Google's Gemini API deprecations table now lists the image model gemini-2.5-flash-image with a shutdown date of March 15, 2027, naming gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image as its replacement. Ten days earlier this desk read that row differently, and a second Google page read tonight still prints the earlier date.
The row, read twice
This desk read the Gemini API deprecations page on September 27 and recorded gemini-2.5-flash-image's shutdown as October 2, 2026, with gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview as the replacement. Read again tonight, the row gives March 15, 2027 and gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image.
Google's other model calendar already carried both. Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform lists the same model id at March 15, 2027 with the same replacement, and an Agent Platform release note dated September 14 records it as "Deprecated and scheduled for retirement on March 15, 2027 (extended from October 2, 2026)". The two Google surfaces that disagreed about this model now agree.
A third page, the older date
The Gemini API pricing page, read the same evening, opens its Gemini 2.5 Flash Image section with a warning: "Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (gemini-2.5-flash-image) is deprecated and will be shut down on October 2, 2026; migrate to Gemini 3.1 Flash Image or Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image to avoid service disruption." It names two migration targets where the deprecations table names one; the second of them is the one the table names. Neither page says the other is wrong: one prints October 2, 2026, the other March 15, 2027.
More dates, on both platforms
Five preview rows on the deprecations table share one shutdown date of November 17, 2026: the speech previews gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview (released February 26, 2026), gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts and gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts (both May 20, 2025), pointed at gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts; and the live previews gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview (March 11, 2026) and gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-12-2025 (December 12, 2025), pointed at gemini-3.8-live. One of the five, gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview, read "No shutdown date announced" on September 27.
On Google Cloud, gemini-3.6-flash (released July 21, 2026) is listed for retirement on November 19, 2026 and gemini-3.7-flash (August 13, 2026) on January 28, 2027, both replaced by gemini-3.8-flash. Their table sits under "Models available for shorter availability periods", whose rule reads: "Short-term availability models remain active until a replacement model is released and a retirement date is announced. When we schedule a model for retirement, we post a fixed date in the following table that gives you at least 45 days to migrate. Even after a replacement launches, a model remains active until we announce its retirement date."
What a listed date means
The deprecations page says its shutdown dates "indicate the earliest possible dates on which a model might be retired", and that Google "will communicate the exact shutdown date to users with advance notice". The Cloud page says that "While retirement timelines may be extended, they won't be moved to an earlier date than what is listed." The Gemini API's own release-notes page, read tonight, carries neither March 15, 2027 nor November 17, 2026; its newest entry is dated October 6.