Model comparison

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Gemini 3.5 Flash

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 6.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 33 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Google

40.8

Rank #144 Confirmed

Gemini 3.5 Flash Google

54.2

Rank #32 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 33 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 1 category and Gemini 3.5 Flash in 9 categories; 10 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.5 Flash leads 62.8 to 22.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 8.2% for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and 92.6% for Gemini 3.5 Flash.
  • Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.25 / $1.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $9 for Gemini 3.5 Flash.

Side by side

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.5 Flash specifications
Gemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
ProviderGoogleGoogle
Noometry Index40.854.2
Released2026-03-032026-05-19
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1.05M1.05M
Max output66K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.25$1.50
Output $ / M tokens$1.50$9
Results tracked3854

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 49.4 (#49)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena WebDev12561499
SciCode41.9%53.1%
WeirdML52.2%62.6%
LMArena Coding14001492
ALE-Bench797.73911.02
SWE-bench Verified—79.3%
DeepSWE—37.4%

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 24.7 (#114)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
APEX-Agents—27.5%
DeepResearch Bench37.3%—
GBAEval—6.7%
GDP.pdf—14%
Vending-Bench 2—5,396

Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 62.8 (#18)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
NYT Connections (extended)8.2%92.6%
CritPt1.1%13.1%
Chess Puzzles25%50%
EnigmaEval3%25.4%
LMArena Hard Prompts14071488
DTBench76.8%94.7%
LMCA35%47.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index144.47154.46
ForecastBench54.459
ARC-AGI-2—72.1%
SimpleBench—76.7%
Kagi LLM Benchmark67.2%—
ARC-AGI-1—92.5%
Thematic Generalization63.3%—
EBR-Bench—4.8%
Mystery Game Puzzles—32%
Surface Evolver Bench—58.1%

Math Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 60.7 (#36)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)27.7%62.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202580%95.6%
LMArena Math14281504
FrontierMath Tier 4—26.8%
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—76.3%
ProofBench—31%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—39%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—14.6%

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 66.3 (#11)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
GPQA Diamond81.8%92.8%
LMArena Expert13981495
Humanity's Last Exam8.6%—
SimpleQA Verified—66.2%
Vectara Hallucination Rate8.2%—

Multimodal Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.7 (#15)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision12401310
Blueprint-Bench 2—33.6%
LMArena Document—1463

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 57.0 (#13)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Non-English14111476
LMArena Chinese14611526
LMArena French14241490
LMArena German14291492
LMArena Japanese14131486
LMArena Korean13921451
LMArena Russian14201493
LMArena Spanish14211480

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 77.0 (#30)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Instruction Following13771467

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.4 (#38)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Longer Query13941482

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94), Gemini 3.5 Flash: 65.5 (#47)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text14161482
LMArena Creative Writing14011470
LMArena Multi-Turn14171481
EQ-Bench 4—1087

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Gemini 3.5 Flash?

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 6.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Gemini 3.5 Flash?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash lists at $1.50 and $9.

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Gemini 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.4 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 1.05M tokens.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.5 Flash share?

33 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Gemini 3.5 Flash has 54.

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