Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview on coding, 43.7 to 22.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs 2.0x less per output token ($1.50 vs $3.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 31 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 3 Flash Preview: which to pick
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding: it scores 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview, though on 2 benchmarks against 3.
Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview for output tokens 2.0x cheaper ($1.50 vs $3.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.18 against $0.37).
- Shared results
- 31
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview only
- 48
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
- 40
- 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 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores 43.7 against 22.7.
3 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 26.3 against 15.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a AA Agentic Index result, 1.6.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 87.9% against 81.1%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 95.6% against 83.3%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 88.6% against 86.2%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 1196 against 1082.
Same board, both measured
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 Flash Preview $0.0020 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 Flash Preview $0.37.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 22.7 from 3 benchmarks, Gemini 3 Flash Preview 43.7 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Web design, 15.7 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 0.0% against Gemini 3 Flash Preview 20.2%, 20.2 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $1.50 against Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 per million output tokens, 2.0x 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.
| Category | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Bars | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 7 | 1 tie | |
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 4 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 8 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 0 | 3 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 30 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index07
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 75.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1257 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| AA Coding Index | 34.7 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.1% | 85.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 62.8% | 75.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 20.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 4.6% | 6.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.0% | Tie |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 34.1% | 53.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 90.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 38.6% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench | Not measured | 64.3% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 9.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 61.6% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ALE-Bench | 797.7 | 1367.2 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1400 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1413 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1245 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1276 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1336 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| SciCode | 4.6% | 12.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 15.6 | 26.3 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1111 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | Not measured | 1063 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1090 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | Not measured | 1051 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | Not measured | 1161 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1036 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 30.0% | 42.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 3.1% | 11.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 3.4% | 18.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 8.6% | 26.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 80.4% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| BALROG | Not measured | 48.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | Not measured | 49.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | Not measured | $3,635 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 81.1% | 87.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 82.5% | 87.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 36.6% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 89.4% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 84.7% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 33.6% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 61.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 39.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 26.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| VPCT | Not measured | 72.6% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1407 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1398 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1403 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1242 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1271 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 83.3% | 95.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 93.3% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 97.0 | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 97.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 95.6% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 51.2% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 17.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 15.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1428 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1417 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.2% | 88.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 83.8% | 86.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.0% | 55.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 59.4% | 66.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.8% | 73.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.0% | 68.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 95.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 47.6% | 55.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 66.8% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GeoBench | Not measured | 88.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1425 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1428 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1418 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1389 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 51.4% | 63.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1082 | 1196 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1069 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1029 | 1166 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1045 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1047 | 1183 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1072 | 1189 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1052 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1167 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 49.5% | 51.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 63.9% | 69.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 41.4% | 52.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| IFBench | Not measured | 78.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 78.0% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 89.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 43.1% | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text | 1416 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1377 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1401 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1414 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1410 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1460 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1430 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1413 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1392 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1424 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1421 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1420 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1443 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1417 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1394 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1408 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1386 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1232 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1278 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1246 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1266 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| 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 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | 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 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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.
| Specification | Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Google Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | ||
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | March 3, 2026 | December 17, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.50 | $3.00 |
| Coding index | 22.7 | 43.7 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.18 | $0.37 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview better than Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding?
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for coding: it scores 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 22.7 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview, though on 2 benchmarks against 3. Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview for output tokens 2.0x cheaper ($1.50 vs $3.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.18 against $0.37).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 and $3.00. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.18 and Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 3 Flash Preview?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview comparison based on?
31 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 Flash Preview's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.