Introducing Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
Note: body below is original English text from the Google blog. Do not treat this file as a translation.
Published Sep 15, 2026 · Updated September 17, 2026
Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking are our most advanced live dialogue models yet. Major upgrades in intelligence and parallel reasoning make them more intuitive to collaborate with and use to execute complex tasks using your voice.
Headline claims (verbatim-leaning)
- Today, we’re introducing two new models that bring advancements in near real-time reasoning to more effectively enable voice agents and make conversing with AI feel more intuitive and intelligent.
- Gemini 3.8 Live: Built for scale and cost efficiency, combining conversational intelligence with fluid dialogue and visual grounding.
- Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking: Built for high-complexity tasks, with increased intelligence and multi-step reasoning.
- For developers and enterprises, these models deliver the building blocks for reliable, production-ready voice agents.
Benchmarks and capability notes (from blog)
- Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking captures the #1 overall spot on Artificial Analysis' Speech to Speech Quality Index (82.6), and leads in agentic task completion with 68.6% on τ-Voice and 35.1% on Sierra’s τ-Voice-banking benchmark. It also provides strong reasoning capabilities, scoring 97.7% on Big Bench Audio.
- Gemini 3.8 Live has shown a high preference among users, securing a second place in the Speech Agent Arena, while remaining highly cost-effective.
- On ServiceNow’s EVA-Bench, the models push the Pareto Frontier for complex workflows by successfully balancing accuracy with conversational quality (run on the Live API on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform).
- Gemini 3.8 Live processes visual inputs in near real-time; automatically detects and transitions between 97 supported languages mid-conversation; executes tools and API calls in the background while continuing the conversation.
- For deeper reasoning, 3.8 Live Extended Thinking reasons and speaks simultaneously, using early verbal cues and live progress narration for multi-step background tasks.
Ecosystem and availability
- Developer platforms cited: Agora, Fishjam, LangChain, LiveKit, Pipecat, Vercel, and Vision Agents (via Gemini Live API).
- Enterprise partners highlighted: Salesforce, Genspark, and Lumeris.
- All audio generated is watermarked with SynthID.
- 3.8 Live rolling out: Gemini API and Google AI Studio; private preview in Gemini Enterprise; Search Live for everyone.
- 3.8 Live Extended Thinking rolling out: Gemini API and Google AI Studio; private preview in Gemini Enterprise; Gemini Live and Workspace (Docs/Gmail/Keep) for subscribers as described on the blog.
Remainder
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