{"slug": "google-shipped-three-cheap-gemini-models-and-a-mythos-rival-but-not-the-one-that", "title": "Google shipped three cheap Gemini models and a Mythos rival, but not the one that matters", "summary": "Google launched three new Gemini models on Tuesday, including Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber, all at its low-cost Flash tier, emphasizing efficiency over raw power. The company claims Gemini 3.6 Flash uses 17% fewer output tokens and costs $7.50 per million output tokens, down from $9, while 3.5 Flash Cyber targets Anthropic's Mythos as a cost-efficient security model. However, the flagship Gemini 3.5 Pro remains delayed, and Google has no model in the public top ten as competitors like xAI, OpenAI, and Anthropic ship new models.", "body_md": "Google’s answer to a summer of being outrun is not a bigger model. It is cheaper ones.\n\nOn Tuesday the company [launched](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-6-flash-3-5-flash-lite-3-5-flash-cyber/) three new Gemini models, all at its fast, low-cost “Flash” tier, a day before Alphabet reports earnings. The message is efficiency over raw power. The catch is what is still missing.\n\n## Cheap, fast, and everywhere but the top\n\nThe workhorse is Gemini 3.6 Flash. Google says it does better coding and knowledge work than its predecessor while using about 17% fewer output tokens, and it costs less. That is $7.50 per million output tokens, down from $9. Its knowledge now runs to March 2026.\n\nAlongside it sits 3.5 Flash-Lite, the fastest of the family at 350 tokens a second, and cheaper still. Both lean into one bet: that most AI work does not need a frontier brain, just a quick, affordable one.\n\nThat bet has a champion. “Companies are already blowing through their annual token budgets, and it’s only May,” chief executive Sundar Pichai said earlier this year. A mix of Flash models, he [told Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/google-gemini-35-pro-flash-cyber-lite-speed-token-price-2026-7), could save firms over $1 billion a year.\n\n## A cheaper shot at Mythos\n\nThe most pointed release is Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber. It is tuned to find and patch software vulnerabilities, running inside Google’s CodeMender agent. Google calls it a “cost-efficient” alternative to large security models.\n\nThe unnamed target is [Anthropic’s Mythos](https://thenextweb.com/news/osfi-canada-banks-claude-mythos-warning), which costs $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output, as [The Verge](https://www.theverge.com/tech/968572/google-gemini-flash-cyber-ai-security-model) notes. Google claims Flash Cyber matches frontier performance on a key benchmark at a fraction of the price, a direct swipe at Anthropic’s lead in [AI-driven security](https://thenextweb.com/news/microsoft-patch-tuesday-record-ai-found-flaws).\n\nBecause a bug-finder also helps attackers, Google is keeping it on a leash. Flash Cyber goes only to governments and trusted partners, in a limited pilot.\n\n## The model they did not ship\n\nThen there is the absence. Gemini 3.5 Pro, the flagship Google promised for June, is [still in testing](https://thenextweb.com/news/google-gemini-pro-delayed-coding-falls-short), reportedly held back after falling short on coding. Google has no model in the public top ten.\n\nThe timing stings. In roughly a week, xAI’s Grok 4.5, three versions of OpenAI’s GPT-5.6, and Moonshot’s [Kimi K3](https://thenextweb.com/news/moonshot-kimi-k3-largest-open-model) all shipped. Anthropic’s Fable 5, meanwhile, sits atop the leaderboards, as [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/business/google-updates-lightweight-gemini-models-flagship-still-delayed-2026-07-21/) reported.\n\n## Gemini 4, on paper\n\nGoogle’s reply is to point further ahead. It says it has begun its “most ambitious pre-training run yet” for Gemini 4. That is a statement of intent, not a shipped capability.\n\nThe efficiency drive runs deeper than software. Google is also building a [custom chip](https://thenextweb.com/news/google-frozen-chip-gemini-silicon) to serve Gemini far more cheaply. One caveat is worth keeping, though: every benchmark here is Google’s own, and no outsider has checked them yet.\n\n## The bet\n\nThe plan is coherent. In a year when companies are counting tokens, cheap and fast can win the middle of the market while the flagship catches up. Whether it holds rests on two things: 3.5 Pro finally shipping, and Gemini 4 turning out to be more than a training run.\n\n## Get the TNW newsletter\n\nGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-shipped-three-cheap-gemini-models-and-a-mythos-rival-but-not-the-one-that", "canonical_source": "https://thenextweb.com/news/google-gemini-3-6-flash-flash-cyber-launch", "published_at": "2026-07-21 16:29:17+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-21 16:49:35.731276+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-chips", "ai-safety"], "entities": ["Google", "Gemini 3.6 Flash", "Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite", "Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber", "Anthropic", "Mythos", "Sundar Pichai", "CodeMender"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-shipped-three-cheap-gemini-models-and-a-mythos-rival-but-not-the-one-that", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-shipped-three-cheap-gemini-models-and-a-mythos-rival-but-not-the-one-that.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-shipped-three-cheap-gemini-models-and-a-mythos-rival-but-not-the-one-that.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-shipped-three-cheap-gemini-models-and-a-mythos-rival-but-not-the-one-that.jsonld"}}