Feature

SQL cells

Generally available: You can use SQL cells to write, edit, and run SQL queries directly from your Colab Enterprise notebooks. For more information, see Use SQL cells.

Feature

Metadata search for RAG Engine

Use schema-based metadata search in Vertex AI RAG Engine. You can define a metadata schema for a corpus, attach metadata to files within that corpus, and use this metadata to filter contexts during retrieval. For more information, see Filter with metadata search.

Feature

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is available as an experimental launch in Model Garden. This is an open model built by Google DeepMind. Gemma 4 models are multimodal, handling text and image input (with audio supported on small models) and generating text output. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is available as a managed API in Model Garden. To learn more, see Gemma 4 26B A4B IT.

Feature

Vertex AI RAG Engine Serverless mode

Vertex AI RAG Engine Serverless mode is now available in public preview. Serverless mode provides a fully managed database for storing RAG resources that abstracts away database provisioning and scaling. You can seamlessly switch between Serverless mode and Spanner mode, which provides dedicated, isolated database instances.

For more information, see the following:

• Deployment modes in Vertex AI RAG Engine
• Serverless mode
• Managing Spanner mode
• Switching between modes

Feature

Veo 3.1 Lite

Veo 3.1 Lite is available in public preview. This release is our most cost-efficient Veo on Vertex AI model.

For more information, see 3.1 Lite Generate

Announcement

Gemini 2.5 model retirement dates updated

The retirement dates for Gemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, and Gemini 2.5 Flash have been updated to October 16, 2026. For more information, see Model versions and lifecycle.

Feature

Lyria 3

Lyria is available in public preview. You can use lyria-3-pro-preview to generate 184 seconds of audio, or lyria-3-clip-preview to generate 30 seconds of audio.

For more information, see the following:

• Lyria 3 Pro Preview

• Lyria 3 Clip Preview

Deprecated

Imagen generation GA endpoints deprecation

The following table describes image generation endpoints that are deprecated and their replacements. We recommend updating your model endpoints before June 30, 2026, to avoid service disruption.

Deprecated

Video generation GA endpoints deprecation

The following table describes video generation endpoints that are deprecated and their replacements. We recommend updating your model endpoints before June 30, 2026, to avoid service disruption.

Deprecated

Vertex Explainable AI is deprecated. For details, see Vertex AI deprecations.

Feature

Partner model evaluations

The Gen AI evaluation service supports evaluating partner models, such as Anthropic and Llama models. For more information, see Perform evaluation using the console.

Announcement

Vector Search 2.0 is generally available (GA)

Vector Search 2.0 is generally available (GA).

Vector Search 2.0 is a retrieval engine designed to streamline AI development and serve as the knowledge core for AI applications.

Available features:

• Collections unifying data and vectors.
• Auto-embeddings for populating vector fields automatically.
• Hybrid search and ranking combining vector, full-text, and built-in semantic re-ranking in a single parallel query.
• Private Service Connect (PSC), Private Google Accesss (PGA), and VPC Service Controls support.

For more information, see the Vector Search 2.0 documentation.

Deprecated

Video generation preview endpoints deprecation

The following table describes video generation endpoints that are deprecated and their replacements. We recommend updating your model endpoints before April 2, 2026, to avoid service disruption.

Feature

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite (gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview) is available in public preview. This release is our most cost-efficient Gemini model and is optimized for low latency use cases for high-volume, cost-sensitive LLM traffic.

For more information, see Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite.

Feature

Gemini 3.1 Flash Image

Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (gemini-3.1-flash-image) is available in public preview. This release enables high-quality image generation with improved pricing and latency. We recommend using Gemini 3.1 Flash Image when generating images.

For more information, see Gemini 3.1 Flash Image.

Deprecated

Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku

Anthropic's Claude 3 Haiku is deprecated as of February 23, 2026 and will be shut down on August 23, 2026. For more information, see Partner model deprecations.

Fixed

Fixed a vulnerability in Vertex AI Workbench for users utilizing managed credentials.

