Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite on coding, 86.6 to 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs 4.0x less per output token ($2.50 vs $10.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 46 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Gemini 4 Carbon: which to pick
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite for output tokens 4.0x cheaper ($2.50 vs $10.00 per million).
- Shared results
- 46
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite only
- 47
- Gemini 4 Carbon only
- 27
- 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon scores 86.6 against 48.9.
3 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 60.0 against 11.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a AA Agentic Index result, 14.3.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a GPQA Diamond result, 83.8%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a MMLU Pro result, 85.8%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a Design Arena: websites result, 1319.
Directional only
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 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.0015, Gemini 4 Carbon $0.0070 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has the number, $0.41.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 48.9 from 3 benchmarks, Gemini 4 Carbon 86.6 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Math, 51.6 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- FrontierMath, tier 4: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 0.0% against Gemini 4 Carbon 95.1%, 95.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $2.50 against Gemini 4 Carbon $10.00 per million output tokens, 4.0x 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 3.5 Flash Lite | Bars | Gemini 4 Carbon | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 8 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 3 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 10 | ||
| Math | 0 | 4 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 6 | ||
| General | 0 | 13 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 46 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index08
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 91.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1432 | 1768 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| AA Coding Index | 49.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 79.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 63.1% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 37.2% | 89.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 6.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 50.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 59.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| SciCode | 41.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 1.0% | 65.2% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 6.0% | 40.6% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 61.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| WeirdML | 39.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ALE-Bench | 765.3 | 2374.7 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1453 | 1564 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1450 | 1552 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1407 | 1792 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1770 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1449 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| SciCode | 6.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| GameBench 2 | 36.9 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | Not measured | 60.4% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.7 | 60.0 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.6 | 169.8 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 14.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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) | 47.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 7.2% | 51.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 13.9% | 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) | 43.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| APEX-Agents | 29.3% | 84.2% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Vending-Bench 2 | Not measured | $16,484 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Toolathlon-Verified | 57.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index010
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 90.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 18.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 9.9% | 69.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 3.5% | 69.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 83.3% | 96.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| ARC-AGI | 53.5% | 98.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 10.3% | 94.2% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 92.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Chess puzzles | 21.0% | 78.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Mystery game puzzles | 19.0% | 73.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| EBR-bench | Not measured | 87.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1441 | 1551 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1433 | 1582 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1440 | 1545 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1279 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1289 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 71.1% | 100.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 26.0% | 90.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 0.0% | 95.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| ProofBench | 13.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1434 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1431 | 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 index06
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 85.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 60.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 43.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| AA-Omniscience | 6.9 | 53.5 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 77.7% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1450 | 1535 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1438 | 1525 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1430 | 1542 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1422 | 1520 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 53.5% | 78.4% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| PRBench Legal | Not measured | 53.3% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1319 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1357 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1326 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1434 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1348 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 80.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index013
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | 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 |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 79.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 70.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 76.0% | 79.3% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| GDPval-AA | 994 | 1733 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| DTBench | 83.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMCA | 37.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 77.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text | 1435 | 1538 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1419 | 1539 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1420 | 1533 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision | 1268 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1438 | 1530 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1427 | 1534 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1468 | 1613 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: German | 1452 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1426 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1404 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1448 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1441 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1445 | 1560 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1438 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1445 | 1569 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1435 | 1549 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1427 | 1542 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1414 | 1527 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1268 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1312 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1278 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1274 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1255 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 3.5 Flash Lite | 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 3.5 Flash Lite costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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.
| Specification | Google Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Google Gemini 4 Carbon |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | ||
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | July 21, 2026 | November 10, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $10.00 |
| Coding index | 48.9 | 86.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.41 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Gemini 4 Carbon for coding?
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite. Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite for output tokens 4.0x cheaper ($2.50 vs $10.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Gemini 4 Carbon?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2.00 and $10.00. Cost per solved task is known for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite only.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Gemini 4 Carbon?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Gemini 4 Carbon comparison based on?
46 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite'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.