# Notes on Flash 3.8

> Source: <https://www.natemeyvis.com/notes-on-flash-38/>
> Published: 2026-09-02 16:08:00+00:00

[Flash 3.8](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/3-8-flash-and-3-8-flash-cyber/) is out, as I discovered when it showed up in my [Antigravity](https://antigravity.google/) terminal.

A few notes after perhaps an hour of use:

- As
[I discussed earlier today](https://www.natemeyvis.com/first-impressions-of-fable-51/), I use the latest Flash models heavily because they combine power and speed in such a valuable way.
- Flash 3.8 with
*high* thinking did well on the first tough task I gave it, but it was slow (probably not faster than Fable). I'm likely to keep using Fable 5.1 instead of Flash for tougher tasks.
- Flash 3.8 with
*low* thinking is addressing simpler tasks, both coding and non-coding, quickly and accurately. I believe that it's more powerful than 3.7, but I haven't yet *felt* that difference.
- So far, there's (still) a big latency difference between low and high thinking.
- I have a standard content-extraction task that I like to use as a benchmark. Over a small sample, Flash 3.8 with low thinking gave results ~25% faster than Flash 3.7 low thinking; those results are different but, in my judgment, not clearly better or worse.
- "Not better, but faster and a bit different" fits my experience across the ten or so little projects I've done with it so far. Again, given how I use Flash and how important speed is, it would be
*great* if this were true.

Happy New Flash Day!
