Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google or Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) 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 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 24.2 points higher (39.8 vs 15.6) but costs 7.1× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $156; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when you need intelligence above 15.6, and Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite when 15.6 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 39.8 | +155.1% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 2.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $1,100.06 | +605.8% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 7.1× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.15s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 155.1% more intelligence, 605.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
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 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteGemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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