Gemini API — deprecations, shutdowns and changelog digest
Status: DOCUMENTED (+ LIVE_DISCOVERED where the live listing contradicts the docs). Twin: generated/fragments/deprecations/gemini-deprecations.json.
Sources: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations · https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/changelog · https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/models · https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/latest-model · https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/api-key · https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/libraries · https://ai.google.dev/api/generate-content#ModelStatus
Last verified: 2026-09-18 (docs) / 2026-09-19 (live).
1. Lifecycle vocabulary
| Docs term | Meaning | API ModelStatus.modelStage |
|---|---|---|
| Stable (GA) | fixed model, production default | STABLE |
| Preview | production allowed, billing on, tighter limits, ≥ 2 weeks deprecation notice | PREVIEW |
| Experimental | not for production, may vanish | EXPERIMENTAL (UNSTABLE_EXPERIMENTAL deprecated) |
| Latest alias | -latest hot-swapped; 2-week e-mail notice for breaking swaps |
— |
| Legacy | path to deprecation; existing customers only | LEGACY |
| Deprecated | support ended, shutdown date announced (earliest possible) | DEPRECATED (enum value itself deprecated) |
| Shut down | endpoint off | RETIRED |
Dates are for the Gemini Developer API only; Vertex AI has its own schedule. Live GET /v1beta/models still lists several shut-down ids.
2. Model shutdown schedule (deprecations.md, 2026-09-18)
Upcoming
| Model | Released | Earliest shutdown | Replacement |
|---|---|---|---|
gemini-omni-flash-preview |
2026-06-30 | 2026-09-30 | gemini-omni-1.1-flash |
gemini-2.5-flash-image (Nano Banana) |
2025-10-02 | 2026-10-02 | gemini-3.1-flash-image / -lite-image |
antigravity-preview-05-2026 |
2026-05-19 | 2026-10-05 | antigravity-preview-09-2026 (tool names/params changed) |
gemini-3.1-flash-lite |
2026-05-07 | 2027-05-07 | gemini-3.5-flash-lite |
gemini-embedding-001 |
2025-07-14 | 2028-05-14 | gemini-embedding-2 |
Replacement recommended, no date
gemini-3-flash-preview → 3.6 Flash · gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview, gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-12-2025 → gemini-3.8-live · gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts, gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts → gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview · lyria-3-pro-preview → lyria-3.5 · gemini-2.5-computer-use-preview-10-2025 → built-in computer use on Gemini 3.x. Gemini 2.5 Pro / Flash / Flash-Lite: no date, but generation returns 404 … no longer available to new users (undocumented; troubleshooting.md already says "Deprecated Gemini 2.5 models").
Already shut down (2025-10 → 2026-08)
| Date | Ids |
|---|---|
| 2025-10-30 | embedding-001, embedding-gecko-001, gemini-embedding-exp(-03-07) |
| 2025-11-10/12/14/18 | imagen-3.0-generate-002 · veo-3.0-(fast-)generate-preview · gemini-2.0-flash-preview-image-generation · gemini-2.5-flash-preview-05-20 |
| 2025-12-02 | gemini-2.5-pro-preview-03-25 / 05-06 / 06-05 |
| 2025-12-09 | gemini-2.0-flash-lite-preview(-02-05), gemini-2.0-flash-live-001, gemini-live-2.5-flash-preview |
| 2026-01-14/15 | text-embedding-004 · gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview |
| 2026-02-17 | gemini-2.5-flash-preview-09-25, imagen-4.0-(ultra-)generate-preview-06-06 |
| 2026-03-09 | gemini-3-pro-preview (id repointed to 3.1 Pro; live still lists version 3-pro-preview-11-2025) |
| 2026-03-31 | gemini-2.5-flash-lite-preview-09-2025 |
| 2026-04-30 | gemini-robotics-er-1.5-preview |
| 2026-05-25 | gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview (still in live listing) |
| 2026-06-01 | gemini-2.0-flash(-001), gemini-2.0-flash-lite(-001) |
| 2026-06-15 | GMP Contextual View tool |
| 2026-06-25 | gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview, gemini-3-pro-image-preview / nano-banana-pro-preview (still in live listing) |
| 2026-06-30 | veo-2.0-generate-001, veo-3.0-generate-001, veo-3.0-fast-generate-001 |
| 2026-08-10 | embedding-2-preview (docs spelling; live gemini-embedding-2-preview still served) |
| 2026-08-17 | imagen-4.0-generate-001 / ultra / fast (live GET → 404) |
| 2026-08-31 | gemini-robotics-er-1.6-preview |
3. API-feature deprecations
| Item | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
temperature, top_p, top_k |
DEPRECATED 2026-07-21 | keep defaults on Gemini 3.x (temperature < 1 can loop); live Model.maxTemperature = 2 (text) / 1 (image) |
