When a Deprecation Has No Shutdown Date: Re-Picking an Image Model on Three Conditions
gemini-nano-banana-2.1 went GA on October 6, and gemini-3.1-flash-image was deprecated with no shutdown date. Here is a table and a short script for choosing a replacement by resolution, reference images, and search grounding.
gemini-2.5-flash-image stops on October 2, and the replacement the table names retired in June
gemini-2.5-flash-image shuts down on October 2, 2026, but the recommended replacement listed in the official table, gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview, was already retired on June 25. Here is the script I wrote to follow replacement chains to their end, and what it found across every row of the table.
An agreement-rate gate approves the model swap, then your category shares move
Swapping the model behind an image classification batch can pass a golden-set agreement gate while category shares quietly shift. I measured the sample sizes each check really needs and rebuilt the gate as a paired comparison.
After generated_images Disappeared: Three Branches Between the Response and a Saved File
Once you switch to generate_content, the line that breaks is usually the save. Here are the three branches on the response side - zero image parts, a shifting image count, and picking the extension - plus a receiver function you can drop in.
Your Shipped App Still Remembers the Retired Model
Finishing the server-side migration is only half of a model retirement. The older builds of your app still hold the old model name, and once the cutoff passes, rolling back stops being a recovery option. Here is how I moved model resolution onto the server.
generate_images Survives Until 2027. Your Image Generation Still Stops on August 17
google-genai 2.18.1 still ships generate_images, and the SDK deprecation notice points at 2027. The imagen-4.0 models, meanwhile, shut down on August 17. Here is what those two deadlines actually mean, measured on my own machine.
Rewriting generate_images as generate_content, where the arguments actually go
Ahead of the August 17 Imagen shutdown, I checked the SDK directly: of the 17 arguments in GenerateImagesConfig, only 5 move across unchanged. Here is the mapping, a compatibility layer that keeps callers working, and a way to verify the request shape without an API key.
Retrying a Retired Model Never Showed Up in Success Latency
With the image generation models shutting down soon, I rebuilt a mock server to see what my retry layer actually does when it hits a retired model ID. The damage landed in wall time and queue wait, and never touched the metric I was watching.
Migrating from Gemini 2.5 Pro to 3.2 Pro in 7 Days — A Production Playbook for Compatibility Testing, Output Diff Scoring, and Rollback Design
A 7-day playbook for moving production systems from Gemini 2.5 Pro to 3.2 Pro: compatibility testing, LLM-as-Judge scoring, shadow traffic, and rollback.
Images Made With a Retiring Model Can Never Be Made Again — Tracking Regenerability in a Ledger
When Gemini's image generation models shut down on August 17, the assets you made with them can no longer be reproduced the same way. Here is the ledger design and code I use to decide, before the deadline, which assets are regenerable and which must be frozen.
Before the August 17 Gemini Image Model Shutdown: Inventory Where You Actually Call Them First
Some Gemini image generation models retire on August 17. Before choosing a replacement, here is how to inventory which models are actually being called, and from where, using your request logs.
Finding Every Reference to the Image Preview Models Before They Stop on June 25
gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview and gemini-3-pro-image-preview stop on June 25. Here is a dependency audit for surfacing references buried in rarely-run branches and batches before the cutoff.