# Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs GLM-5.3

> GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 40.4 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 3.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-vs-glm-5-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 30

## Summary

- They share 30 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 0 categories and GLM-5.3 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where GLM-5.3 leads 45.2 to 22.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 8.2% for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and 74.2% for GLM-5.3.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.25 / $1.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1.40 / $4.40 for GLM-5.3.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.
- GLM-5.3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Z.ai (Zhipu) |
| Noometry Index | 40.4 | 54.6 |
| Rank | 141 | 25 |
| Context | 1.05M | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.25 | $1.40 |
| Output $/M | $1.50 | $4.40 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.5 (#179)
- GLM-5.3: 59.0 (#12)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | 1623 |
| SciCode | 41.9% | 59% |
| WeirdML | 52.2% | 75.4% |
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1499 |
| ALE-Bench | 797.73 | 1,317 |
| DeepSWE | — | 69% |
| FrontierCode | — | 40.1% |
| FrontierSWE | — | 30.2% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 29.9 (#72)
- GLM-5.3: 36.3 (#34)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 56.6% |
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 8,164 |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.3 (#181)
- GLM-5.3: 45.2 (#42)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 8.2% | 74.2% |
| CritPt | 1.1% | 19.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | 25% | 21% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1491 |
| DTBench | 76.8% | 87.7% |
| LMCA | 35% | 55.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.45 | 155.56 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 67.2% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 3% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 63.3% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 33% |
| Bench to the Future 3 | — | 0.15 |
| ForecastBench | 54.4 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.5 (#82)
- GLM-5.3: 62.1 (#27)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | 68.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1427 | 1493 |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 29.3% |
| ProofBench | — | 49% |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.7 (#95)
- GLM-5.3: 58.3 (#34)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% | 90.9% |
| LMArena Expert | 1397 | 1512 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 8.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 41% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 38.7 (#57)
- GLM-5.3: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.5 (#82)
- GLM-5.3: 55.9 (#27)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1410 | 1457 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1523 |
| LMArena French | 1423 | 1499 |
| LMArena German | 1429 | 1505 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1411 | 1438 |
| LMArena Korean | 1393 | 1478 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1460 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1420 | 1444 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.9 (#126)
- GLM-5.3: 77.8 (#15)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1376 | 1481 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#117)
- GLM-5.3: 45.5 (#32)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1485 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 61.0 (#90)
- GLM-5.3: 75.9 (#6)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1473 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1459 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1473 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 2075 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than GLM-5.3?

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 40.4 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 3.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or GLM-5.3?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; GLM-5.3 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.

### Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or GLM-5.3 better for coding?

GLM-5.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.0 versus 37.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and GLM-5.3 share?

30 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and GLM-5.3 has 41.