Enter opens the highlighted result. Esc closes.

Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash leads Gemini 3.5 Flash on coding, 62.5 to 39.8 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 3.6 Flash costs 2.4x less per output token ($3.75 vs $9.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 101 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Gemini 3.5 Flash Replace Gemini 3.6 Flash
Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle
Coding
39.8
Overall
63.8
Output $/M
$9.00
59
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle
Coding
62.5
Overall
68.3
Output $/M
$3.75
38
vs boards won of 101 shared, 4 tied

Gemini 3.5 Flash 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 39.8 for Gemini 3.5 Flash.

Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash for a lower cost per solved task ($1.21 against $1.49) and work measured by Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) or SciCode, where it leads.

Model AGemini 3.5 FlashGoogle39.8/1004 independent benchmarks$1.21 per solved taskModel BGemini 3.6 FlashGoogle62.5/1004 independent benchmarks$1.49 per solved task
Shared results
101
Gemini 3.5 Flash only
11
Gemini 3.6 Flash only
8
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.

At a glance

Coding index
Gemini 3.5 Flash 39.8 from 4 benchmarks, Gemini 3.6 Flash 62.5 from 4 benchmarks.
Widest category
Coding, 3.7 points apart on average over 16 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
APEX-Agents: Gemini 3.5 Flash 27.5% against Gemini 3.6 Flash 46.9%, 19.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Gemini 3.5 Flash $9.00 against Gemini 3.6 Flash $3.75 per million output tokens, 2.4x 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 FlashBarsGemini 3.6 FlashTies
Coding781 tie
Intelligence11
Agentic work751 tie
Reasoning95
Math42
Knowledge831 tie
Web design061 tie
General238
All shared boards59384 ties
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index78
Coding benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
LMArena WebDev14991538Gemini 3.6 Flash
AA Coding IndexNot measured69.2Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)87.6%88.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)78.8%79.6%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)6.1%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)48.7%64.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Code migration (Vals AI)26.8%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)74.2%73.8%Gemini 3.5 Flash
SkillsBench (Vals AI)52.7%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)Not measured45.4%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
SciCode53.9%53.4%Gemini 3.5 Flash
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)46.2%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
FrontierCodeNot measured34.4%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
WeirdML62.6%56.1%Gemini 3.5 Flash
ALE-Bench911.0715.5Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: coding14931491Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: software and IT14941492Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena WebDev: React14951528Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena WebDev: HTML15221547Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena WebDev: from an image15041545Gemini 3.6 Flash
SciCode12.3%10.8%Gemini 3.5 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
Intelligence benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
AA Intelligence Index33.634.0Gemini 3.6 Flash
Epoch Capabilities Index154.9154.5Gemini 3.5 Flash
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index75
Agentic work benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
AA Agentic IndexNot measured29.0Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building web apps12021197Gemini 3.5 Flash
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps11971181Gemini 3.5 Flash
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps11741198Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: agents building Android apps11851204Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1098Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
Design Arena: agents building games11801180Tie
Design Arena: HTML slides10931099Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides11541121Gemini 3.5 Flash
Design Arena: spreadsheetsNot measured1071Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)57.9%56.3%Gemini 3.5 Flash
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)21.6%18.0%Gemini 3.5 Flash
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)30.8%25.0%Gemini 3.5 Flash
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)63.5%65.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
BioMysteryBench (Vals AI)Not measured58.5%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)5.7%4.3%Gemini 3.5 Flash
τ²-Bench Telecom95.6%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
APEX-Agents27.5%46.9%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Vending-Bench 2$5,396Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index95
Reasoning benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
GPQA Diamond92.7%93.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)88.3%88.4%Gemini 3.6 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)92.2%92.8%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)42.7%40.8%Gemini 3.5 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)92.8%94.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
ARC-AGI92.5%91.2%Gemini 3.5 Flash
ARC-AGI-272.1%60.4%Gemini 3.5 Flash
SimpleBench76.7%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
Chess puzzles45.0%42.0%Gemini 3.5 Flash
Mystery game puzzles32.0%30.0%Gemini 3.5 Flash
EBR-bench4.8%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14881486Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: expert14951490Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14831484Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Vision: diagrams13231314Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision: homework13301314Gemini 3.5 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index42
Math benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
OTIS Mock AIME95.6%94.2%Gemini 3.5 Flash
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 362.8%58.9%Gemini 3.5 Flash
FrontierMath, tier 426.8%22.0%Gemini 3.5 Flash
ProofBench31.0%36.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: math15041508Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: mathematical work14951492Gemini 3.5 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index83
Knowledge benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
MMLU Pro89.5%89.3%Gemini 3.5 Flash
LegalBench (Vals AI)83.6%86.7%Gemini 3.6 Flash
CorpFin (Vals AI)64.7%63.3%Gemini 3.5 Flash
TaxEval (Vals AI)74.4%74.9%Gemini 3.6 Flash
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.1%67.6%Gemini 3.5 Flash
MedCode (Vals AI)55.8%53.1%Gemini 3.5 Flash
SimpleQA Verified66.2%66.2%Tie
LMArena Text: science14951489Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14831469Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: legal and government14881479Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: business and finance14671464Gemini 3.5 Flash
FACTS Benchmark Suite63.1%65.3%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
Web design benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
Design Arena: websites12671300Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: UI components12691294Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: game dev12631263Tie
Design Arena: data viz12361289Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: 3D12431271Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: all code categories12661289Gemini 3.6 Flash
Design Arena: SVG1253Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
Design Arena: ASCII art12541281Gemini 3.6 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index238
General benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashLeader
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)59.5%56.6%Gemini 3.5 Flash
SAGE (Vals AI)49.9%48.7%Gemini 3.5 Flash
MedScribe (Vals AI)76.6%79.7%Gemini 3.6 Flash
Vals Multimodal Index62.9%65.1%Gemini 3.6 Flash
IFBench76.3%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)74.3%80.0%Gemini 3.6 Flash
DTBench94.7%95.5%Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMCA47.1%44.9%Gemini 3.5 Flash
Surface Evolver Bench58.1%Not measuredOnly Gemini 3.5 Flash measured
Furniture assemblyNot measured23.3%Only Gemini 3.6 Flash measured
LMArena Text14821480Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: instruction following14671467Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: creative writing14701466Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision13081299Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: English14811482Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: non-English14751470Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Chinese15271531Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: German14941480Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Japanese14861475Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Korean14481429Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: French14901503Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: Spanish14801476Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Russian14931488Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Polish15161473Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: multi-turn14811481Gemini 3.6 Flash
LMArena Text: longer queries14831475Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: writing and language14781470Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14591456Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision: English13051295Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision: Chinese13771357Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision: reading text13171312Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision: humor13211289Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision: creative writing13011278Gemini 3.5 Flash
LMArena Document14631456Gemini 3.5 Flash
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
Image generation benchmarks for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 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$0.0060Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.0026Fits in one request

