Model comparison
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 37.0 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 23 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite scores higher in 2 categories and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite in 8 categories; 10 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads 50.1 to 32.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is DTBench: 62.8% for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and 83.5% for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
Side by side
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Noometry Index | 37.0 | 41.5 |
| Released | 2025-06-17 | 2026-07-21 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.10 | $0.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $2.50 |
| Results tracked | 33 | 39 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 38.5 (#173), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| WeirdML | 35.2% | 39% |
| LMArena Coding | 1373 | 1453 |
| ALE-Bench | 325.9 | 765.27 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1440 |
| SciCode | — | 41.3% |
Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 28.0 (#96), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 29.3% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 36.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | — | 10% |
Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 22.2 (#205), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1377 | 1441 |
| DTBench | 62.8% | 83.5% |
| LMCA | 18.1% | 37.6% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 133.94 | 145.13 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 10.3% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 40.5% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 60.4% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 53.5% |
| CritPt | — | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 22% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
Math Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 38.0 (#144), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1373 | 1433 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 26% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 0% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 71.1% |
| ProofBench | — | 13% |
| Omni-MATH | 48% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 32.5 (#210), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1373 | 1435 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 83.3% |
| MMLU-Pro | 53.7% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 3.3% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.9% | — |
Multimodal Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 29.1 (#114), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1198 | 1268 |
| VPCT | 30% | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 49.3 (#134), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1369 | 1427 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1404 | 1469 |
| LMArena French | 1388 | 1451 |
| LMArena German | 1389 | 1454 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1359 | 1427 |
| LMArena Korean | 1360 | 1407 |
| LMArena Russian | 1373 | 1443 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1396 | 1442 |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 70.0 (#168), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1367 | 1420 |
| IFEval | 81% | — |
Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 33.3 (#262), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1373 | 1435 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 47.2% | — |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: 56.8 (#135), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57)
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1379 | 1435 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1367 | 1420 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1366 | 1445 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1559 |
| WildBench | 81.8% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite better than Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 37.0 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.
Is Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better for coding?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 38.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite share?
23 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has 33 scored results on Noometry and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39.