# Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

> Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 2.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-vs-gemini-3-6-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 31

## Summary

- They share 31 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 1 category and Gemini 3.6 Flash in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.8 to 22.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 8.2% for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and 89% for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.25 / $1.50 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Google |
| Noometry Index | 40.8 | 54.1 |
| Rank | 144 | 33 |
| Context | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/M | $0.25 | $0.75 |
| Output $/M | $1.50 | $3.75 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | 1538 |
| SciCode | 41.9% | 52.7% |
| WeirdML | 52.2% | 56.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1491 |
| ALE-Bench | 797.73 | 715.52 |
| DeepSWE | — | 46.7% |
| FrontierCode | — | 34.4% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 46.9% |
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |
| GDP.pdf | — | 14% |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 8.2% | 89% |
| CritPt | 1.1% | 10.6% |
| Chess Puzzles | 25% | 43% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1485 |
| DTBench | 76.8% | 95.5% |
| LMCA | 35% | 44.9% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.47 | 154.25 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 60.4% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 67.2% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 91.2% |
| EnigmaEval | 3% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 63.3% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 30% |
| ForecastBench | 54.4 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | 58.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | 94.2% |
| LMArena Math | 1428 | 1505 |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 22% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 70.8% |
| ProofBench | — | 36% |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% | 94.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1488 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 8.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 66.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | 1298 |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | — | 31.2% |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 23.3% |
| LMArena Document | — | 1456 |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1411 | 1469 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1531 |
| LMArena French | 1424 | 1504 |
| LMArena German | 1429 | 1478 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1413 | 1476 |
| LMArena Korean | 1392 | 1431 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1487 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1421 | 1475 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1377 | 1466 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1474 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1479 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1465 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1481 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1604 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 2.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.6 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.

### Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash better for coding?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 1.05M tokens.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash share?

31 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46.