Google has launched Gemini 3.8 Flash, a new artificial intelligence model designed to spend more time reasoning through complex tasks and using external tools than its predecessor.
The release comes only weeks after Gemini 3.7 Flash. Google said the latest model “works harder” by carrying out additional reasoning steps and “calling tools iteratively”, particularly on demanding requests.
Gemini 3.8 Flash retains the introductory price of $0.75 (£0.56) per million input tokens and $3.75 (£2.80) per million output tokens. However, Google warned that users could still pay more because the model may consume additional tokens to improve performance, especially when operated at higher effort levels.
Developers seeking to control costs can continue using Gemini 3.7 Flash, according to the company.
Gemini 3.8 Flash targets coding and autonomous agents
Google said Gemini 3.8 Flash delivers substantial gains in software engineering and the performance of autonomous AI agents. The company said it surpassed its predecessor and other leading models on the DeepSWE v1.1 software engineering benchmark.
It also recorded stronger results on the Vals Finance Agent V2 and Harvey’s Legal Agent benchmarks. The comparisons included Anthropic’s Fable 5, which was upgraded earlier this week with claims of improved performance and lower costs for users relying on cached data.
Early assessments suggested that the new model’s efficiency gains may come with higher usage. Artificial Analysis described Gemini 3.8 Flash as “the cheapest we’ve measured at this level of intelligence”, while saying its cost per task had risen by about 40 per cent compared with Gemini 3.7 Flash because it generated more output and required more turns in agent-based tests.
John Ennis, chief executive of Aigora.ai, compared its coding performance with Anthropic’s models, describing it as offering “Opus 5 coding quality but at a fraction of the cost and super fast”. He added that it could be useful for producing Remotion videos.
Google said Gemini 3.8 Flash includes safeguards intended to prevent misuse in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear fields, as well as in cyber-offensive activity.
The company has also released Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber through its new Fairwind programme. Restricted to governments and “trusted partners”, the initiative includes 650 members, among them CrowdStrike and the Center for Internet Security.
Participants will receive access to Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber and Google’s CodeMender agent, which the company says can autonomously identify and repair vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, public services and national security systems.
Gemini 3.8 Flash is available to consumers with Google AI Pro or Ultra subscriptions, as well as to developers and enterprise customers.
