Gemini 3.5 Flash: more expensive, but Google plan to use it for everything (simonwillison.net)

Google has officially launched Gemini 3.5 Flash, skipping the preview phase and making it immediately available across its core products, including the Gemini app, Google Search, and its developer platform. This new model supports a significant input of over 1 million tokens and 65,536 maximum output tokens, while also introducing a notable price increase—three times the cost of its predecessor, Gemini 3 Flash Preview, and six times that of 3.1 Flash-Lite. At $1.50 per million input tokens and $9 per million output tokens, it approaches the pricing of Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro, indicating a trend in the industry where major AI companies are testing their customers’ price tolerance. The significance of this rollout lies in Google's strategy to integrate Gemini 3.5 Flash across various consumer and enterprise applications, suggesting a strong commitment to enhancing their AI capabilities. As this shift occurs amidst rising costs observed with other leading AI models like OpenAI's GPT and Anthropic's Claude Opus, it highlights a broader market trend where the emphasis on advanced capabilities comes at a steep price. This move positions Google to monetize its robust AI technologies while gauging the impact of these increased costs on developers and enterprises alike.