Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards program: Everything to know


While it’s wonderful to redeem your points and miles for travel arrangements, such as lodging and flights, there can be many other expenses involved in planning a trip, such as car rentals, train tickets, gas and campsite fees. Luckily, using cash-back rewards in combination with your points and miles can save you even more money on your next vacation.

With that in mind, let’s examine the often-overlooked Bank of America Preferred Rewards® program. On top of the simple banking benefits members can expect, consolidating your finances with Bank of America can also boost your cash back earnings with some of the best Bank of America credit cards.

That’s because Bank of America designed its Preferred Rewards program to incentivize consumers to move their checking, savings, investment and retirement accounts to Bank of America and Merrill. The higher your balance of total assets with the bank, the more perks you can unlock, including with its credit cards. Depending on your holdings and the type of rewards you’re looking to accumulate, it might be time to stop ignoring Bank of America Preferred Rewards.

Related: 5 reasons to get the Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card

Bank of America Preferred Rewards Program overview

To start, here’s a general overview of the program:

How to qualify for Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards Program

To qualify for the Bank of America Preferred Rewards program, you must have both of the following:

  • An active, eligible Bank of America checking account
  • A three-month combined average daily balance of $20,000 or more in qualifying Bank of America deposit accounts and/or Merrill investment accounts
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There are five Preferred Rewards tiers. You’ll qualify for each based on your combined average daily balance:

  • Gold: $20,000 or more in total assets
  • Platinum: $50,000 or more in total assets
  • Platinum Honors: $100,000 or more in total assets
  • Diamond: $1,000,000 or more in total assets
  • Diamond Honors: $10,000,000 or more in total assets

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While not exorbitant, even the lowest level requires some pretty high figures. But don’t throw in the towel straight away. If you have an emergency fund, a holiday account, a savings account and a checking account, combining all those balances may qualify you for a Preferred Rewards tier. Once you add in investment accounts, such as IRAs, you may even find that the Platinum or Platinum Honors tiers are within reach.

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Your balance doesn’t need to originate with Merrill or Bank of America to count toward each threshold. You can roll existing IRAs and investment accounts over to Merrill or Bank of America and immediately use those balances to begin establishing a three-month average to boost your tier. Of course, you’ll have to consider other things like account management fees and available investment options to decide whether doing so is a good option.

Related: How to maximize your earning with the Bank of America Premium Rewards card

How to move among Preferred Rewards tiers

You can rise from one rung to the next any month after your average daily balance for the three previous months reaches the threshold for the following tier. Once you reach a specific status level, you won’t need to keep all your cash in the Bank of America basket.

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Instead, you’ll maintain your Preferred Rewards tier status for a full year. If you no longer meet the qualification requirements after that year, you have a three-month grace period to do so. If you still don’t meet the criteria after the three-month grace period, you’ll either be moved to a lower tier or completely lose your Preferred Rewards benefits.

Related: Is the Bank of America Premium Rewards Card worth the $95 annual fee?

Benefits of Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards Program

Here’s a chart of the five Preferred Rewards tiers, along with the associated benefits of each:

Benefit Gold Platinum Platinum Honors Diamond Diamond Honors
Credit card rewards bonus 25% 50% 75% 75% 75%
Savings interest rate booster 5% 10% 20% 20% 20%
Mortgage perks $200 origination fee reduction $400 origination fee reduction $600 origination fee reduction 0.250% interest rate reduction (when PayPlan is established) 0.375% interest rate reduction (when PayPlan is established)
Auto loan interest rate discount 0.25% 0.35% 0.50% 0.50% 0.50%
Home equity interest rate discount 0.125% 0.250% 0.375% 0.625% 0.750%
No-fee banking services Included Included Included Included Included
Free non-Bank of America ATM transactions N/A 12 per year Unlimited in the U.S. Unlimited in the U.S. and internationally Unlimited in the U.S. and internationally
Merrill Guided Investing fee discount 0.05% 0.10% 0.15% 0.15% 0.15%
Foreign currency exchange rate discount (for mobile and online orders only, includes free standard shipping) 1% 1.5% 2% 2% 2%
Access to exclusive lifestyle benefits N/A N/A N/A Yes Yes

Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these benefits.

