Google launched Gemini 3.8 Live and a higher-effort Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking model on Monday, its second Gemini 3.8-family release in two weeks after Gemini 3.8 Flash's Sept. 2 debut. Both are live-dialogue models -- built for real-time voice conversations rather than text -- and Google says they take the #1 overall spot on Artificial Analysis' independent Speech to Speech Quality Index, scoring 82.6.
The two models split by effort rather than by audience: Gemini 3.8 Live is built for scale and cost efficiency, while Live Extended Thinking adds multi-step reasoning for harder, longer tasks -- Google reports 68.6% on the τ-Voice agentic-task benchmark and 97.7% on Big Bench Audio's reasoning test. Both support 97 languages with mid-conversation language switching, and both can execute tools in the background without interrupting the conversation.
The rollout is broader than a developer preview. Search Live and Gemini Live get the base model for free today; Google Workspace -- Docs, Gmail and Keep -- gets the Extended Thinking version for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, and enterprise access sits in private preview through Gemini Enterprise. Google names early users testing the models, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Agora and LiveKit, as praising "latency, fluidity, and tool-calling capabilities" over the prior Live generation -- a company-selected list of quotes from companies with a commercial reason to say so, not an independent review.
Gemini 3.8 Live, in short
- Released
- Sept. 15, 2026
- Speech to Speech Quality Index
- 82.6
- Pricing
- $0.005/min audio in, $0.018/min audio out
- Languages
- 97, with mid-conversation switching
- Availability
- Gemini API, AI Studio, Search Live, Gemini Live now; Gemini Enterprise in private preview
The benchmark claim carries an asterisk worth naming: it comes from Google's own launch post citing Artificial Analysis, not from an outlet that checked the ranking against a public leaderboard page before publishing. That doesn't make it wrong -- Artificial Analysis is the same independent evaluator this newsroom's own Scoreboard uses for text models -- but a self-reported #1 and an outside-verified #1 aren't the same claim until someone outside Google has looked.
- Google launched Gemini 3.8 Live and a higher-effort Live Extended Thinking variant on Sept. 15.
- The models rank #1 on Artificial Analysis' Speech to Speech Quality Index at 82.6, per Google.
- Pricing is $0.005 per minute of audio input and $0.018 per minute of audio output.
- Rollout spans the Gemini API, Search Live and Gemini Live now; enterprise access stays in preview.
- Caveat: the benchmark ranking comes from Google's own post, not an outlet that checked it firsthand.