Deprecation model
Google's deprecations table lists October 2, 2026 as the earliest shutdown date for gemini-2.5-flash-image, but its September 18 release notes say the 2.5 models are not deprecated.
What changes
The Gemini API deprecations page lists gemini-2.5-flash-image with a shutdown date of October 2, 2026 and gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview as the replacement; the page says its dates are the earliest possible and that Google will give advance notice of the exact date. The September 18, 2026 release notes say the 2.5 models are not deprecated and will continue to be served until further notice, with access limited to past users. No deprecation announcement for this model appears in the release notes.
Deprecation: Still works; removal is announced.
What to do
Plan a move to gemini-3.1-flash-image. The listed replacement, gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview, has already been shut down, and the same page lists gemini-3.1-flash-image as its replacement. Re-check image quality on your evals.
Strings to search for
gemini-2.5-flash-image