Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview on coding, 86.6 to 22.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs 6.7x less per output token ($1.50 vs $10.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 34 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 4 Carbon: which to pick
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 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 6.7x cheaper ($1.50 vs $10.00 per million).
- Shared results
- 34
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview only
- 44
- Gemini 4 Carbon only
- 39
- 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 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon scores 86.6 against 22.7.
3 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 60.0 against 6.2.
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
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a GPQA Diamond result, 81.1%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a AIME result, 83.3%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has a MMLU Pro result, 86.2%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 1319 against 1074.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a Vals Index result, 70.5%.
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 4 Carbon $0.0070 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview has the number, $0.18.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 22.7 from 3 benchmarks, Gemini 4 Carbon 86.6 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 54.1 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 0.0% against Gemini 4 Carbon 89.1%, 89.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $1.50 against Gemini 4 Carbon $10.00 per million output tokens, 6.7x 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 4 Carbon | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 7 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 3 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 5 | ||
| General | 0 | 11 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 34 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index07
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 91.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | 1768 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| AA Coding Index | 34.7 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 62.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 63.1% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 89.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 4.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 34.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 65.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | Not measured | 40.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 61.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ALE-Bench | 797.7 | 2374.7 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1400 | 1564 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1413 | 1552 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1244 | 1792 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1275 | 1770 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1338 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| SciCode | 4.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | Not measured | 60.4% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 6.2 | 60.0 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 169.8 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1284 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | Not measured | 1224 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 92.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 80.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 72.7% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 30.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 3.1% | 51.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 3.4% | 55.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 17.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 8.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 84.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | Not measured | $16,484 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 81.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 90.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 82.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 69.1% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 69.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 96.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 98.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 94.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 92.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 78.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 73.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| EBR-bench | Not measured | 87.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1408 | 1551 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1398 | 1582 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1403 | 1545 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1243 | 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 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 100.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 90.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 95.1% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1428 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1417 | 1538 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| MathArena | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 83.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| 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% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 47.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| AA-Omniscience | Not measured | 53.5 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 77.7% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1426 | 1535 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1427 | 1525 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1418 | 1542 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1390 | 1520 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | Not measured | 78.4% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| PRBench Legal | Not measured | 53.3% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1074 | 1319 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1062 | 1357 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1019 | 1326 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1042 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1027 | 1434 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1062 | 1348 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1041 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1162 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 80.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index011
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 70.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 86.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 63.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 41.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 79.3% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GDPval-AA | Not measured | 1733 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 77.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1538 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1378 | 1539 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1402 | 1533 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1413 | 1530 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1411 | 1534 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1460 | 1613 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: German | 1429 | 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 | 1423 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1423 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1420 | 1560 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1443 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1417 | 1569 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1395 | 1549 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1408 | 1542 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1386 | 1527 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1233 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1276 | 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 | 1267 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1251 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1306 | 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 |
| MultiChallenge | 60.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 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 4 Carbon | 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 4 Carbon |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | ||
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | March 3, 2026 | November 10, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.50 | $10.00 |
| Coding index | 22.7 | 86.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.18 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview better than Gemini 4 Carbon for coding?
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 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 6.7x cheaper ($1.50 vs $10.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 4 Carbon?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2.00 and $10.00. Cost per solved task is known for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview only.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Gemini 4 Carbon?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 4 Carbon comparison based on?
34 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Gemini 4 Carbon's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.