Google launched Gemini 2.0 Flash, positioning it for what the company called the 'agentic era': native tool use, multimodal input and output, and the speed to power real-time agents. It was the first 2.0 model to reach developers.

Flash became Google's efficiency tier — near-flagship quality at a fraction of the cost and latency — a formula Google repeated aggressively through 2025 and 2026. The 2.0 generation also brought early agent prototypes like Project Astra and Project Mariner.

Gemini 2.0 Flash set the template Google followed ever since: lead with a fast, cheap Flash model, then bring the heavier Pro reasoning model behind it.