Savings Interest Rate Booster

You need to have a Bank of America Advantage Savings account and be an enrolled Preferred Rewards member to enjoy this benefit. If you have an existing savings account, it will not automatically convert to a Bank of America Advantage Savings account when you enroll in Preferred Rewards. Be sure to request the conversion when joining Preferred Rewards.

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At Gold, the interest rate boost is 5%. That likely sounds better than it is. If your interest rate is 1.00%, a 5% rate booster would increase it to 1.05%.

Here’s the annual percentage yield on a Bank of America Advantage Savings account as of January 2025 to give you some perspective:

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You can check how this boost would affect the current annual percentage yield on a Bank of America Advantage Savings account in your region here.

Related: The best ways to save money & earn travel rewards for kids

Credit card rewards bonus

Preferred Rewards members earn a 25%, 50% or 75% rewards bonus on select Bank of America cards. For credit cards that earn points or cash rewards, you will receive a rewards bonus on every purchase.

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Your earning rate is based on your Preferred Rewards tier when the purchase is posted to your account. We’ll get into how this plays out with specific cards below.

You can earn the Preferred Rewards bonus on most Bank of America consumer-branded credit cards, including the Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card, the Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card, the Bank of America® Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card and the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card, among others.

Related: Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Bank of America Travel Rewards — which should beginner travelers get?

Mortgage origination fee reduction

Any time you can cut down on fees for buying or refinancing a home, you should. Preferred Rewards members are eligible to receive a fixed reduction in one of two ways, depending on your membership tier:

  • A dollar amount off of your origination fee (not to exceed its price)
  • A percentage off your mortgage APR
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The Preferred Rewards fee reduction isn’t transferable. And you may not be able to combine this fee reduction with other discounts.

Related: Credit card strategies for mortgage and home loan applicants

Auto loan interest rate discount

You must complete an auto purchase finance or refinancing loan through Bank of America to qualify for a rate discount. This benefit is not transferable, so only the Preferred Rewards member can take advantage of this perk.

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Of course, you’ll need to make sure that Bank of America offers the most competitive rate after the discount. Otherwise, it might not be worth pursuing. Even a quarter of a percent could save or cost you thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.

Related: What is a good credit score?

Home equity interest rate discount

You can get a home equity line of credit interest rate discount of up to 0.75%, depending on your Preferred Rewards status level.

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This benefit is non-transferable, but you may be able to combine this perk with other home equity interest rate discounts. And even co-borrowers are eligible as long as at least one applicant is enrolled or eligible to enroll.

Related: Credit card vs. line of credit: What’s the difference?

No-fee banking services

Preferred Rewards members also enjoy multiple banking services for no fee.

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These services include:

  • ATM/Debit card rush fees
  • ATM international transaction fee
  • Monthly maintenance fees on up to four eligible checking and four savings accounts from Bank of America
  • Non-Bank of America ATM fees for withdrawals, transfers or balance inquiries
  • One overdraft protection transfer fee waived per billing cycle

Additionally, Platinum and above incur no fees for incoming international wire transfers and can open a small safe deposit box for free at a Bank of America branch.

Related: How to avoid ATM fees

Free non-Bank of America ATM transactions

In the U.S. and U.S. territories, Platinum and Platinum Honors members:

  • Won’t be charged non-Bank of America ATM fees
  • Will receive a refund of the ATM operator or network fee for withdrawals, balance inquiries and balance transfers
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Platinum members receive one free transaction per statement cycle (up to 12 annually), and Platinum Honors members have no cap. Meanwhile, Diamond and Diamond Honors members have unlimited no-fee transactions both in the U.S. and internationally.

Related: 7 ways to save on overseas ATM withdrawals

Merrill Guided Investing fee discount

Preferred Rewards members enjoy a fee discount when utilizing Merrill Guided Investing services. You can get started with as little as $1,000 for Merrill Guided Investing or $20,000 for Merrill Guided Investing with an adviser.

