Google retires Imagen 4 preview API, folds it into Gemini

Google retired the Imagen 4 preview API endpoints on August 17 and started routing callers to Gemini Image instead, per LLM Stats' release tracker. Anyone with production code still pointed at the old Imagen endpoints needs to switch now, not on their own schedule.

The change folds image generation into one Gemini surface instead of a separate Imagen line. It matters most for teams with SDKs or scripts hardcoded to Imagen 4 endpoint URLs, since those calls now redirect rather than fail outright.

The confirmation comes from LLM Stats' update tracker, not a Google blog post or changelog entry. Google has not published its own retirement notice for Imagen 4, and the reasoning behind the switch is not on the record anywhere.

That gap between the event and Google's own channels is the real signal here. Imagen is becoming a component inside Gemini, not a product Google names on its own anymore. If that holds, expect the Imagen brand to keep fading from developer-facing docs even as the underlying image model keeps shipping under Gemini's name.

Watch whether Google ever files its own deprecation notice for Imagen 4. If it doesn't, that's how the whole product line disappears: quietly, through redirects, confirmed only by outside trackers.