Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 6.6 points higher (22.2 vs 15.6) but costs 2.3× as much to run the benchmark ($366 vs $156; both mid-range class). Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 22.2 | +42.3% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 42.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $365.63 | +134.6% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 2.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.08s | 9.51s | +56.4% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 56.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $0.30 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 42.3% more intelligence, 134.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 56.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteGemini 3.5 Flash-LiteToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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