Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Inkling
Inkling leads Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview on coding, 31.5 to 22.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs 2.7x less per output token ($1.50 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 64 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Inkling: which to pick
Pick Inkling for coding: it scores 31.5 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 2.7x cheaper ($1.50 vs $4.05 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.18 against $0.76).
- Shared results
- 64
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview only
- 15
- Inkling only
- 38
- 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
Inkling
Inkling scores 31.5 against 22.7.
3 and 6 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling
Inkling leads, 25.0 against 15.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Inkling
Inkling leads, 22.5 against 1.6.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Inkling
Inkling leads, 87.1% 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
Inkling
Inkling leads, 86.3% against 86.2%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Inkling
Inkling leads, 1224 against 1083.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling has a Vals Index result, 29.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $0.0010, Inkling $0.0030 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, Inkling $0.76.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 22.7 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 20.9 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI): Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview 8.6% against Inkling 38.4%, 29.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview $1.50 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 2.7x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview takes 1.05M tokens, Inkling 524K.
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 | Inkling | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 12 | 1 tie | |
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 5 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 4 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 7 | ||
| Web design | 1 | 7 | ||
| General | 3 | 17 | ||
| All shared boards | 8 | 55 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index012
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1257 | 1414 | Inkling |
| AA Coding Index | 34.7 | 52.1 | Inkling |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.1% | 85.5% | Inkling |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 62.8% | 77.6% | Inkling |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 19.2% | Inkling |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 4.6% | 11.8% | Inkling |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.0% | Tie |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 34.1% | 47.6% | Inkling |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 47.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 14.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 4.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 32.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ALE-Bench | 797.7 | 946.0 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1400 | 1466 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1413 | 1465 | Inkling |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1245 | 1404 | Inkling |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1276 | 1399 | Inkling |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1336 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| SciCode | 4.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 15.6 | 25.0 | Inkling |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 148.4 | Only Inkling measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | 22.5 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1196 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 59.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 16.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 14.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 30.0% | 46.6% | Inkling |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 3.1% | 15.3% | Inkling |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 3.4% | 28.4% | Inkling |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 8.6% | 38.4% | Inkling |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 33.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index14
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 81.1% | 87.1% | Inkling |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 78.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 82.5% | 78.5% | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 87.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 31.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 79.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 21.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1407 | 1451 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1398 | 1466 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1403 | 1448 | Inkling |
| 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 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 33.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1428 | 1479 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1417 | 1460 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index37
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.2% | 86.3% | Inkling |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 83.8% | 83.0% | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 59.4% | 68.6% | Inkling |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.8% | 75.3% | Inkling |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.0% | 64.0% | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 47.6% | 41.2% | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1425 | 1455 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1428 | 1447 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1418 | 1448 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1389 | 1438 | Inkling |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 51.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index17
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1083 | 1224 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1072 | 1201 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1029 | 1166 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1045 | 1159 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1048 | 1161 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1072 | 1206 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1052 | 1110 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1167 | 1089 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 58.3% | Only Inkling measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index317
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 49.5% | 36.5% | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 63.9% | 85.4% | Inkling |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 41.4% | 49.4% | Inkling |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 77.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 87.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 37.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1442 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1377 | 1425 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1401 | 1390 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview |
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1414 | 1442 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1410 | 1434 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1460 | 1493 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: German | 1430 | 1445 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1413 | 1429 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1392 | 1403 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: French | 1424 | 1455 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1421 | 1449 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1420 | 1430 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1443 | 1450 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1417 | 1437 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1394 | 1435 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1408 | 1404 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1386 | 1394 | Inkling |
| 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 12 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | Inkling | 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 | Thinking Machines Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Thinking Machines | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | March 3, 2026 | July 17, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.975 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.50 | $4.05 |
| Coding index | 22.7 | 31.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.18 | $0.76 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview better than Inkling for coding?
Pick Inkling for coding: it scores 31.5 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 2.7x cheaper ($1.50 vs $4.05 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.18 against $0.76).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Inkling?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.18 and Inkling $0.76.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview or Inkling?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Inkling comparison based on?
64 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.