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Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash leads Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite on coding, 62.5 to 49.0 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs 1.5x less per output token ($2.50 vs $3.75 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 85 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Replace Gemini 3.6 Flash
Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle
Coding
49.0
Overall
49.8
Output $/M
$2.50
3
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle
Coding
62.5
Overall
68.3
Output $/M
$3.75
81
vs boards won of 85 shared, 1 tied

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash: which to pick

Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash for coding: it scores 62.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 49.0 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.

Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite for output tokens 1.5x cheaper ($2.50 vs $3.75 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.41 against $1.49).

Model AGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle49.0/1003 independent benchmarks$0.41 per solved taskModel BGemini 3.6 FlashGoogle62.5/1004 independent benchmarks$1.49 per solved task
Shared results
85
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite only
0
Gemini 3.6 Flash only
24
Like-for-like categories
7 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.

At a glance

Coding index
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 49.0 from 3 benchmarks, Gemini 3.6 Flash 62.5 from 4 benchmarks.
Widest category
Math, 20.5 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
ARC-AGI-2: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 10.3% against Gemini 3.6 Flash 60.4%, 50.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $2.50 against Gemini 3.6 Flash $3.75 per million output tokens, 1.5x 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
CategoryGemini 3.5 Flash LiteBarsGemini 3.6 FlashTies
Coding2141 tie
Intelligence02
Agentic work06
Reasoning014
Math06
Knowledge110
General029
All shared boards3811 tie
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index214
Coding benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
LMArena WebDev14351538Gemini 3.6 Flash
AA Coding Index49.369.2Gemini 3.6 Flash
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)79.0%88.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)75.0%79.6%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)37.2%64.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Code migration (Vals AI)6.2%30.9%Gemini 3.6 Flash
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%0.0%Tie
IOI (Vals AI)Not measured35.1%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)50.2%73.8%Gemini 3.6 Flash
CyberBench (Vals AI)59.1%45.4%Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
SciCode41.3%53.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
FrontierCodeNot measured34.4%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
WeirdML39.0%56.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
ALE-Bench765.3715.5Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
LMArena Text: coding14531491Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: software and IT14511492Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena WebDev: React14081528Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena WebDev: HTMLNot measured1547Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
LMArena WebDev: from an image14481545Gemini 3.6 Flash
SciCode6.2%10.8%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
Intelligence benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
AA Intelligence Index22.234.0Gemini 3.6 Flash
Epoch Capabilities Index144.9154.5Gemini 3.6 Flash
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
Agentic work benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
AA Agentic Index14.329.0Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: agents building web appsNot measured1197Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack appsNot measured1181Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile appsNot measured1199Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building Android appsNot measured1203Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building gamesNot measured1181Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: HTML slidesNot measured1148Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slidesNot measured1146Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: spreadsheetsNot measured1034Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)47.4%56.3%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)7.2%18.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)13.9%25.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)43.2%65.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
BioMysteryBench (Vals AI)Not measured58.5%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)Not measured4.3%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
APEX-Agents29.3%46.9%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index014
Reasoning benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
GPQA Diamond83.8%93.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)83.6%88.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)83.8%92.8%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)18.8%40.8%Gemini 3.6 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)83.3%94.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
ARC-AGI53.5%91.2%Gemini 3.6 Flash
ARC-AGI-210.3%60.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Chess puzzles21.0%42.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Mystery game puzzles19.0%30.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts14411486Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: expert14341490Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14401484Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: diagrams12841314Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: homework12911314Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
Math benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
OTIS Mock AIME71.1%94.2%Gemini 3.6 Flash
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 326.0%58.9%Gemini 3.6 Flash
FrontierMath, tier 40.0%22.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
ProofBench13.0%36.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: math14341508Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: mathematical work14331492Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
Knowledge benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
MMLU Pro85.8%89.3%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LegalBench (Vals AI)84.1%86.7%Gemini 3.6 Flash
CorpFin (Vals AI)60.7%63.3%Gemini 3.6 Flash
TaxEval (Vals AI)72.6%74.9%Gemini 3.6 Flash
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.7%67.6%Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
MedCode (Vals AI)43.5%53.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
SimpleQA VerifiedNot measured66.2%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
LMArena Text: science14511489Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14381469Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: legal and government14311479Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: business and finance14231464Gemini 3.6 Flash
FACTS Benchmark Suite53.5%65.3%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
Design Arena: websitesNot measured1300Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: UI componentsNot measured1297Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: game devNot measured1263Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: data vizNot measured1289Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: 3DNot measured1272Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: all code categoriesNot measured1290Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: ASCII artNot measured1281Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index029
General benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)51.8%56.6%Gemini 3.6 Flash
SAGE (Vals AI)47.3%48.7%Gemini 3.6 Flash
MedScribe (Vals AI)70.9%79.7%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Vals Multimodal IndexNot measured65.1%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)76.0%80.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
DTBench83.5%95.5%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMCA37.6%44.9%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Furniture assemblyNot measured23.3%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
LMArena Text14351480Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: instruction following14191467Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: creative writing14211466Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision12691299Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: English14381482Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: non-English14271470Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Chinese14681531Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: German14541480Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Japanese14261475Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Korean14071429Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: French14511503Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Spanish14411476Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Russian14431488Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Polish14371473Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: multi-turn14451481Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: longer queries14351475Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: writing and language14281470Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14141456Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: English12691295Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: Chinese13111357Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: reading text12801312Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: humor12871289Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: creative writing12601278Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena DocumentNot measured1456Only Gemini 3.6 Flash 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
Image generation benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
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 3.5 Flash Lite$0.0015Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.0026Fits in one request

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$0.022Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.049Fits in one request

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$0.085Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.188Fits in one request

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 3.5 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash
SpecificationGoogle Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle Gemini 3.6 Flash
MakerGoogleGoogle
WeightsNo public weights listedNo public weights listed
ReleasedJuly 21, 2026July 21, 2026
Context window1.05M1.05M
Input $/Mtok$0.30$0.75
Output $/Mtok$2.50$3.75
Coding index49.062.5
Independent measurements behind it34
Cost per solved task$0.41$1.49
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Gemini 3.6 Flash for coding?

Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash for coding: it scores 62.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 49.0 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite. Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite for output tokens 1.5x cheaper ($2.50 vs $3.75 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.41 against $1.49).

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 and $3.75. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.41 and Gemini 3.6 Flash $1.49.

Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.

How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Gemini 3.6 Flash comparison based on?

85 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Gemini 3.6 Flash's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/gemini-3-5-flash-lite-vs-gemini-3-6-flash">LLMBenchmark.ai, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Gemini 3.6 Flash</a></p>