Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by Google or Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) scores 18.7 points higher (40.9 vs 22.2) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1623 vs $366; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) when you need intelligence above 22.2, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite when 22.2 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 22.2 | 40.9 | +84.2% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 84.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $365.63 | $1,622.73 | +343.8% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 4.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 8.60s | 33.13s | +285.2% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 285.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $2.50 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: 84.2% more intelligence, 343.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 285.2% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- 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 3.8 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGemini 3.8 Flash (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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