Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Sonar Deep Research
Updated October 21, 2026. No benchmark has tested both models yet. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
- Coding
- 49.0
- Overall
- 22.2
- Output $/M
- $2.50
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $8.00
Decision reading
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a coding score, 49.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; Sonar Deep Research has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
No benchmark has tested both yet. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has results on LMArena WebDev, AA Coding Index and LiveCodeBench (Vals AI); Sonar Deep Research has none yet. Compare them on price and context instead.
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
No call
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a AA Intelligence Index result, 22.2.
Directional only
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
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite takes 1.05M tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.0015, Sonar Deep Research $0.0060 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, Sonar Deep Research not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- None yet: no category has been tested on both models.
- Widest single gap
- None yet: no benchmark has tested both models.
- Output price
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $2.50 against Sonar Deep Research $8.00 per million output tokens, 3.2x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite takes 1.05M tokens, Sonar Deep Research 128K.
Benchmark by benchmark
Every board either model has a result on, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale. Only one model is measured on each, so no row names a leader.
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index16 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Sonar Deep Research | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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% | 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 |
| 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 |
| SciCode | 41.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| WeirdML | 39.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ALE-Bench | 765.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1453 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1451 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Sonar Deep Research | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 22.2 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.9 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Sonar Deep Research | 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 |
| APEX-Agents | 29.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index14 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Sonar Deep Research | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ARC-AGI | 53.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 10.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Chess puzzles | 21.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 19.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1441 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1434 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1440 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| 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 | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Sonar Deep Research | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 71.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 26.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| 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 | 1433 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Sonar Deep Research | 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 |
| LMArena Text: science | 1451 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1438 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1431 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1423 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index29 boards measured
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Sonar Deep Research | 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 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 76.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| DTBench | 83.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMCA | 37.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text | 1435 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1419 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1421 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1269 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1438 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1427 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1468 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1454 | 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 | 1407 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1451 | 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 | 1443 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1437 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1445 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1435 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1428 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1414 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite measured |
| 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 17 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 | Perplexity Sonar Deep Research |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Perplexity | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | July 21, 2026 | March 7, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 128K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $8.00 |
| 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 Sonar Deep Research for coding?
Only Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has a coding score, 49.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; Sonar Deep Research has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Sonar Deep Research?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Sonar Deep Research costs $2.00 and $8.00. 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 Sonar Deep Research?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.
Has any benchmark tested both Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Sonar Deep Research?
No benchmark has tested both yet. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has results on LMArena WebDev, AA Coding Index and LiveCodeBench (Vals AI); Sonar Deep Research has none yet. Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 21, 2026.