Gemini 3.5 Pro Misses Google’s June Launch Promise

Google’s June launch promise for Gemini 3.5 Pro has come and gone, with no public release as of July 17. At Google I/O 2026 in May, the company introduced the lighter-weight Gemini 3.5 Flash for everyday use, while CEO Sundar Pichai said the more capable Pro model would arrive the following month.

“We are also excited for 3.5 Pro. We are using it internally. It’s showing great improvements. We are still testing and refining it, and it will roll out to everyone next month.”

Google has not provided a new release date. When Mashable asked about the timeline, the company repeated the statement it had given to Bloomberg:

“We’re shipping quickly across a wide range of models while keeping them highly cost-effective for customers. We’re currently testing 3.5 Pro, an upgraded Flash model, and other models with partners, and we’re productively engaged with the U.S. government on model testing and broader frameworks.”

Why Gemini 3.5 Pro is delayed

A Bloomberg report by Julia Love and Davey Alba said the delay has frustrated Google engineers, AI researchers, and managers. They reported that employees are concerned Google could lose ground to Anthropic and OpenAI.

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Bloomberg identified two possible causes. Google’s large organizational structure and the many products that integrate Gemini can make launches slower than at smaller AI startups. The second concern is reportedly technical: Google leaders may not believe Gemini 3.5 Pro is competitive with rivals' newest models.

A one-month delay would normally be manageable, but the pace of releases has raised the bar quickly. Since Google I/O, Anthropic announced Claude Mythos Preview, describing it as its most advanced model and saying its cybersecurity capabilities were strong enough that it would initially be shared only with trusted partners. Anthropic later released Fable 5, a version of Claude Mythos, on June 9.

On July 9, OpenAI announced GPT-5.6 Sol, a next-generation model with advanced cybersecurity coding abilities. This week, Chinese AI lab Moonshot released Kimi K3, an open-source model with 2.8 trillion parameters. Early testers said Kimi K3 offered capabilities similar to Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol at a much lower cost.

Google’s position in the model race

Without a new frontier model, Google has slipped in AI leaderboard rankings despite major structural advantages. The company has access to vast amounts of data and can distribute its AI tools through Android to billions of users worldwide.

Gemini 3.5 Pro could still launch soon, but every additional delay gives competing models more time to define the performance and cost benchmarks Google will need to meet.