Gemini 2.5 Flash introduces tunable "thinking budget" for cost-latency tradeoffs, positioning between 2.0 Flash and 2.5 Pro on price-performance curve.
Summary
Developers now have granular control over reasoning depth per request instead of binary low/medium/high toggles, enabling cost optimization for latency-sensitive agentic workloads. This shifts the pricing model from model-tier selection to per-call budget allocation.
Why it matters
Developers now have granular control over reasoning depth per request instead of binary low/medium/high toggles, enabling cost optimization for latency-sensitive agentic workloads. This shifts the pricing model from model-tier selection to per-call budget allocation.
Implementation verdict
Replaces fixed reasoning tiers with continuous budget control. Requires testing against your SWE-bench and reasoning workload baselines—early signals show mixed results vs o3/Sonnet 3.7. Worth piloting now if you're already on Gemini API; benchmark first before migration.
Sources
Dev Signal
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