents. Google AI says 3.6 Flash uses fewer output per task than 3.5 Flash, while Flash-Lite emphasizes generating output quickly for high-volume work. Fewer tokens reduce the amount of generated text being billed; higher throughput reduces the time spent producing a given amount of output. Release explanation.
These are separate efficiency measures. Choosing between them requires considering the task's completion quality, total token usage and response time together.
- token — The chunk of text a model reads and writes in — roughly three-quarters of a word — and the unit AI usage is billed in.
- multimodal — A model that works with more than text — reading images, audio, or video, and sometimes generating them too.
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