{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-21-gemini-3-6-flash/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-21-gemini-3-6-flash/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-07-21-gemini-3-6-flash","date":"2026-07-21","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google releases Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite and 3.5 Flash Cyber","deck":"But no 3.5 Pro","takeaway":"On 21 July 2026 Google shipped Gemini 3.6 Flash (17% fewer output tokens than 3.5 Flash, OSWorld-Verified 83.0%, knowledge cutoff March 2026), the cheap Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite ($0.30/$2.50) and a gated Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Google blog: Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.5 Flash Cyber","url":"https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-6-flash-3-5-flash-lite-3-5-flash-cyber/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"blog.google"},{"n":2,"title":"Gemini 3.6 Flash model card","url":"https://deepmind.google/models/model-cards/gemini-3-6-flash/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"deepmind.google"},{"n":3,"title":"Gemini API release notes","url":"https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/changelog","type":"docs","group":"primary","domain":"ai.google.dev"},{"n":4,"title":"TechCrunch: Google releases three new Gemini models — but no 3.5 Pro","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/google-releases-three-new-gemini-models-but-no-3-5-pro/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"techcrunch.com"},{"n":5,"title":"9to5Google: Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite launch, teases Gemini 4","url":"https://9to5google.com/2026/07/21/gemini-3-6-flash-launch/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"9to5google.com"}],"official":3,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google"],"title":"Google releases Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite and 3.5 Flash Cyber — but no 3.5 Pro","summary":"On 21 July 2026 Google shipped Gemini 3.6 Flash (17% fewer output tokens than 3.5 Flash, OSWorld-Verified 83.0%, knowledge cutoff March 2026), the cheap Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite ($0.30/$2.50) and a gated Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber. Google said Gemini 3.5 Pro was still \"testing with partners\" and that pre-training of Gemini 4 had begun.","key_facts":["GA 2026-07-21: gemini-3.6-flash and gemini-3.5-flash-lite","3.6 Flash price: $1.50 input / $7.50 output per 1M tokens (3.5 Flash output was $9)","3.6 Flash: 17% fewer output tokens than 3.5 Flash (Artificial Analysis); DeepSWE 49% (vs 37%); MLE-Bench 63.9% (vs 49.7%); OSWorld-Verified 83.0% (vs 78.4%)","3.6 Flash knowledge cutoff moved to March 2026","3.5 Flash-Lite: $0.30 / $2.50 per 1M tokens; ~350 output tokens/s; Terminal-Bench 2.1 54% (vs 31% for 3.1 Flash-Lite); SWE-Bench Pro 54.2%","3.5 Flash Cyber: limited to governments and trusted partners via CodeMender pilot","Same day the API deprecated temperature, top_p and top_k parameters","Google: Gemini 3.5 Pro 'currently testing with partners'; 'most ambitious pre-training run yet, for Gemini 4' started"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["llm","gemini","flash","flash-lite","cybersecurity","computer-use"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nGoogle DeepMind released three models on 21 July 2026: **Gemini 3.6 Flash** (new default workhorse, more token-efficient, better at coding, ML research and computer use), **Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite** (high-throughput, low-latency tier) and **Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber** (vulnerability detection/patching, limited-access pilot). The Gemini API simultaneously deprecated the classic sampling parameters `temperature`, `top_p` and `top_k`.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nThe launch was widely read through what was missing: Gemini 3.5 Pro, promised at I/O for June, had not shipped (Bloomberg reported it struggled to meet internal performance goals). Google instead doubled down on Flash-tier models and publicly confirmed Gemini 4 pre-training had started.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-09-02-gemini-3-8-flash","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-02-gemini-3-8-flash/","date":"2026-09-02","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google releases Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber","deck":null,"takeaway":"Gemini 3.8 Flash caps an unusually fast cadence: 3.5 Flash (19 May), 3.6 Flash (21 Jul), 3.7 Flash (13 Aug), 3.8 Flash (2 Sep).","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":10,"official":9,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-30","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google"]},{"id":"2026-08-13-gemini-3-7-flash","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-08-13-gemini-3-7-flash/","date":"2026-08-13","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google releases Gemini 3.7 Flash at half the price of 3.6 Flash","deck":null,"takeaway":"A second Flash upgrade in three weeks, and a price cut, showed Google competing on cost-efficient agentic coding while its flagship Pro model slipped.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":7,"official":5,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-30","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google"]},{"id":"2026-05-19-gemini-3-5-flash-io-2026","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-05-19-gemini-3-5-flash-io-2026/","date":"2026-05-19","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google I/O 2026: Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini Spark agent and Antigravity 2.0","deck":null,"takeaway":"3.5 Flash marked the moment Google's cheap tier overtook its previous flagship (3.1 Pro) on agentic coding benchmarks, and it opened a run of four Flash releases in ~106 days.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":6,"official":5,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google"]}],"people":[],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-09-29","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-09-29","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-04"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":82,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":21,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":112,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":51,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":null}