{"slug": "google-doubles-down-on-cheaper-faster-ai-but-says-gemini-3-5-pro-still-isn-t", "title": "Google doubles down on cheaper, faster AI — but says Gemini 3.5 Pro still isn't ready", "summary": "Google announced three new Gemini models on Tuesday, including 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber, emphasizing speed and cost efficiency over raw power. The company said Gemini 3.5 Pro, originally promised for June, is still in testing and will ship when ready. Google CEO Sundar Pichai noted that companies are burning through token budgets and could save money by using a mix of Flash and other models.", "body_md": "Google is rolling out some new AI models — but not the one that many were expecting.\n\nThe company announced on Tuesday three Gemini models that it said are faster and cheaper to run AI agents, as Google [continues to double down](https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ai-cost-tokens-gemini-flash-openai-anthropic-gemini-search-2026-5) on efficiency over raw power.\n\nThat's not entirely by choice: Google said that [Gemini 3.5 Pro](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-google-delayed-gemini-3-5-pro-ai-model-2026-5), the new frontier model it originally promised for June, is still in testing. Google also teased Gemini 4, the next big flagship model, although that is not expected for several months.\n\nOf the new models rolling out this week, Google describes 3.6 Flash as the \"workhorse\" that is better than 3.5 Flash at tasks such as coding. Google said 3.6 Flash reduces token usage — units of text processed by AI — by up to 17% compared to its predecessor, according to analysis from Artificial Analysis Index, a benchmark for comparing AI tools.\n\nGoogle also unveiled 3.5 Flash-Lite, which it says is its fastest and \"most cost-effective\" version of its 3.5 model yet.\n\nThen there's 3.5 Flash Cyber, which is designed to find and fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities at a performance level similar to rivals but at a \"lower price per token than larger models,\" Tulsee Doshi, senior director of product management in Google's Gemini group,** **said in a blog post.\n\nThat last part is crucial. Anthropic and OpenAI have both rolled out [cybersecurity models](https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-white-house-fable-mythos-5-drama-explained-2026-6) in recent months, but it seems that, again, Google is hoping to undercut the competition on cost.\n\nWith the realization that [using lots of tokens ](https://www.businessinsider.com/tokenmaxxing-ai-token-leaderboards-debate-2026-4)doesn't always merit the best results, more companies are [reining in their AI spending](https://www.businessinsider.com/token-reckoning-amazon-uber-reassess-ai-investments-2026-6) and turning to more cost-conscious models. That gives Google a strategic opening.\n\n\"Companies are already blowing through their annual token budgets, and it's only May,\" Google CEO [ Sundar Pichai](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-google-delayed-gemini-3-5-pro-ai-model-2026-5) said earlier this year. \"If companies used a mix of Flash and other frontier models, they could save a lot of money.\"\n\nGoogle says its new models hit the \"sweet spot\" of efficiency and power for running agents.\n\n## No sign of 3.5 Pro\n\nGemini 3.5 Pro, Google's next big frontier model, is being tested with partners and will ship it \"as soon as it's ready,\" the company said.\n\nBusiness Insider [reported in June](https://www.businessinsider.com/google-3-5-pro-july-release-tokens-ai-agents-model-2026-6) that Google had pushed the targeted release date for 3.5 Pro to July. [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-16/google-gemini-launch-delayed-as-tech-falls-short-of-internal-goals?srnd=undefined) recently reported the model may have been further delayed.\n\nAs of Tuesday, Google hasn't got a single model among the top 10 ranking in the [Artificial Analysis leaderboard](https://artificialanalysis.ai/leaderboards/models), which uses a composite benchmark to score models across areas including maths and reasoning.\n\nGoogle also said on Tuesday that it has begun its \"most ambitious pre-training run yet\" for Gemini 4, its next major model.\n\nTypically, Google launches these big flagship models at the very end of the year, and it's not yet clear whether the 3.5 Pro will be powerful enough to vault Google back to the bleeding edge in the interim.\n\nHowever, as companies take a [more considered approach to their AI spend](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-model-routing-modelmaxxing-efficient-token-use-2026-7) and cap their token usage, Google is positioning itself for the moment.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-doubles-down-on-cheaper-faster-ai-but-says-gemini-3-5-pro-still-isn-t", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/google-gemini-35-pro-flash-cyber-lite-speed-token-price-2026-7", "published_at": "2026-07-21 15:00:02+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-21 15:13:59.650141+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "ai-startups"], "entities": ["Google", "Gemini 3.6 Flash", "Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite", "Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber", "Gemini 3.5 Pro", "Gemini 4", "Sundar Pichai", "Artificial Analysis Index"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-doubles-down-on-cheaper-faster-ai-but-says-gemini-3-5-pro-still-isn-t", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-doubles-down-on-cheaper-faster-ai-but-says-gemini-3-5-pro-still-isn-t.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-doubles-down-on-cheaper-faster-ai-but-says-gemini-3-5-pro-still-isn-t.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-doubles-down-on-cheaper-faster-ai-but-says-gemini-3-5-pro-still-isn-t.jsonld"}}