2025 has been a packed year for Google’s Gemini. Every couple of months, the team has released new updates, features and some truly revolutionary ideas. But it was a recent, and seemingly smaller, update that has impressed me the most.
Recently, Google announced the launch of Gemini Flash. This is an addition to the Gemini 3 family, offering a faster, more affordable alternative to the ultra-intelligent Gemini 3 Pro.
Normally, these more affordable versions of AI models offer a clear trade-off. You get a faster response, which costs less to run, but it just can’t perform as well as the more powerful alternatives.
With Gemini 3 Flash, Google found a solution to this problem. It just made an AI model that is fast, as well as being incredibly smart. It can take on challenging tasks, but doesn’t force you to spend ages waiting for a response. I’ve seen a lot of solid AI updates, but here’s why it has a place as one of the best.
Open to everyone
Upon its release, Google made Gemini 3 Flash free for absolutely anyone to use. In fact, the company made this the default version of the tool.
Compared to other companies, like OpenAI and Anthropic, this is great news. It means that, even for those who don’t want to pay for AI, there is a version that can take on the vast majority of challenges, and won’t put limits on your usage.
Sure, for those who want more power out of their AI, there are two additional options. Google offers Gemini 3 Pro and a Deep Think mode for those willing to pay for one of its premium plans.
But for everyone else, the cost barrier to good, fast AI has been removed with this update.
A more than capable choice
Despite being both free, and positioned as the speedy workhorse of the Gemini family, Flash is undeniably impressive.
Since it came out, I’ve been using Gemini Flash frequently. It produces really fast responses, without leaving out details. In fact, I have been consistently blown away with just how much it can provide in a limited amount of time.
A couple of days ago, I had Gemini 3 Flash read through a 75-page document, and offer up its recommendations for next steps. It returned a well-thought through response, along with costs, plans for the future and concerns from the document.
However, it’s not just my own experience of it. On launch, Google posted a list of benchmarking scores for the model. This showed Gemini 3 Flash scoring at similar levels to its competitors, falling only slightly behind the likes of GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Grok 4.1 in a variety of challenging tests.
Multimodal capabilities
With the release of Gemini 3, Google made the point of offering a vast improvement in the models ability to understand documents, spatial reasoning, screen records and videos.
Surprisingly, Gemini 3 Flash continues this same concept, able to understand inputs while still working at faster speeds.
This is why it can handle large documents, or watch long videos and report back on its findings surprisingly easily. Not only that, but Gemini 3 Flash can handle multiple sources at once. If you’re asking for tips on a garden redesign, you can include measurements, videos and images, as well as descriptions to get the best responses.
Compared to other fast models, like GPT-5.2 Fast or Grok 4.1 Fast, this is a great additional feature, rarely seen at this level. For most tasks, Gemini Flash will prove to be more than capable for the average person’s needs, often going above and beyond.
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