# Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Step 5 Preview

> Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 2.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 1 category and Step 5 Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 5 Preview leads 40.0 to 22.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is CritPt: 1.1% for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and 20.9% for Step 5 Preview.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.25 / $1.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1.02M.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 40.8 | 47.9 |
| Rank | 144 | 58 |
| Context | 1.05M | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.25 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $1.50 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188)
- Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | 1564 |
| SciCode | 41.9% | 58.9% |
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1480 |
| WeirdML | 52.2% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 797.73 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79)
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186)
- Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 1.1% | 20.9% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1465 |
| 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

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90)
- Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1428 | 1470 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104)
- Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1470 |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% | — |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 8.6% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60)
- Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | 1267 |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86)
- Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1411 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1421 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1424 | — |
| LMArena German | 1429 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1413 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1392 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131)
- Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1377 | 1444 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122)
- Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1455 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94)
- Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1447 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.9 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 2.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 5 Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Step 5 Preview?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.

### Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 1.02M.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Step 5 Preview share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.