Gemini 3.6 Flash costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Gemini 3.5 Flash$0.102Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.049Fits in one request

Gemini 3.6 Flash costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Gemini 3.5 Flash$0.390Fits in one request
Gemini 3.6 Flash$0.188Fits in one request

Gemini 3.6 Flash 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 and Gemini 3.6 Flash
SpecificationGoogle Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle Gemini 3.6 Flash
MakerGoogleGoogle
WeightsNo public weights listedNo public weights listed
ReleasedMay 19, 2026July 21, 2026
Context window1.05M1.05M
Input $/Mtok$1.50$0.75
Output $/Mtok$9.00$3.75
Coding index39.862.5
Independent measurements behind it44
Cost per solved task$1.21$1.49
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash 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 39.8 for Gemini 3.5 Flash. Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash for a lower cost per solved task ($1.21 against $1.49) and work measured by Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) or SciCode, where it leads.

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

Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.50 per million input tokens and $9.00 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 and $3.75. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.21 and Gemini 3.6 Flash $1.49.

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

Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.

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

101 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash's coding index rests on 4 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.

Compare next

Embed this comparison on your site

Free under CC BY 4.0, while the source link stays visible. Preview the frame · Terms and other embeds

<iframe src="https://llmbenchmark.ai/embed/compare/gemini-3-5-flash-vs-gemini-3-6-flash" title="Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.6 Flash, LLMBenchmark.ai" width="100%" height="360" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/gemini-3-5-flash-vs-gemini-3-6-flash">LLMBenchmark.ai, Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.6 Flash</a></p>