Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
| Specification |
by Google
|
by Google
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current budget | Preview flagship |
| Released | ||
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.300/Mtok | $0.500/Mtok |
| Output | $2.50/Mtok | $3.00/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $0.850/Mtok | $1.13/Mtok |
| Cached input | $0.030/Mtok | $0.050/Mtok |
| Price basis | Verified against Google's Gemini API pricing page (ai.google.dev) on 2026-07-28: the Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Standard paid tier is $0.30/1M input, $2.50/1M output, $0.03/1M context caching (batch tier $0.15/$1.25). The identical $0.30/$2.50 price shared with the deprecated Gemini 2.5 Flash reflects Google's uniform Flash tier pricing, not a placeholder — the value matches LiteLLM gemini/gemini-3.5-flash-lite. | — |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
textimageaudiovideo
|
textimageaudiovideo
|
| Benchmarks sources: Artificial Analysis, Google DeepMind Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite model card, LMSYS Chatbot Arena (UC Berkeley) / Artificial Analysis, Google model card, Google model card (no tools) | ||
| Independent composite scores measured for both models — each on its own scale | ||
| AA Intelligence Index | 37.4 | 27 |
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | 1456.9 ELO | 1473.8 ELO |
| AA Agentic Index | 27.2 | — |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | 5.2 | — |
| GDPval-AA v2 | 1136.3 ELO | — |
| Per-benchmark results no per-benchmark score is published for both models — the composites above are what compares them | ||
| GPQA Diamond | — | 90.4 vendor |
| SWE-Bench Verified | — | 78 vendor |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 54 vendor | — |
| OSWorld-Verified | 74 vendor | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | — | 33.7 vendor |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
Google — $0.300/$2.50/Mtok
|
Google — $0.500/$3.00/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $0.85 | $1.13 | $0.28 (24.9%) |
| 10M tokens | $8.5 | $11.25 | $2.75 (24.4%) |
| 100M tokens | $85 | $112.5 | $27.5 (24.4%) |
| 1000M tokens | $850 | $1125 | $275 (24.4%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above- cost dominates: $0.850/Mtok blended vs $1.13 — 24.4% less on the same 50/50 token mix
- this pairing gives Gemini 3 Flash Preview no edge on price, context, cache discount, or measured performance — pick it only for qualitative fit (ecosystem, compliance, model behavior on your prompts)
The cheaper option here — Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.850/Mtok blended on Google.
Summary
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by Google costs $0.300/Mtok input and $2.50/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image, audio, video input.
Gemini 3 Flash Preview by Google costs $0.500/Mtok input and $3.00/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image, audio, video input.
On a blended cost basis, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 24.4% cheaper than Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.