Feature

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview

Gemini 3.1 Pro is available in preview in Model Garden. Gemini 3.1 Pro is our most advanced reasoning Gemini model, capable of solving complex problems from different information sources, including text, audio, images, video, PDFs, and even entire code repositories with its 1M token context window.

Announcement

Vertex AI Agent Builder

Vertex AI Agent Engine Code Execution is now Generally Available.

Feature

Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is available in Model Garden.

Deprecated

Image generation preview endpoints deprecation

The following table describes image generation endpoints that are deprecated and their replacements. We recommend updating your model endpoints before March 19, 2026, to avoid service disruption.

Vertex AI

Deprecated

Vertex AI Feature Store Optimized online serving is deprecated. For details, see Vertex AI deprecations.

Deprecated

Vertex AI Feature Store (Legacy/V1) is deprecated. For details, see Vertex AI deprecations.

Feature

GLM 5 is available as an experimental launch in Model Garden. This model is targeting complex systems engineering and long-horizon agentic tasks. GLM 5 is available as a managed API in Model Garden. To learn more, see GLM 5.

Feature

Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6 is available in Model Garden.

Feature

M139 release

The M139 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Removed a startup script dependency on gs://dl-platform-public-configs.

Announcement

Vertex AI Agent Builder

Sessions, Memory Bank, and Code Execution will begin charging for usage on Feburary 11, 2026 instead of January 28, 2026.

Feature

Virtual Try-On

Virtual Try-On is now generally available (GA). The new endpoint, virtual-try-on-001, replaces the previous endpoint, virtual-try-on-preview-08-04. We recommend changing to the new endpoint as soon as possible.

For more information, see Generate Virtual Try-On Images.

Announcement

Codestral (25.01) and Mistral Large (24.11) are retired as of January 23, 2026.

Feature

BigFrames, BigQuery ML, and Managed Service for Apache Spark

The Data Science Agent supports BigFrames, BigQuery ML, and Managed Service for Apache Spark. Previously, these capabilities were supported only when using Colab Enterprise notebooks in BigQuery.

Feature

GLM 4.7 GA is now available in Model Garden. This model is designed for core or vibe coding, tool use, and complex reasoning. GLM 4.7 is available as a managed API in Model Garden. To learn more, see GLM 4.7.

Feature

Preview: The Gemini CLI is available in Vertex AI Workbench instances. The Gemini CLI is an open source AI agent that provides access to Gemini directly in a terminal. You can use the Gemini CLI to do tasks like the following:

• Create a new notebook.
• Run notebook cells.
• Write and edit a notebook's code and text cells.
• Explain code and technical concepts.
• Interact with a Vertex AI Workbench instance's local file system, including performing complex file operations that span multiple files based on a single, high-level instruction.
• Run basic shell commands.
• Run commands to interact with other Google Cloud services, such as Vertex AI and BigQuery.

To get started, see Use the Gemini CLI.

Feature

M138 release

The M138 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Fixed an issue where daemon processes launched by post-startup scripts, such as gcsfuse mounts, did not persist after the script finished executing.

Feature

Veo 3.1 reference-to-video update

Veo 3.1 Preview models now support the following features:

• 9:16 aspect ratio for reference-to-video.
• Upsampling for videos generated at 1080p and 4k resolutions.

For more information, see the following:

• Generate Veo videos from reference images
• Veo on Vertex AI video generation API

Feature

GLM 4.7 is available as an experimental launch in Model Garden. This model is designed for core or vibe coding, tool use, and complex reasoning. GLM 4.7 is available as a managed API in Model Garden. To learn more, see GLM 4.7.

Deprecated

Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Haiku

Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Haiku is deprecated as of January 5, 2026 and will be shut down on July 5, 2026. For more information, see Partner model deprecations.

Feature

Vertex AI Agent Builder

Agent Designer, a low-code visual designer that lets you design and test your agent, is now available in the Google Cloud console in Preview.