Google Sets Gemini 3.5 Flash as Default Model for AI Mode Search Worldwide

Google Search Gets Its Biggest Upgrade in 25 Years

At Google I/O 2026 on May 19, 2026, Google announced that Gemini 3.5 Flash is now the default model powering AI Mode in Google Search worldwide.

The rollout covers nearly 200 countries and territories across 98 languages at no additional cost to users.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai described the moment as the start of what he called the "agentic Gemini era."

What Is Gemini 3.5 Flash

Gemini 3.5 Flash is Google's newest Flash-tier model, built specifically for agentic workflows and coding tasks.

Unlike previous Flash models positioned as lighter alternatives to flagship Pro versions, Gemini 3.5 Flash outperforms Gemini 3.1 Pro on key benchmarks including Terminal-Bench 2.1 at 76.2 percent and MCP Atlas at 83.6 percent.

Google says the model runs four times faster than comparable frontier models, often at less than half the cost.

Search Box Reimagined for AI

Alongside the model upgrade, Google launched what it calls the biggest redesign of the Google Search box in over 25 years.

The new interface accepts text, images, files, videos, and Chrome tabs as inputs.

It generates AI-powered query suggestions that go beyond autocomplete, and can build custom visual layouts, interactive tools, and dashboards directly inside Search results in real time.

AI Mode Crosses 1 Billion Monthly Users

Google confirmed that AI Mode in Search has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users.

Queries in AI Mode are more than doubling every quarter since launch, and last quarter Search queries overall hit an all-time high.

The Gemini app separately crossed 900 million monthly active users, and Google now processes 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month across its systems, a sevenfold increase from the prior year.

Background Agents Now Built Into Search

Google also introduced information agents directly inside Search.

These agents run continuously in the background, monitoring topics a user specifies and surfacing relevant updates or taking action at the right moment.

Use cases include tracking apartment listings, monitoring product launches, and following news around specific topics around the clock.

Information agents are rolling out first to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US.

Developer Access and Pricing

Gemini 3.5 Flash is available to developers through Google AI Studio, the Gemini API, Android Studio, and the Antigravity 2.0 platform.

API pricing is set at $1.50 per million input tokens and $9.00 per million output tokens, roughly 40 percent cheaper than Gemini 3.1 Pro.

The stable API model identifier is gemini-3.5-flash. Google also confirmed that Gemini 3.5 Pro is in development and expected to roll out separately.

What This Means for the AI Search Race

The Gemini 3.5 Flash rollout is not just a model update. It is a distribution event.

By switching the default across the Gemini app, Search AI Mode, the Gemini API, and Android Studio simultaneously on a single day, Google changed the baseline experience for over a billion users at once.

The move signals that agentic capability, where AI plans, acts, and completes tasks rather than simply answering questions, is now the competitive floor for search and AI platforms globally.