Google has significantly expanded its AI ecosystem with several major releases, positioning itself at the forefront of generative AI technology.
The Gemini 2.5 family has grown with both Flash and Pro models now generally available for production use. Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro are now stable and generally available, allowing developers to build production applications with confidence. Companies like Spline, Rooms, Snap, and SmartBear have already been using these versions in production for several weeks. The growth and demand for Gemini 2.5 Pro has been the steepest of any Google model to date, prompting the company to make the 06-05 version stable while maintaining the same price point. Google expects Pro to excel in scenarios requiring the highest intelligence and most capabilities, such as coding and agentic tasks.
Additionally, Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite in preview, their most cost-efficient and fastest 2.5 model yet. This new addition is designed as a cost-effective option for high-throughput tasks like classification or summarization at scale, offering better performance across most evaluations and lower time to first token while achieving higher tokens per second decode. Flash-Lite is a reasoning model that allows for dynamic control of the thinking budget through an API parameter. Unlike other models in the family, thinking is off by default as Flash-Lite is optimized for cost and speed. Despite this optimization, it still supports all native tools including Grounding with Google Search, Code Execution, URL Context, and function calling.
On the image generation front, Google has released Imagen 4, which was first announced at I/O 2025 last month. Google describes it as their "best text-to-image model yet," featuring "significantly improved text rendering" over previous models. The new model delivers remarkable clarity in fine details like intricate fabrics, water droplets, and animal fur, and excels in both photorealistic and abstract styles. Other improvements include 2K resolution support and improved spelling and typography. Imagen 4 and a premium Imagen 4 Ultra version are now available to paid preview users in the Gemini API, with limited free testing in Google AI Studio. Imagen 4 is priced at $0.04 per output image, while the Ultra version costs $0.06 per image.
Complementing these releases is Gemini CLI, an open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into developers' terminals for coding, problem-solving, and task management. Users can access Gemini 2.5 Pro free of charge with a personal Google account, or use Google AI Studio or Vertex AI keys for expanded access. Gemini CLI offers the industry's largest usage allowance at 60 model requests per minute and 1,000 model requests per day at no charge. It provides powerful AI capabilities, from code understanding and file manipulation to command execution and dynamic troubleshooting, offering a fundamental upgrade to command line experience and enabling users to write code, debug issues, and streamline workflows with natural language.
These releases collectively strengthen Google's position in the competitive AI landscape, providing developers and users with more powerful, efficient, and accessible tools for a wide range of applications.