Model comparison
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Llama 3.2 3B
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 7.1× 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 . 14 shared benchmarks.
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MetaSummary
- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 8 categories and Llama 3.2 3B in 1 category; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads 64.2 to 24.7.
- Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.33 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Llama 3.2 3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | |
| Noometry Index | 41.5 | 28.9 |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2024-09-24 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Max output | 66K | 118K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.50 | $0.33 |
| Results tracked | 39 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), Llama 3.2 3B: 27.6 (#319)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1453 | 1098 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1440 | — |
| SciCode | 41.3% | — |
| WeirdML | 39% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 23.4% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 28.3% |
| ALE-Bench | 765.27 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#143)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 29.3% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 21.9% |
| BALROG | — | 10.1% |
| GDP.pdf | 10% | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), Llama 3.2 3B: 21.0 (#228)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1441 | 1095 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 10.3% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 60.4% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 53.5% | — |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 22% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 19% | — |
| DTBench | 83.5% | — |
| LMCA | 37.6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.13 | — |
Math Llama 3.2 3B leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), Llama 3.2 3B: 32.4 (#214)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1433 | 1126 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 26% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 71.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 13% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), Llama 3.2 3B: 29.7 (#235)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1435 | 1090 |
| GPQA Diamond | 83.3% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), Llama 3.2 3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1268 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), Llama 3.2 3B: 26.2 (#281)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1427 | 1019 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1469 | 1017 |
| LMArena German | 1454 | 1056 |
| LMArena Russian | 1443 | 949 |
| LMArena French | 1451 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1427 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1407 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1442 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), Llama 3.2 3B: 56.0 (#275)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1420 | 1089 |
Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#261)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1435 | 1100 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), Llama 3.2 3B: 24.7 (#307)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Llama 3.2 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1435 | 1110 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1420 | 1094 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1559 | 595 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1445 | 1105 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Llama 3.2 3B?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 7.1× 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 3.5 Flash Lite or Llama 3.2 3B?
Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.33 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Llama 3.2 3B better for coding?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 27.6 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Llama 3.2 3B share?
14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Llama 3.2 3B has 18.