Gemini’s New ‘Extended’ Thinking Mode Is Now Available: Here’s How It Works

Google has been steadily upgrading Gemini over the past few months. From a refreshed interface and smarter personalisation features to new AI agents capable of handling background tasks, the company's AI assistant is evolving at a rapid pace. Now, the search giant is rolling out another feature designed to give users more control over how Gemini responds to questions. The latest addition is called "Thinking Levels" and it allows users to decide how deeply Gemini should process a request before generating an answer. The feature was first spotted around Google I/O 2026, but it is now becoming available more broadly across platforms.What Are Gemini Thinking Levels?According to Google, users can now choose between two different thinking modes: Standard

and Extended.The Standard mode is designed for everyday queries and quick responses. It is meant to handle the majority of questions people ask throughout the day without introducing any noticeable delay.Extended Thinking, meanwhile, takes a different approach. Instead of generating an immediate answer, Gemini spends more time analysing the request before responding. The idea is to provide more detailed explanations, stronger reasoning and deeper problem-solving capabilities.Google says the feature is particularly useful for complex questions that require additional context or multi-step reasoning.

Available Across Web, Android And iPhoneGoogle's Gemini Vice President Josh Woodward recently confirmed in a post on X that Thinking Levels are now rolling out across multiple platforms.That includes Gemini on the web, Android smartphones and iPhones.Users can access the feature by opening Gemini and heading into the model settings menu. The new controls are currently available with Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-light models.One notable detail is that both free and paid users can access Standard and Extended Thinking modes.For users subscribed to Google's premium AI offerings, there is an additional setting. According to demonstrations shared by Woodward, Gemini 3.1 Pro includes a third option called "Deep Think". However, this mode is currently limited to AI Ultra subscribers.While Google has not revealed extensive details about how Deep Think works, it appears to be designed for even more advanced reasoning tasks.