thinking_budget |
LEGACY | use thinking_level; both in one request → 400 |
Interactions API outputs → steps, response_format |
breaking | new schema default 2026-05-26; legacy removed 2026-06-08 |
total_reasoning_tokens |
RENAMED 2025-12-19 | total_thought_tokens |
| Standard API keys | DEPRECATED | new keys are auth keys since 2026-05-28; unrestricted standard keys rejected; dormant unrestricted keys blocked since 2026-05-07; all standard keys rejected September 2026 |
| Legacy SDKs (google-generativeai, @google/generative-ai, generative-ai-go, Dart, Swift, Android) | DEPRECATED 2025-11-30 | google-genai / @google/genai / go-genai; Firebase AI Logic / Genkit for mobile |
PaLM methods generateText, generateMessage, embedText, batchEmbedText, countTextTokens, countMessageTokens |
LEGACY | still in the v1beta discovery doc (rev. 20260918), absent from v1; only aqa (generateAnswer) and embedding models (countTextTokens) advertise legacy methods live |
| Model tuning on the Gemini API | RETIRED (May 2025) | tunedModels.* routes remain in v1beta; use Vertex AI supervised tuning |
Imagen / models.predict |
RETIRED 2026-08-17 | Nano Banana family via generateContent |
HARM_CATEGORY_CIVIC_INTEGRITY |
DEPRECATED | enableEnhancedCivicAnswers |
4. Changelog digest (newest first, 2026)
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-09-17 | antigravity-preview-09-2026 released; 05-2026 deprecated (shutdown 2026-10-05); built-in tool API changed (PascalCase params, replace_file_content, view_file, list_dir, find_by_name, grep_search) |
| 2026-09-15 | gemini-3.8-live, gemini-3.8-live-extended-thinking GA (async function calling default, interleaved reasoning) |
| 2026-09-03 | lyria-3.5 GA (44.1 kHz stereo, full songs) |
| 2026-09-02 | gemini-3.8-flash GA; intro pricing through 2026-12-31; default for Antigravity |
| 2026-09-01 | Agentic video understanding (3.7 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite): up to 88 % fewer tokens |
| 2026-08-27 | gemini-omni-1.1-flash GA (extension, interpolation, 360p–4K); preview deprecated 2026-09-30 |
| 2026-08-26 | gemini-3.5-transcribe, gemini-3.5-transcribe-live GA |
| 2026-08-13 | gemini-3.7-flash GA |
| 2026-07-30 | Robotics ER 2 (+ streaming) preview; ER 1.6 shutdown announced |
| 2026-07-21 | gemini-3.6-flash, gemini-3.5-flash-lite GA; sampling params deprecated |
| 2026-07-06 | Developer logs for Interactions API |
| 2026-06-30 | gemini-omni-flash-preview; gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image GA |
| 2026-06-24 | Computer Use preview on 3.5 Flash (browser/mobile/desktop, safety policies, prompt-injection detection) |
| 2026-06-17 | Streaming TTS on gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview |
| 2026-06-15 | Imagen 4 shutdown (08-17) and Veo 2.0/3.0 shutdown (06-30) announced |
| 2026-06-01 | Gemini 2.0 Flash / Flash-Lite shut down |
| 2026-05-28 | gemini-3.1-flash-image, gemini-3-pro-image GA; video-to-image on 3.1 Flash Image; previews deprecated (06-25) |
| 2026-05-19 | gemini-3.5-flash GA (behind gemini-flash-latest); Managed Agents preview; Antigravity agent preview |
| 2026-05-07 | gemini-3.1-flash-lite GA |
| 2026-05-06 | Interactions API schema breaking change announced |
| 2026-05-05 / 05-04 | File Search multimodal (embedding-2, media_id, page_numbers); Webhooks |
| 2026-04-22 / 04-21 / 04-15 / 04-14 / 04-02 / 04-01 | gemini-embedding-2 GA; Deep Research 04-2026 (+Max); 3.1 Flash TTS preview; Robotics ER 1.6; Gemma 4 (26B-A4B, 31B); Flex & Priority tiers |
| 2026-03-31 / 03-26 / 03-25 / 03-23 / 03-18 / 03-16 / 03-12 / 03-10 / 03-09 / 03-03 | Veo 3.1 Lite; 3.1 Flash Live; Lyria 3 (clip/pro); prepay/postpay billing; tool + function-calling combination, Maps grounding on Gemini 3; usage tiers & spend caps; project spend caps; gemini-embedding-2-preview; 3 Pro Preview shut down; 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview |
| 2026-02-26 / 02-19 / 02-18 / 02-17 | Nano Banana 2 preview; gemini-3.1-pro-preview + -customtools; 2.0 shutdown announced; 2.5 Flash 09-25 & Imagen previews shut down |
| 2026-01-29 / 01-21 / 01-15 / 01-14 / 01-13 / 01-12 / 01-08 | Computer Use on 3 Pro/Flash preview; -latest aliases → Gemini 3 previews; 2.5 flash-image-preview shut down; text-embedding-004 shut down; Veo 4K; model lifecycle field (ModelStatus); Cloud Storage / signed-URL inputs, 100 MB files |
Live observation not in the changelog: on 2026-09-19 gemini-flash-latest resolves to gemini-3.8-flash (docs last say 3.5 Flash, 2026-05-19).