apiwatch

All changes / Google

Breaking model

Imagen 4 (standard, Ultra, Fast) shut down on the Gemini API August 17, 2026; replacement is a Gemini image model

Took effect · Gemini API models imagen-4.0-generate-001, imagen-4.0-ultra-generate-001, imagen-4.0-fast-generate-001

Reviewed against the vendor source on Sep 24, 2026 (AI-assisted review). Key facts are re-checked against the source daily.

What changes

Google lists August 17, 2026 as the shutdown date for all three GA Imagen 4 models, with gemini-3.1-flash-image as the replacement; Google's Imagen page now says Imagen models are shut down. Migrating is more than a model-id swap: Google says to use generate_content instead of generate_images, and the response returns content parts with image data rather than an image response object.

Breaking: Calls fail after this date.

What to do

Port image generation calls to gemini-3.1-flash-image using generate_content (not generate_images) and read image data from the response content parts; compare outputs on a fixed prompt set.

Strings to search for

imagen-4.0-generate-001imagen-4.0-ultra-generate-001imagen-4.0-fast-generate-001

Source

https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations