Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Llama 3.2 3B

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 28× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Google

54.2

Rank #32 Confirmed

Llama 3.2 3B Meta

28.9

Rank #321 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher in 9 categories and Llama 3.2 3B in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.5 Flash leads 62.8 to 21.0.
  • Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.33 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $9 for Gemini 3.5 Flash.
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash 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 and Llama 3.2 3B specifications
Gemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
ProviderGoogleMeta
Noometry Index54.228.9
Released2026-05-192024-09-24
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M131K
Max output66K118K
Input $ / M tokens$1.50$0.05
Output $ / M tokens$9$0.33
Results tracked5418

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 49.4 (#49), Llama 3.2 3B: 27.6 (#319)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
LMArena Coding14921098
SWE-bench Verified79.3%—
DeepSWE37.4%—
LMArena WebDev1499—
SciCode53.1%—
WeirdML62.6%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—23.4%
BigCodeBench Complete—28.3%
ALE-Bench911.02—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 24.7 (#114), Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#143)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
APEX-Agents27.5%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—21.9%
BALROG—10.1%
GBAEval6.7%—
GDP.pdf14%—
Vending-Bench 25,396—

Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 62.8 (#18), Llama 3.2 3B: 21.0 (#228)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
LMArena Hard Prompts14881095
ARC-AGI-272.1%—
SimpleBench76.7%—
NYT Connections (extended)92.6%—
ARC-AGI-192.5%—
CritPt13.1%—
Chess Puzzles50%—
EnigmaEval25.4%—
EBR-Bench4.8%—
Mystery Game Puzzles32%—
DTBench94.7%—
LMCA47.1%—
Surface Evolver Bench58.1%—
Epoch Capabilities Index154.46—
ForecastBench59—

Math Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 60.7 (#36), Llama 3.2 3B: 32.4 (#214)

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 66.3 (#11), Llama 3.2 3B: 29.7 (#235)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
LMArena Expert14951090
GPQA Diamond92.8%—
SimpleQA Verified66.2%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.7 (#15), Llama 3.2 3B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
LMArena Vision1310—
Blueprint-Bench 233.6%—
LMArena Document1463—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 57.0 (#13), Llama 3.2 3B: 26.2 (#281)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
LMArena Non-English14761019
LMArena Chinese15261017
LMArena German14921056
LMArena Russian1493949
LMArena French1490—
LMArena Japanese1486—
LMArena Korean1451—
LMArena Spanish1480—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 77.0 (#30), Llama 3.2 3B: 56.0 (#275)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
LMArena Instruction Following14671089

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.4 (#38), Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#261)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
LMArena Longer Query14821100

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash: 65.5 (#47), Llama 3.2 3B: 24.7 (#307)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 FlashLlama 3.2 3B
LMArena Text14821110
LMArena Creative Writing14701094
LMArena Multi-Turn14811105
EQ-Bench Creative Writing—595
EQ-Bench 41087—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash better than Llama 3.2 3B?

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 28× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash 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 lists at $1.50 and $9.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash or Llama 3.2 3B better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.4 versus 27.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash and Llama 3.2 3B share?

13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash has 54 scored results on Noometry and Llama 3.2 3B has 18.

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