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Merrill Guided Investing typically charges a fee of 0.45% of assets under management, and Merrill Guided Investing with an advisor typically charges a fee of 0.85% of assets under management.

While those fees might seem small, they add up over time. As such, these charges can become a compound drain on your investments as they increase. So, it may be best to look for a financial advisor that charges a fixed fee instead of a percentage of your assets.

Related: The best apps for money management

Foreign currency exchange rate discount

All Preferred Rewards members will get some form of discount for foreign currency orders through online banking or the mobile banking app.

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Depending on your status tier, you’ll receive a discount between 1% and 2%.

Related: Everything you need to know about foreign transaction fees

Access to exclusive lifestyle benefits

Top-tier Diamond and Diamond Honors members will enjoy customized and unique lifestyle experiences, such as travel, wellness, events, food and drink or other personal services. You can preview some of these curated offers here.

Related: The best credit cards available now

How to maximize cash reward earnings with Bank of America credit cards and Preferred Rewards

To maximize the Bank of America Preferred Rewards program, you’ll want to qualify for at least Platinum Honors and be eligible for the 75% bonus on your credit card rewards.

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Of course, it’s not a great idea to make big investment and banking decisions based entirely on credit card bonuses. However, it may be worthwhile if you already plan to invest in Merrill and have an existing banking relationship with Bank of America. If you do, here are some of the bank’s rewards cards to consider and how you can maximize your cash-back earnings.

Related: How to choose the best credit card for you

Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card

The Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card is an excellent rewards credit card in its own right. But it gets even more competitive when you add in the bonuses from the Preferred Rewards program.

The card charges a $95 annual fee and offers a modest selection of benefits. For example, cardholders get an up-to-$100 annual airline incidental fee statement credit, a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit every four years (up to $100) and some decent travel protections.

THE POINTS GUY

However, this card shines with its earning rates on everyday spending as well as travel and dining purchases. Here’s how the earning rates stack up once you consider the Preferred Rewards credit card rewards bonus:

Spending categories Regular cardholder Preferred Rewards Gold (25% bonus) Preferred Rewards Platinum (50% bonus) Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors, Diamond and Diamond Honors (75% bonus)
Travel and dining 2 points per dollar spent 2.5 points per dollar spent 3 points per dollar spent 3.5 points per dollar spent
Everything else 1.5 points per dollar spent 1.875 points per dollar spent 2.25 points per dollar spent 2.625 points per dollar spent

The ability to get at least 2.625% on all purchases with this card (for high-tier Preferred Rewards members) is incredible. This return makes the Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card one of the best credit cards for everyday spending.

Related: Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card full review

Bank of America Travel Rewards credit card

If you want to avoid paying credit card annual fees, you could opt for the Bank of America Travel Rewards credit card. The card earns 1.5 points per dollar spent on all purchases. Points can be redeemed to cover travel expenses at a rate of 1 cent per point.

THE POINTS GUY

By earning 1.5 points per dollar spent on everything plus a 75% Preferred Rewards bonus as a Platinum Honors (or higher) Preferred Rewards member, you effectively earn 2.625% cash rewards toward travel purchases made with the card. That’s a fantastic cash reward rate to earn on all spending — especially for a card with no annual fee.

Related: Bank of America Travel Rewards card full review

Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card

The Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card is great for folks who don’t want to keep track of multiple bonus categories but who still want to earn at a strong fixed rate on all their purchases. This no-annual-fee credit card earns unlimited 1.5% cash rewards on all purchases with no limit.

THE POINTS GUY

Platinum Honors and higher members would get back 2.625% on all your purchases — one of the best rewards rates any card offers for nonbonus everyday purchases.

Related: The best Bank of America cards

Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards credit card

Another no-annual-fee card is the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards credit card. It earns 3% in one of the following categories of your choice each calendar month:

  • Dining
  • Drugstores and pharmacies
  • Gas and electric vehicle charging stations
  • Home improvement and furnishings
  • Online shopping (including cable, streaming, internet and phone services)
  • Travel
THE POINTS GUY

It also earns 2% back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs and 1% back on everything else. Just note that you can only earn 3% and 2% on up to $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter (then 1%).

