Originally published on rohitraj.tech
Google's July 21 drop is an efficiency release, not an intelligence release: Gemini 3.6 Flash scores the same Intelligence Index as 3.5 Flash but finishes tasks in half the time at a lower per-task cost — while Flash-Lite quietly got a 67% output-price increase. Here's the real per-task math, the migration code, and the tier decision I'd actually ship.
Read the full version with code samples, diagrams, and architecture details: Gemini 3.6 Flash vs 3.5 Flash-Lite: Which One to Ship — and the Price Hike Nobody Leads With (2026)
More engineering notes: rohitraj.tech/en/notes
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