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Google releases three new Gemini models — but no 3.5 Pro

Rebecca Bellan

10:11 AM PDT · July 21, 2026

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On Tuesday, Google DeepMind released Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber. Gemini 3.6 Flash is Google’s “workhorse model” that promises improved capabilities in coding, knowledge work, and multimodal performance while reducing token usage by up to 17%, making it cheaper than its predecessor 3.5 Flash.

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the most cost-effective model in the class, and 3.5 Flash Cyber is a specialized model that was fine-tuned for finding and fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities at a decent price point. This model will be exclusively available to governments and trusted partners as part of a limited access pilot program, according to Google.

Google says the focus on these releases is to deliver efficiency, latency, and reliability to customers that are building AI agents at scale.

The launch is notable not just for what Google shipped — cheaper, faster models optimized for coding, efficiency, and cybersecurity — but also for what it didn’t. The update doesn’t include the long-anticipated update to Google’s flagship model, Gemini Pro, which was last updated in February.

In the time since that launch, OpenAI has released GPT-5.5 and begun rolling out GPT-5.6, while Anthropic has launched Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 5 and has expanded access to its frontier Fable 5 model, highlighting the intense release pace of the rival labs.

Google teased the release of Pro as part of the 3.5 Flash release in May, saying the Pro version was “already being used internally, and we look forward to rolling it out next month.” Last week, Bloomberg reported that Google was facing internal delays in launching the 3.5 Pro as it struggled to meet internal performance goals.

Gemini Pro models are generally Google’s highest-capability offerings for complex reasoning and coding tasks, while Flash models prioritize lower cost and faster response times for production applications.

Google DeepMind product lead Logan Kilpatrick said Tuesday that the company is currently testing Gemini 3.5 Pro with partners and hopes to “land soon.” He also noted that the team has started its most ambitious pre-training run yet for Gemini 4.

Topics

AI, Enterprise, Google, google gemini

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Rebecca Bellan

Rebecca Bellan

Senior Reporter

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Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch where she covers the business, policy, and emerging trends shaping artificial intelligence. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and other publications.

You can contact or verify outreach from Rebecca by emailing rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at rebeccabellan.491 on Signal.

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