So, if you’re at least a Platinum Honors member, you’ll earn up to a whopping 5.25% back on your 3% category. You’d also earn up to 3.5% back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs and 1.75% back on all other purchases. That’s pretty phenomenal for a no-annual-fee cash rewards card.

Related: Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards full review

How to convert your Bank of America points to cash

Several Bank of America credit cards earn straight-up cash. But some earn “points,” which you can trade for cash.

To redeem your Bank of America points with a card such as the Premium Rewards card, you’ll find a “cash” option within your online account. This allows you to request a statement credit or a cash deposit into your Bank of America checking or savings account (or eligible Merrill Edge and Merrill Lynch accounts) at a rate of 1 cent per point. Note that you can also redeem into a 529 College Savings Plan.

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Additionally, the Travel Rewards card earns a slightly different rewards currency. You can redeem them as a direct deposit into your Bank of America checking or savings account or as a credit into an eligible Merrill Cash Management Account — but you’ll usually get a paltry value of 0.6 cents per point. You’ll only achieve a value of 1 cent per point when offsetting a travel-related transaction on your card.

Related: How to redeem points using the Bank of America Premium Rewards card

Bottom line

The Bank of America Preferred Rewards program is probably not worth pursuing unless you qualify for at least Platinum Honors to maximize the 75% bonus on credit card earnings.

That said, the program’s perks mean that if you already do business with Bank of America or Merrill, you should consider consolidating your banking and investing to boost your rewards and benefits.

It might even be worth switching to Bank of America if doing so won’t cost you anything extra. After all, the Preferred Rewards program can tip the scale on some of Bank of America’s top card offerings and reward you with significant discounts on other banking services like mortgage and auto loans.

Related: The ultimate guide to credit card application restrictions



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St. Paul Academy coach Nathan Goldman had a chat with star skier Caden Burns at the start of every Alpine high school season, with the conversation centering on how often Burns could be around during the campaign.

Burns’ skiing takes him around the country in the winter, and the travels can often conflict with high school competitions. It’s why Burns hadn’t competed in a state meet since he was a seventh grader.

But things worked out this winter for Burns, now a senior. The postseason was finally a possibility. He would indeed get a chance to compete for a state title.

And he capitalized.

Burns threw down two monster runs at Giants Ridge on Tuesday in Biwabik, finishing with the top time by more than seven-tenths of a second on each of the two hills en route to a two-run time of 1 minute, 12.97 seconds – more than a second and a half faster than the next closest competitor.

That was no surprise to Goldman, who watched Burns win every conference meet this season, as well as sections. This is what the senior does.

“Caden really has a strong ability to study the course and know where he’s going to take up time,” Goldman said. “He knows the sections that are going to be good for him, and the sections that he’s going to need to watch out for. And he was really able to just capitalize on that today and get the best out of both runs. … I’m not surprised by his win.”

But delighted, yes.

Eden Prairie’s Tate Wilker finished in second, while St. Thomas Academy sophomore Toren Piltingsrud came in fourth.

Burns has always featured a masterful blend of tactics and technique. Goldman called him “a real student of the sport.”

“He’s really strong technique-wise and is able to apply that on a course. That’s the hard thing to do, right?” Goldman said. “There’s a lot of skiers here that have really strong technique, but can’t necessarily adapt it to every variance and every different course and every different set. But Caden has a really strong ability to take that inspection run and turn it into a really good race result.”

He passes on his knowledge to his Spartans teammates. He’d bring them with him on those meticulous inspections and share his insights. Goldman called Burns “a great teammate.” He was active with the team all the way back to the group’s dryland work.

And, in the end, he provided an example of what it takes to be a champion.

“I was really excited to hear that he was going to be able to be here for the whole year this year, and excited to see him qualify last week and sections and have a great night tonight,” Goldman said. “Really a fun way for him to kind of end that senior year. That’s a great way to go out.”

Minnetonka team wins

Minnetonka won the team title with 176 points. Cook County was second with 149, and Hill-Murray was third with 134.



