diff --git a/src/agents/live-model-filter.ts b/src/agents/live-model-filter.ts
index 68cfe74b758..2ae2f363cd1 100644
--- a/src/agents/live-model-filter.ts
+++ b/src/agents/live-model-filter.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ export type ModelRef = {
 const HIGH_SIGNAL_LIVE_MODEL_PRIORITY = [
   "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
   "google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview",
-  "google/gemini-2.5-flash",
+  "google/gemini-3-flash-preview",
   "minimax/minimax-m2.7",
   "openai/gpt-5.2",
   "openai-codex/gpt-5.2",
@@ -52,6 +52,16 @@ function isHighSignalClaudeModelId(id: string): boolean {
   return minor >= 6;
 }
 
+function isPreGemini3ModelId(id: string): boolean {
+  const normalized = normalizeLowercaseStringOrEmpty(id);
+  const match = normalized.match(/(?:^|\/)gemini-(\d+)(?:[.-]|$)/);
+  if (!match) {
+    return false;
+  }
+  const major = Number.parseInt(match[1] ?? "0", 10);
+  return Number.isFinite(major) && major < 3;
+}
+
 export function isModernModelRef(ref: ModelRef): boolean {
   const provider = normalizeProviderId(ref.provider ?? "");
   const id = normalizeLowercaseStringOrEmpty(ref.id);
@@ -77,6 +87,9 @@ export function isHighSignalLiveModelRef(ref: ModelRef): boolean {
   if (!isModernModelRef(ref) || !id) {
     return false;
   }
+  if (isPreGemini3ModelId(id)) {
+    return false;
+  }
   return isHighSignalClaudeModelId(id);
 }
 
diff --git a/src/agents/model-compat.test.ts b/src/agents/model-compat.test.ts
index 154d68dee2d..c5b36054b82 100644
--- a/src/agents/model-compat.test.ts
+++ b/src/agents/model-compat.test.ts
@@ -462,6 +462,20 @@ describe("isHighSignalLiveModelRef", () => {
       isHighSignalLiveModelRef({ provider: "opencode", id: "claude-3-5-haiku-20241022" }),
     ).toBe(false);
   });
+
+  it("drops Gemini families older than major version 3 from the default live matrix", () => {
+    providerRuntimeMocks.resolveProviderModernModelRef.mockReturnValue(true);
+
+    expect(isHighSignalLiveModelRef({ provider: "google", id: "gemini-2.5-flash-lite" })).toBe(
+      false,
+    );
+    expect(isHighSignalLiveModelRef({ provider: "openrouter", id: "google/gemini-2.5-pro" })).toBe(
+      false,
+    );
+    expect(isHighSignalLiveModelRef({ provider: "google", id: "gemini-3-flash-preview" })).toBe(
+      true,
+    );
+  });
 });
 
 describe("selectHighSignalLiveItems", () => {
@@ -469,7 +483,7 @@ describe("selectHighSignalLiveItems", () => {
     const items = [
       { provider: "anthropic", id: "claude-opus-4-6" },
       { provider: "google", id: "gemini-3.1-pro-preview" },
-      { provider: "google", id: "gemini-2.5-flash" },
+      { provider: "google", id: "gemini-3-flash-preview" },
       { provider: "openai", id: "gpt-5.2" },
       { provider: "opencode", id: "big-pickle" },
     ];
@@ -484,7 +498,7 @@ describe("selectHighSignalLiveItems", () => {
     ).toEqual([
       { provider: "anthropic", id: "claude-opus-4-6" },
       { provider: "google", id: "gemini-3.1-pro-preview" },
-      { provider: "google", id: "gemini-2.5-flash" },
+      { provider: "google", id: "gemini-3-flash-preview" },
       { provider: "openai", id: "gpt-5.2" },
     ]);
   });
diff --git a/src/gateway/gateway-models.profiles.live.test.ts b/src/gateway/gateway-models.profiles.live.test.ts
index 0650200e336..664cc4b38ac 100644
--- a/src/gateway/gateway-models.profiles.live.test.ts
+++ b/src/gateway/gateway-models.profiles.live.test.ts
@@ -73,7 +73,6 @@ const GATEWAY_LIVE_HEARTBEAT_MS = Math.max(
   toInt(process.env.OPENCLAW_LIVE_GATEWAY_HEARTBEAT_MS, 30_000),
 );
 const GATEWAY_LIVE_STRIP_SCAFFOLDING_MODEL_KEYS = new Set([
-  "google/gemini-2.5-flash",
   "google/gemini-3-flash-preview",
   "google/gemini-3-pro-preview",
   "google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview",
@@ -387,7 +386,7 @@ describe("maybeStripAssistantScaffoldingForLiveModel", () => {
     expect(
       maybeStripAssistantScaffoldingForLiveModel(
         "<final>Visible</final>",
-        "google/gemini-2.5-flash",
+        "google/gemini-3-flash-preview",
       ),
     ).toBe("Visible");
     expect(
@@ -414,12 +413,6 @@ describe("maybeStripAssistantScaffoldingForLiveModel", () => {
         "google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview-customtools",
       ),
     ).toBe("Visible");
-    expect(
-      maybeStripAssistantScaffoldingForLiveModel(
-        "<think>hidden</think>Visible",
-        "google/gemini-2.5-flash",
-      ),
-    ).toBe("Visible");
   });
 
   it("strips scaffolding for known OpenAI transcript wrappers", () => {
@@ -631,7 +624,7 @@ describe("getHighSignalLiveModelPriorityIndex", () => {
       getHighSignalLiveModelPriorityIndex({ provider: "google", id: "gemini-3.1-pro-preview" }),
     ).toBe(1);
     expect(
-      getHighSignalLiveModelPriorityIndex({ provider: "google", id: "gemini-2.5-flash" }),
+      getHighSignalLiveModelPriorityIndex({ provider: "google", id: "gemini-3-flash-preview" }),
     ).toBe(2);
     expect(getHighSignalLiveModelPriorityIndex({ provider: "opencode", id: "big-pickle" })).toBe(
       null,