{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-02-gemini-3-8-flash/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-02-gemini-3-8-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":"2026-09-02-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":"On 2 Sept 2026 Google made Gemini 3.8 Flash generally available — its fourth Flash model in ~106 days and, per Google, its most intelligent Flash model, tuned for long-horizon software engineering (over 70% on DeepSWE v1.1) at $0.75/$3.75 per 1M tokens (intro pricing).","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Introducing Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber (Google blog)","url":"https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/3-8-flash-and-3-8-flash-cyber/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"blog.google"},{"n":2,"title":"Gemini 3.8 Flash — Google DeepMind model page (benchmarks)","url":"https://deepmind.google/models/gemini/flash/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"deepmind.google"},{"n":3,"title":"Gemini 3.8 Flash model card","url":"https://deepmind.google/models/model-cards/gemini-3-8-flash/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"deepmind.google"},{"n":4,"title":"Gemini API model page: gemini-3.8-flash","url":"https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/models/gemini-3.8-flash","type":"docs","group":"primary","domain":"ai.google.dev"},{"n":5,"title":"Gemini API release notes","url":"https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/changelog","type":"docs","group":"primary","domain":"ai.google.dev"},{"n":6,"title":"Gemini API pricing","url":"https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing","type":"docs","group":"primary","domain":"ai.google.dev"},{"n":7,"title":"Google DeepMind: Introducing Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber","url":"https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-gemini-3-8-flash-and-38-flash-cyber/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"deepmind.google"},{"n":8,"title":"Google: Proactive cyber defense for governments and enterprises (Fairwind Program)","url":"https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/fairwind-program/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"blog.google"},{"n":9,"title":"Google blog: See what 4 builders are making with Gemini 3.8 Flash (Sept 28)","url":"https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-8-flash-developers/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"blog.google"},{"n":10,"title":"Fortune: Google shipped four Gemini Flash models in 106 days, flagship still AWOL","url":"https://fortune.com/2026/09/03/google-shipped-four-gemini-flash-models-in-106-days-but-its-flagship-frontier-model-is-still-nowhere-to-be-seen/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"fortune.com"}],"official":9,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-30","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google"],"title":"Google releases Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber","summary":"On 2 Sept 2026 Google made Gemini 3.8 Flash generally available — its fourth Flash model in ~106 days and, per Google, its most intelligent Flash model, tuned for long-horizon software engineering (over 70% on DeepSWE v1.1) at $0.75/$3.75 per 1M tokens (intro pricing). A restricted Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber variant for vetted defenders shipped alongside. As of late Sept 2026 it is the newest Flash model in the Gemini API (`gemini-3.8-flash`).","key_facts":["GA on 2026-09-02; API model ID: gemini-3.8-flash","Inputs: text, image, video, audio, PDF; output: text","Context: 1,048,576 input tokens; 65,536 output tokens; thinking levels low/medium/high","Price: $0.75 input / $3.75 output per 1M tokens through 2026-12-31, then $1.50 / $7.50 from 2027-01-01","DeepSWE v1.1: over 70% (Fortune reports 74%) — Google says it beats most larger frontier models","HLE-Verified: 54.9% (vs GPT-5.6 Sol 54.5%, Claude Opus 5 54.4%, Gemini 3.7 Flash 53.6%) per Google's table","Vals Finance Agent v2: 61.4% (vs Claude Opus 5 58.6%, GPT-5.6 Sol 53.8%) per Google's table","3.8 Flash Cyber: 47.2% pass@1 on CWE-Bench (automated patching); >70% success on internal vulnerability-finding test across 20 languages; access via application-only 'Fairwind Program'","Chrome Security reported 2.6x more correct vulnerability patches; Wiz reported +7.5–9.7% recall at 2.3–5.2x lower cost","Fortune: 10th place on Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index; ~40% higher cost at high reasoning than predecessor; $2.36 vs $11.84 per task compared with Claude Opus 5","Released three weeks after Gemini 3.7 Flash (2026-08-13)","Fairwind Program (Sept 2): limited-access program giving vetted governments, Google Cloud customers and cyber partners Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber with the CodeMender agent harness to find, verify and patch vulnerabilities; access is limited to in-house security/IR/pentest teams with MFA and similar safeguards; other Cloud customers can use CodeMender with public models"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["llm","gemini","flash","coding","agents","cybersecurity","multimodal","video-understanding"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nGoogle DeepMind released **Gemini 3.8 Flash** (GA) on 2 September 2026, calling it its \"most intelligent Flash model, engineered for long-horizon software engineering\". It is available in Google AI Studio / Gemini API, Android Studio, Google Antigravity, Gemini Enterprise, the Gemini app (Pro/Ultra), AI Mode in Search and Google Sheets.\n\nAlongside it came **Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber**, a specialised model for autonomous vulnerability discovery and patching, gated behind an application-only \"Fairwind Program\" for trusted defenders. Google cited partner results: Chrome Security got 2.6x more correct patches, Wiz saw higher recall at much lower cost, and Google Cloud's vulnerability research team found a critical bug in under two hours.\n\nOn the Gemini API it keeps the 1M-token context and multimodal inputs (text, image, video incl. YouTube URLs, audio, PDF), with configurable thinking levels, computer use (preview), search/Maps grounding, code execution, file search and structured output. Introductory pricing matches 3.7 Flash ($0.75/$3.75 per 1M tokens) until the end of 2026, then doubles.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nGemini 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). Google's own tables show a \"Flash\"-tier model matching or beating frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic on some agentic/finance/reasoning benchmarks at a fraction of the price — while the flagship Gemini 3.5 Pro remained unreleased, which press framed as a sign of trouble at the top end. Cyber-specialised variants gated to vetted defenders have become a pattern across labs in 2026.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-09-23-gemini-4-post-training","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-23-gemini-4-post-training/","date":"2026-09-23","date_precision":"day","short_title":"DeepMind says Gemini 4 has entered post-training and will ship \"much earlier\" than end of 2026","deck":null,"takeaway":"Signals Google's response to GPT-6 and Anthropic's latest models after months of Flash-only releases.","category":"milestone","category_label":"Milestones","importance":3,"confidence":"medium","status":{"key":"partly","labels":["Partly confirmed"]},"sources":4,"official":0,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Google DeepMind"]},{"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":"2026-07-21-gemini-3-6-flash","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/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":"The 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).","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":5,"official":3,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","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":"2026-09-30","type":"edit","text":"Added DeepMind launch post and the Fairwind Program post"},{"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":"2026-09-30","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-04"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":125,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":64,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":155,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":94,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":"https://postcutoff.com/s/google-gemini-3-8-flash"}