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What is AWS:

AWS refers to Amazon Web Services. As a cloud computing pioneer, Amazon was the first to enter into the cloud services market ten years ago. In terms of customers and products, Aws Leads. When it comes to cloud service quality, it is considered the benchmark. It provides a variety of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings which can be categorized into the database, computing, networking, content delivery, and storage. AWS allows a flexible and smooth data collection flow by using server-less services like AWS Lambda Functions, Amazon SQS Queues, and Amazon Kinesis Streams. AWS offers organizations the ability to select the operating system, database and programming languages, and web application platform according to their needs.

The use of cloud infrastructure resources may be monitored with the help of AWS management tools like Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail to monitor user activity and AWS configuration to manage resource inventory and modifications. AWS helps to improve organizational business growth and productivity significantly. Some disadvantages of AWS include complicated infrastructure and default service limitations that are defined based on average user requirements. The data centers of Amazon are the most important of the three cloud providers, and they are located in 77 areas around the world.

Take your career to next level in AWS with HKR. Enroll now to get  Aws Online Training Demo

What is Azure:

Azure is the product from Microsoft. Azure was designed to build, deploy and manage diverse applications and services across the vast network of data centers managed by Microsoft. Azure’s services include networking, computing, data management databases, and performance. Azure Site Recovery allows organizations of any size to arrange site-to-site duplication and data recovery to virtual machines that are hosted on Azure itself. Azure provides data storage redundancy or Zone redundant Storage in various data center regions.

Azure ExpressRoute makes it easy to connect the data center to Azure via a private link without the help of the Internet, thus offering greater reliability, increased security, and reduced latency. Azure also has expanded networking abilities that include the support of multiple onsite virtual network connections, as well as the possibility of connecting virtual networks through different regions of one another. Azure offered the lowest request-based and discounted instance prices. Specialized developers can test, write and deploy algorithms with the help of the Azure Machine Learning Studio.

We have the perfect professional Azure Course for you. Enroll now!

Google Cloud Training

  • Master Your Craft
  • Lifetime LMS & Faculty Access
  • 24/7 online expert support
  • Real-world & Project Based Learning

What is Google Cloud Platform:

With a responsive interface, reduced costs, flexible compute options, and preemptible instances, GCP is an interesting alternative for AWS and Azure. Google uses complete encryption on all communication and data channels, that includes traffic between data centers. Few areas in which Google Cloud competes strongly with AWS include configurability of instances and payments, privacy and traffic security, profitability, and machine learning. These three cloud providers, while providing discounts of up to 75% for one to three years commitment, Google also offers a sustained usage reduction of up to 30 percent on each type of instance operating for over 25 percent every month. Google has a number of standard APIs for natural language processing, computer vision, and translation. Machine learning engineers can create models using the open-source TensorFlow deep learning library of Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine.

Want to get certified in GCP. Learn from our experts and do excel in your career with HKR’S Google Cloud Online Training

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Comparison between Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform:

The differences among the top three cloud services are observed by examining them using various parameters like storage, compute, locations, databases, and documentation.

  • Storage: Amazon web services provide Amazon S3 (S3 indicates Simple Storage Service), which is the best option for storage with complete documentation, proven technology, with appropriate community support. Google Cloud Storage and Microsoft Azure Storage provide reliable storage services too.
  • Compute: AWS provides the Elastic Compute Cloud, which manages all computing services by controlling virtual machines that have pre-configured parameters and which can be configured by users as needed. Azure provides Virtual Machines as well as Virtual Machines Scale sets, whereas GCP offers the Google Compute Engine that carries out the same functions.
  • Databases: Numerous database services and tools options are available from all primary service providers. Amazon’s relational database service will support the main databases like PostgreSQL and Oracle and handles everything from update to patch. The Azure SQL Database provides SQL database management functions for Azure, whereas this is Cloud SQL for GCP.
  • Documentation: All the three cloud service providers provide very high-quality documentation even though AWS performs better than GCP and Azure.
  • Location: Azure, AWS, and GCP provide excellent worldwide coverage and guarantee optimal application performance with the shortest possible route to the target audience. Amazon is available in 77 areas, while Azure is available in 60 regions and Google is available in 33 countries, with more recent regions added on a regular basis.

