Model comparison
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Mercury 2
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 39.1 on the Noometry Index. Mercury 2 costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
GoogleSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 6 categories and Mercury 2 in 1 category; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads 60.9 to 53.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is WeirdML: 52.2% for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and 43.2% for Mercury 2.
- Mercury 2 is cheaper at $0.25 / $0.75 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $1.50 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Inception | |
| Noometry Index | 40.8 | 39.1 |
| Released | 2026-03-03 | 2026-02-20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1.05M | 128K |
| Max output | 66K | 50K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $0.25 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.50 | $0.75 |
| Results tracked | 38 | 17 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188), Mercury 2: 33.5 (#255)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | 1171 |
| SciCode | 41.9% | 38.7% |
| WeirdML | 52.2% | 43.2% |
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1391 |
| ALE-Bench | 797.73 | 785.58 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79), Mercury 2: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |
Reasoning Too close to call
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186), Mercury 2: 23.8 (#170)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 1.1% | 0.8% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1362 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 67.2% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 8.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 25% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 3% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 63.3% | — |
| DTBench | 76.8% | — |
| LMCA | 35% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.47 | — |
| ForecastBench | 54.4 | — |
Math Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90), Mercury 2: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1428 | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104), Mercury 2: 36.2 (#172)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.2% | 12.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1358 |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 8.6% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60), Mercury 2: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86), Mercury 2: 46.6 (#157)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1411 | 1331 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1417 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1304 |
| LMArena French | 1424 | — |
| LMArena German | 1429 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1413 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1392 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1421 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131), Mercury 2: 70.2 (#165)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1377 | 1329 |
Long Context Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122), Mercury 2: 40.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1330 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94), Mercury 2: 53.8 (#155)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1355 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1289 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1358 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Mercury 2?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 39.1 on the Noometry Index. Mercury 2 costs 1.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Mercury 2?
Mercury 2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite lists at $0.25 and $1.50.
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Mercury 2 better for coding?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.8 versus 33.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Mercury 2 share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Mercury 2 has 17.