Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash

Gemini 3.8 Flash leads Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview on coding, 61.6 to 22.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs 2.5x less per output token ($1.50 vs $3.75 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 73 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview Replace Gemini 3.8 Flash

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewGoogle

Coding: 22.7
Overall: 36.6
Output $/M: $1.50

Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle

Coding: 61.6
Overall: 69.0
Output $/M: $3.75

vs boards won of 73 shared

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 3.8 Flash: which to pick

Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash for coding: it scores 61.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview.

Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.50 vs $3.75 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.18 against $2.74).

Model AGemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewGoogle22.7/1003 independent benchmarks$0.18 per solved task Model BGemini 3.8 FlashGoogle61.6/1006 independent benchmarks$2.74 per solved task

73655

Shared results: 73
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview only: 6
Gemini 3.8 Flash only: 55
Like-for-like categories: 8 of 9

Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.

Which one for your work

Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.

Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 61.6 against 22.7.
3 and 6 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 40.9 against 15.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 40.2 against 1.6.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 94.4% against 81.1%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a AIME result, 83.3%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 90.2% against 86.2%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads, 1300 against 1082.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.8 Flash has a Vals Index result, 56.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $0.0010, Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.0026 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $0.18, Gemini 3.8 Flash $2.74.
Published attempt cost and pass rate

At a glance

Coding index: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 22.7 from 3 benchmarks, Gemini 3.8 Flash 61.6 from 6 benchmarks.
Widest category: Agentic work, 39.6 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap: Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 0.0% against Gemini 3.8 Flash 78.7%, 78.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $1.50 against Gemini 3.8 Flash $3.75 per million output tokens, 2.5x apart.
Context window: Both take 1.05M tokens.

Benchmark by benchmark

First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.

Boards won, where both have a result
Category	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Coding	0	15
Intelligence	0	1
Agentic work	0	5
Reasoning	0	7
Math	0	2
Knowledge	1	9
Web design	0	8
General	1	24
All shared boards	2	71

CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index015

Coding benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
LiveBench coding	Not measured	82.2%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMArena WebDev	1257	1585	Gemini 3.8 Flash
AA Coding Index	34.7	76.3	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)	80.1%	89.5%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)	62.8%	80.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)	Not measured	19.7%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)	0.0%	78.7%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Code migration (Vals AI)	4.6%	36.5%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
ProgramBench (Vals AI)	0.0%	1.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
IOI (Vals AI)	Not measured	56.9%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)	34.1%	81.3%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI)	Not measured	40.8%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)	Not measured	18.8%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	58.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	43.8%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
SciCode	Not measured	56.6%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
FrontierCode	Not measured	41.2%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
FrontierSWE	Not measured	19.6%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
WeirdML	Not measured	84.8%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
ALE-Bench	797.7	1269.7	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: coding	1400	1508	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: software and IT	1413	1507	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena WebDev: React	1245	1577	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena WebDev: HTML	1276	1616	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena WebDev: from an image	1336	1593	Gemini 3.8 Flash
SciCode	4.6%	12.3%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here

IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01

Intelligence benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
AA Intelligence Index	15.6	40.9	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Epoch Capabilities Index	Not measured	157.4	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured

Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05

Agentic work benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
AA Agentic Index	1.6	40.2	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: agents building web apps	Not measured	1238	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps	Not measured	1244	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps	Not measured	1236	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps	Not measured	1078	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games	Not measured	1273	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides	Not measured	1153	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Design Arena: spreadsheets	Not measured	1022	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LiveBench research	Not measured	79.1%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LiveBench browser	Not measured	64.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LiveBench long agentic	Not measured	30.1%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
SREBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	11.1%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)	30.0%	61.4%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)	3.1%	32.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)	3.4%	38.9%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)	Not measured	12.1%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)	8.6%	72.2%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
BioMysteryBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	62.2%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)	Not measured	8.6%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Vals Science Index	Not measured	35.8%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Time Horizon Index (Vals AI)	Not measured	18.8%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
CUA-bench (Vals AI)	Not measured	4.2%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
APEX-Agents	Not measured	64.3%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Remote Labor Index	Not measured	5.8%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Vending-Bench 2	Not measured	$5,094	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here

ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index07

Reasoning benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
GPQA Diamond	81.1%	94.4%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LiveBench reasoning	Not measured	89.3%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
MysteryMechanism (Vals AI)	Not measured	36.5%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)	82.5%	89.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)	Not measured	95.3%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)	Not measured	47.8%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)	Not measured	95.4%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
ARC-AGI	Not measured	98.5%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
ARC-AGI-2	Not measured	89.2%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Chess puzzles	Not measured	58.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Mystery game puzzles	Not measured	47.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts	1407	1509	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: expert	1398	1526	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English	1403	1504	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: diagrams	1242	1345	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: homework	1271	1351	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here

MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02

Math benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
AIME	83.3%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
OTIS Mock AIME	Not measured	98.9%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3	Not measured	68.4%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
FrontierMath, tier 4	Not measured	22.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
ProofBench	Not measured	48.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMArena Text: math	1428	1532	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: mathematical work	1417	1519	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here

KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index19

Knowledge benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
MMLU Pro	86.2%	90.2%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LegalBench (Vals AI)	83.8%	87.0%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
CaseLaw (Vals AI)	55.0%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)	59.4%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)	71.8%	74.5%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
MortgageTax (Vals AI)	68.0%	65.3%	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
MedCode (Vals AI)	47.6%	48.1%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
SimpleQA Verified	Not measured	69.7%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMArena Text: science	1425	1523	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare	1428	1508	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: legal and government	1418	1497	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: business and finance	1389	1479	Gemini 3.8 Flash
FACTS Benchmark Suite	51.4%	69.4%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here

Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08

Web design benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
Design Arena: websites	1082	1300	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: UI components	1069	1316	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: game dev	1029	1304	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: data viz	1045	1270	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: 3D	1047	1294	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: all code categories	1072	1303	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: SVG	1052	1296	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Design Arena: ASCII art	1167	1262	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LiveBench design	Not measured	72.7%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured

GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index124

General benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
Vals Index	Not measured	56.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LiveBench data analysis	Not measured	54.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)	Not measured	65.3%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
SAGE (Vals AI)	49.5%	35.1%	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
MedScribe (Vals AI)	63.9%	84.5%	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Vals Multimodal Index	41.4%	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)	Not measured	84.0%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
DTBench	Not measured	95.7%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMCA	Not measured	52.9%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Surface Evolver Bench	Not measured	76.9%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
Furniture assembly	Not measured	31.7%	Only Gemini 3.8 Flash measured
LMArena Text	1416	1499	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: instruction following	1377	1492	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: creative writing	1401	1488	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision	1240	1315	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: English	1414	1498	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: non-English	1410	1491	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Chinese	1460	1553	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: German	1430	1501	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Japanese	1413	1507	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Korean	1392	1464	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: French	1424	1496	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Spanish	1421	1487	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Russian	1420	1514	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: Polish	1443	1497	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: multi-turn	1417	1503	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: longer queries	1394	1507	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: writing and language	1408	1494	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Text: entertainment and media	1386	1480	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: English	1232	1318	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: Chinese	1278	1416	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: reading text	1246	1333	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: humor	1266	1321	Gemini 3.8 Flash
LMArena Vision: captioning	1259	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing things	1308	Not measured	Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing	1248	1299	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here

Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared

Image generation benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Benchmark	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Leader
Neither model has a result on 5 boards here

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.

Chat turn

1K input + 500 output tokens

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview$0.0010Fits in one request

Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.0026Fits in one request

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview$0.017Fits in one request

Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.049Fits in one request

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview$0.065Fits in one request

Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.188Fits in one request

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs less

Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.

Specification differences

The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.

Specifications of Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Specification	Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview	Google Gemini 3.8 Flash
Maker	Google	Google
Weights	No public weights listed	No public weights listed
Released	March 3, 2026	September 2, 2026
Context window	1.05M	1.05M
Input $/Mtok	$0.25	$0.75
Output $/Mtok	$1.50	$3.75
Coding index	22.7	61.6
Independent measurements behind it	3	6
Cost per solved task	$0.18	$2.74
Source	OpenRouter listing	OpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview better than Gemini 3.8 Flash for coding?

Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash for coding: it scores 61.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview. Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($1.50 vs $3.75 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.18 against $2.74).

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 and $3.75. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.18 and Gemini 3.8 Flash $2.74.

Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.

How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash comparison based on?

73 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Gemini 3.8 Flash's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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<iframe src="https://llmbenchmark.ai/embed/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview-vs-gemini-3-8-flash" title="Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash, LLMBenchmark.ai" width="100%" height="360" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview-vs-gemini-3-8-flash">LLMBenchmark.ai, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash</a></p>

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 3.8 Flash: which to pick

Which one for your work

Coding

Intelligence

Agentic work

Reasoning

Math

Knowledge

Web design

General

Long documents

Everyday cost

Cost per solved task

At a glance

Benchmark by benchmark

What each workload costs

Chat turn

Repository review

Agent loop

Specification differences

Questions

Compare next