Comparing Google AI: Gemini 1.5 Pro vs. Flash vs. Nano

Google said "AI" 124 times during its annual developers conference Google I/O. That's a lot of AI, but it wasn't surprising that the keynote focused heavily on the evolving technology (the AI count was over 140 last year). Two of the more surprising AI announcements were the release of a new model, Gemini 1.5 Flash, and updates about two other models, Gemini 1.5 Pro and Nano.

The good news is both Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash are available globally now. The bad news is they're only available "in preview" for certain developers, with no news about when they'll be available more broadly. 

Another big update to these models is that Google announced it will be increasing the model's context window to 1 million tokens. If you're like me and have no idea what tokens or context windows are, all that means is these models are going to be able to digest more information than before. Which means for users like you and me, they're going to be a lot more useful when they're available.

Gemini 1.5 Pro and Flash are both natively multimodal, which means you can prompt them with text, images and videos. Google also announced new updates to the Gemini 1.5 API, including video frame extraction, parallel function calling and context caching -- which, among other things, means you'll only have to upload your files to the models once. 

Gemini 1.5 Pro: The most advanced

Gemini 1.5 Pro was first released for early testing in February, where it had a maximum 128,000-token window. Now, it's available more widely for Gemini Advanced subscribers and has a baseline token window of 1 million, with an option to sign up for a 2 million-token window. 

• Cost: $7 per 1 million tokens (for prompts longer than 128K tokens); $3.50 per 1 million tokens (for prompts up to 128K tokens)
• Best for: Complex tasks, generating higher-quality results
• Response time: Slower than 1.5 Flash
• Token window: 1 million available now, 2 million available via waitlist

Gemini 1.5 Flash: Built for speed

Gemini 1.5 Flash is a new, leaner model introduced at Google I/O. Its main selling point is its response time, which is notably faster than 1.5 Pro. Gemini 1.5 Flash is available now globally. Here's what you should know about it.

• Cost: Starting at 35 cents per 1 million tokens (for prompts up to 128K tokens)
• Best for: Narrow and high-frequency tasks you need done ASAP
• Response time: Faster than 1.5 Pro
• Token window: 1 million available now, 2 million available via waitlist

Gemini Nano: Updates coming soon to a phone near you

Gemini Nano with Multimodality is going to be coming to Google Pixel smartphones later this year. The mobile AI model will be able to process text, images, audio and speech. Android was the first mobile operating system to include a built-in, on-device AI model, so this next update in the new Pixel will expand its AI capabilities.

During the I/O keynote, Dave Burke, vice president of engineering for Android, talked about how Nano on Pixels will bring some additional firepower to Android's accessibility offerings. In particular, Nano will be part of updates to Android's TalkBack feature, which provides auditory and text descriptions of images lacking alt text. He also showcased how a new Nano feature will help call out suspicious or spam phone calls.

Editor's note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create a handful of stories. Reviews of AI products like this, just like CNET's other hands-on reviews, are written by our human team of in-house experts. For more, see CNET's AI policy and how we test AI.