How to Use Gemini 3.5 Flash in China? 6 Methods Tested and Working (2025 Latest)

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 4x Faster, Half the Price, Completely Outperforms 3.1 Pro

In the early hours of May 21, 2025, Google officially launched the Gemini 3.5 Flash model at its latest event. This model delivers impressive results in coding and agentic tasks—not only surpassing the previous flagship Gemini 3.1 Pro across the board, but also achieving 4x the inference speed of other frontier models at half the price.

Two key benchmark results tell the whole story:

• Conveyor Bench 2.1 (coding capability benchmark): 3.5 Flash scores 6 percentage points higher than 3.1 Pro's 70.3%
• GDPVAA (real-world economic value tasks): 3.5 Flash achieves 1656 ELO, over 300 points higher than 3.1 Pro

Background on these benchmarks: Conveyor Bench 2.1 focuses on measuring a model's comprehensive performance in real code generation, debugging, and multi-file collaboration scenarios, serving as an important reference in coding capability evaluation. GDPVAA uses the ELO rating system—originally designed by Hungarian-American physicist Arpad Elo for chess, now a universal standard for AI model comparison. ELO scores are dynamically calculated through adversarial comparisons between models. A 300-point gap means the higher-scoring model wins approximately 85% of random matchups, translating to a clearly perceptible capability advantage in practical use—equivalent to a tier difference in chess rankings.

Google also adjusted its subscription pricing—the top-tier Ultra plan dropped from $250/month to $200/month, with a new mid-tier $100/month plan added. As for the full-powered Gemini 3.5 Pro, it's expected to launch next month.

So the question is: how can users in China get their hands on Gemini 3.5 Flash as soon as possible? Below are 6 tested and working methods covering free access, no-VPN solutions, API calls, and other scenarios.

Method 1: Google AI Studio (Best Free Option, Generous Quota)

If I could only recommend one method, it would be AI Studio. While it's essentially a debugging tool Google built for developers, regular users can absolutely use it as a chat interface.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Register a Google account
2. Open the AI Studio page
3. Switch to Gemini 3.5 Flash using the model selector in the upper right corner

No credit card required, no subscription needed—the free quota is very generous.

Potential pitfalls to watch for: The reason AI Studio is free is to collect user conversation data for model optimization—this follows typical RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback) data collection logic, where every conversation could become a training sample for model fine-tuning. Because of this, AI Studio may run experimental versions specifically designed for data collection rather than consumer-optimized production versions. In practice, you might encounter degraded intelligence or rate limiting, and sometimes even get assigned to different beta versions. Through hands-on testing, there are noticeable quality differences between responses to the same question on AI Studio versus the Gemini website—the official site produces more natural answers with better summaries. Additionally, avoid entering sensitive information when using AI Studio.

Method 2: Gemini Official Website (Most Complete Features, Best Experience)

For the full Gemini ecosystem experience, the official website is your only option. New features like Nano, Banana, Pro, Veo 3.1 video generation, and music generation are only available on the official website or official clients.

The default model on the official site has already switched to 3.5 Flash. Free users have computation-based usage limits that refresh every 5 hours. When you hit the cap, the service doesn't cut off entirely—it automatically downgrades to the Flash Lite model and continues responding.

However, based on user feedback, if you enable the Extended advanced thinking mode for complex problems, you can only ask about 8 questions within a 5-hour window. So while free accounts work, the quota is quite tight—better suited for light exploration rather than daily heavy use.

Method 3: Third-Party Relay Services (No VPN Required, Direct Access from China)

For users who don't want to deal with network configurations, relay services are the most hassle-free option. The first two methods both have a hard prerequisite—a clean and stable overseas network connection—while relay services let you open your browser and start using immediately.

Taking 2233.ai as an example, after Gemini 3.5 Flash launched in the early morning, they completed the update by that same morning—very quick turnaround.

Core advantages of relay services:

• No network tools needed whatsoever, direct connection from China
• Independent account with complete conversation history
• Supports regular bank cards and WeChat Pay
• Interface design close to the native experience
• Supports Gemini 3.5 Flash, 3.1 Pro and other key models plus image generation
• Cheaper than official subscriptions, with flexible daily or monthly purchase options

This approach is especially suitable for everyday use by Chinese users—lowest barrier to entry, no technical background required.

Method 4: API Relay Platforms (For Developers and Productivity Tool Users)

If you have development needs or want to integrate Gemini into workflows with tools like Cursor, Cherry Studio, or Chatbox, API calls offer the most flexible solution.

API relay platforms with good reputation in China's developer community (such as GPT's API) offer these features:

• Compatible with OpenAI API format, extremely low migration cost
• Already supports the full GPT, Claude, and Gemini model lineup
• Gemini 3.5 Flash available from day one
• One API Key for all models—no switching between multiple platforms
• Pricing roughly on par with Google's official rates, pay-per-token billing, no mandatory monthly plans

Why is "OpenAI API compatibility" so important? OpenAI's Chat Completions API format has become the de facto standard protocol in the AI industry—mainstream tools like Cursor, Cherry Studio, and Chatbox all natively support this format. API relay platforms achieve transparent proxying for upstream applications by converting requests to each model's native API format in real-time on the server side. This means developers only need to change two parameters—base_url and api_key—to seamlessly switch existing OpenAI workflows to Gemini or Claude models without rewriting any business logic code.

The core value of this approach is flexibility—pay only for what you use. It's ideal for technical users with specific development scenarios or heavy productivity tool usage.

Method 5: Overseas Aggregator Platforms (Side-by-Side Multi-Model Comparison)

If you want to experience GPT, Claude, Gemini, and other models simultaneously on one platform, overseas aggregator platforms are worth trying. Two recommended options:

• PoE: Quora's AI aggregation platform—stable operations, timely model updates
• Monica: Offers a Chrome browser extension that lets you invoke AI conversations on any webpage

Both platforms have already added Gemini 3.5 Flash and offer small free trial quotas. Their shared advantage is aggregating mainstream models in one place so you don't need to register accounts everywhere—especially suitable for users who want to do side-by-side comparisons.

Notable drawbacks:

• Requires a stable overseas network connection
• Heavy use requires paid subscriptions
• Chinese bank cards generally cannot be used for direct payment

Comparison: How to Choose the Best Method for You

Method	Best For	Free?	VPN Required?
AI Studio	Developers / Heavy users	✅ Free	✅ Yes
Gemini Official Site	Full experience seekers	Partially free	✅ Yes
Relay Service	Regular users in China	Paid (low cost)	❌ No
API Relay	Developers / Tool users	Pay-per-use	❌ No
Overseas Aggregators	Multi-model comparison	Partially free	✅ Yes

Summary: Choose Based on Your Situation

• Have stable overseas network access → AI Studio offers the best value, generous free quota
• In China and don't want the hassle → Relay services are the easiest, pay with WeChat and start using
• Developer or tool integration needs → API relay offers maximum flexibility, pay-per-use billing
• Want the complete feature set → Gemini official website is your only choice

The release of Gemini 3.5 Flash marks a major step forward for Google in AI model cost-effectiveness. Regardless of which method you choose, now is a great time to experience this model.