Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs o3 Mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads o3 Mini on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 22.2 to 12.5, and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs 1.8x less per output token ($2.50 vs $4.40 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 52 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or o3 Mini: which to pick
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a coding score, 49.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; o3 Mini has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick o3 Mini for work measured by SciCode or WeirdML, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 52
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite only
- 33
- o3 Mini only
- 19
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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
No call
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads, 22.2 against 12.5.
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
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads, 83.8% against 75.5%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only o3 Mini has a AIME result, 86.5%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads, 85.8% against 78.7%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite takes 1.05M tokens against 200K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.0015, o3 Mini $0.0033 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 49.0 from 3 benchmarks, o3 Mini not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 19.7 points apart on average over 20 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 76.0% against o3 Mini 43.0%, 33.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $2.50 against o3 Mini $4.40 per million output tokens, 1.8x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite takes 1.05M tokens, o3 Mini 200K.
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 | o3 Mini | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 3 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 11 | 0 | ||
| Math | 3 | 1 | 1 tie | |
| Knowledge | 8 | 0 | ||
| General | 20 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 47 | 4 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index33
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | Not measured | 60.4% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 42.4% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Lite | Not measured | 32.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1435 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| AA Coding Index | 49.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 79.0% | 71.5% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 37.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| 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 |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 73.4% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SciCode | 41.3% | 42.8% | o3 Mini |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 6.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 1.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| WeirdML | 39.0% | 43.7% | o3 Mini |
| Cybench | Not measured | 22.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| ALE-Bench | 765.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1453 | 1378 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1451 | 1364 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1408 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1448 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| SciCode | 6.2% | 7.7% | o3 Mini |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 22.2 | 12.5 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.9 | 140.2 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 14.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 47.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 7.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 13.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 43.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 31.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| APEX-Agents | 29.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.8% | 75.5% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.8% | 77.3% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 18.8% | 12.0% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 83.3% | 77.0% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| ARC-AGI | 53.5% | 34.5% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 10.3% | 3.0% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 22.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Chess puzzles | 21.0% | 15.0% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| Mystery game puzzles | 19.0% | 7.0% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1441 | 1365 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1434 | 1364 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1440 | 1375 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1284 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1291 | 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 index31
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 86.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 71.1% | 76.9% | o3 Mini |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 26.0% | 18.6% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 0.0% | 0.0% | Tie |
| ProofBench | 13.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 96.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1434 | 1396 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1433 | 1399 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index80
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 85.8% | 78.7% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.1% | 71.5% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 60.7% | 45.3% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.6% | 69.4% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 94.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 43.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 80.2% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 15.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1451 | 1339 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1438 | 1330 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1431 | 1328 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1423 | 1313 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 53.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index200
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 47.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 70.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 67.1% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 76.0% | 43.0% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| DTBench | 83.5% | 68.8% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMCA | 37.6% | 19.0% | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 61.7% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text | 1435 | 1337 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1419 | 1337 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1421 | 1286 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Vision | 1269 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1438 | 1351 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1427 | 1319 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1468 | 1379 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: German | 1454 | 1303 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1426 | 1286 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1407 | 1313 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: French | 1451 | 1334 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1441 | 1321 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1443 | 1304 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1437 | 1294 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1445 | 1320 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1435 | 1343 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1428 | 1313 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1414 | 1283 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1269 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1311 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1280 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1287 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1260 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 3.5 Flash Lite | o3 Mini | 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 | OpenAI o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | July 21, 2026 | January 31, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 200K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $1.10 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $4.40 |
| Coding index | 49.0 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.41 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than o3 Mini for coding?
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a coding score, 49.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; o3 Mini has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick o3 Mini for work measured by SciCode or WeirdML, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or o3 Mini?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; o3 Mini costs $1.10 and $4.40. 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 o3 Mini?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, with 1.05M tokens against 200K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs o3 Mini comparison based on?
52 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and o3 Mini's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.