Google's Gemini 3.5 Flash is a big step up from its predecessor, but in benchmark testing, it costs 5.5 times as much to run. On agent tasks, total costs even exceed the pricier Gemini 3.1 Pro by 75 percent because the model needs more interaction steps than any rival tested. Google isn't alone here: AI is getting more expensive across the board as the massive investments need to pay off.

Google used its I/O developer conference to unveil a wave of new AI products. The highlights: a new model called Gemini 3.5 Flash, a multimodal model called Gemini Omni, and a…

Google unveils Gemini 3.5 Flash at I/O 2026, saying the new AI model is faster, cheaper and smarter than its predecessor and could save enterprises more than $1 billion a year in…