diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5819f97b6..09747c3fe 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,17 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [1.71.0](https://github.com/googleapis/python-genai/compare/v1.70.0...v1.71.0) (2026-04-08)
+
+
+### Features
+
+* Introduce TYPE_L16 audio content and optional fields. ([07e932f](https://github.com/googleapis/python-genai/commit/07e932f9bc8dcb224ced2b35061ede9df25432cb))
+
+
+### Documentation
+
+* Remove deprecated product recontext model samples from docstrings ([aca7dcf](https://github.com/googleapis/python-genai/commit/aca7dcf32b15ef2d945a14fb498be0e9c096c0d8))
+
 ## [1.70.0](https://github.com/googleapis/python-genai/compare/v1.69.0...v1.70.0) (2026-03-31)
 
 
diff --git a/google/genai/version.py b/google/genai/version.py
index 05997a5e4..4ee092289 100644
--- a/google/genai/version.py
+++ b/google/genai/version.py
@@ -13,4 +13,4 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-__version__ = '1.70.0' # x-release-please-version
+__version__ = '1.71.0' # x-release-please-version
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 18c89880d..03762944b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ requires = ["setuptools", "wheel", "twine>=6.1.0", "packaging>=24.2", "pkginfo>=
 
 [project]
 name = "google-genai"
-version = "1.70.0"
+version = "1.71.0"
 description = "GenAI Python SDK"
 readme = "README.md"
 license = "Apache-2.0"