Enroll in our Big Data on AWS Training program today and elevate your skills!

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Now let us compare the pricing of AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud

The following is a comparison of the AWS, Azure, and GCP pricing models according to the type of machine they offer:

Small Instance: In AWS, the small instance includes 8GB RAM and two virtual CPUs. It will cost us about 69 US dollars per month. While for the same instance of 8GB RAM and two virtual CPUs in Azure will cost us about 70 US dollars per month. Compared to AWS, GCP will provide us with a very basic instance that contains two virtual CPUs and 8GB of RAM at a rate of 25 percent cheaper. As a result, it will cost us approximately 52 US dollars per month.

Largest Instance: The biggest instance provided by AWS contains 3.84TB of RAM and 128 virtual CPUs, and it will cost us approximately 3.97 US dollars per hour. While for the same instance of 3.84TB of RAM and 128 virtual CPUs, it will cost us approximately 6.79 US dollars per hour. GCP is leading the way with the largest instance comprising 3.75TB of RAM and 160 virtual CPUs. The cost will be approximately 5.32 US dollars per hour.

Recently AWS has started providing pay-per-minute billing. Azure is already providing the same service, whereas Google cloud is providing pay-per-second billing that saves the users money. It also helps the users by providing a number of discounts which saves the money of Users upto 50 percent.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have compared Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platforms. We hope that you found this information useful and you will be able to decide what is best for you. And If you are seeking any information related to any cloud service platform, you can keep in touch with us.

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Google delivered big artificial intelligence news on Wednesday, launching its next-generation chatbot, Gemini 2.0. Google is opening up new Gemini 2.0 models in a multipronged initiative. 

Let’s break down what’s new and coming from Google. 

Gemini 2.0 Pro

The company is releasing an experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Pro in Google AI StudioVertex AI and in the Gemini app for Gemini Advanced users. The company calls this “our best model yet for coding performance and complex prompts.”

Gemini 2.0 Flash

The updated Gemini 2.0 Flash is now generally available via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI, meaning developers can now build production applications with 2.0 Flash. This gives more people access to the smaller, more efficient version of Google Gemini following the big splash by DeepSeek, the generative AI tool that burst onto the scene in late January.

Read more: What Is DeepSeek? Everything to Know About the New Chinese AI Tool

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite

Google is also countering Chinese AI startup DeepSeek with Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite, a less expensive alternative that is now available in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI for developers. (By comparison, all versions of DeepSeek’s AI offerings are free.) 

Google says Flash-Lite (get it?) is its most cost-efficient model yet.

2.0 Pro and Flash Thinking Experimental

People with the Gemini app will also get to try out Google Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, a benchmark darling as the top AI model according to Chatbot Arena’s leaderboards. This version of Gemini 2.0 Flash is special, thanks to its ability to break down user prompts into a series of steps to help provide better responses to complex prompts.  

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For those looking for something more powerful, Google also added Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental to the Gemini app for Gemini Advanced users, as well as Google AI Studio and Vertex AI. 

Flash Thinking can also interact with Google apps like Maps, YouTube and Search. 

“These connected apps already make the Gemini app a uniquely helpful AI-powered assistant, and we’re exploring how new reasoning capabilities can combine with your apps to help you do even more,” Patrick Kane, director of product management for the Gemini app at Google, wrote in a blog post

The AI news keeps coming

The wide release of Google Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, Flash-Lite and Flash Thinking is the latest in a string of AI announcements from Google. 

Late last month, the Samsung Galaxy S25 series became the first smartphones to ship with Google’s Project Astra, an AI feature that lets users point their phone cameras at things to get information on them. The company also launched its Daily Listen feature, which generates audio summaries of news updates based on your Search and Discover activity.

Google’s news is a counterpoint to the hype about DeepSeek, which boasts similar performance to bigger AI models at a fraction of the price. It’s too soon to say if DeepSeek will stick around for the long haul due to a variety of factors, but Google’s announcement and OpenAI’s o3-mini release may help pry attention away from the young AI upstart. 





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