Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
Pick up to 3 models · pricing, context and capabilities · simulate your product cost
Data updated on September 30, 2026· 217 models
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is Google's high-efficiency model optimized for high-volume use cases.
- Reasoning estimated
- Speed estimated
- Input
- Output
- Context
- 1 M tokens
- Max output
- 66 K
- Input, $ per 1M tokens
- ▲$0.250
- Output, $ per 1M tokens
- ▲$1.50
- Cache read, $ per 1M
- $0.025
- Batch (input / output)
- —
- Tool calling
- Yes
- Released
- 03/03/2026
- Knowledge cutoff
- 2025-01
- API id
- google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview
Gemini 3.6 Flash is a high-efficiency model from Google for coding, agentic workflows, and web and app development.
- Reasoning estimated
- Speed estimated
- Input
- Output
- Context
- 1 M tokens
- Max output
- 66 K
- Input, $ per 1M tokens
- $0.750
- Output, $ per 1M tokens
- $3.75
- Cache read, $ per 1M
- $0.075
- Batch (input / output)
- $0.375 / $1.88
- Tool calling
- Yes
- Released
- ▲07/21/2026
- Knowledge cutoff
- 2026-03
- API id
- google/gemini-3.6-flash
Which is the better API choice: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3.6 Flash?
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview: cheapest input (67% less than Gemini 3.6 Flash)
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview: cheapest output
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: the newest (07/21/2026)
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs 67% less on input and 60% less on output than Gemini 3.6 Flash ($0.250 / $1.50 versus $0.750 / $3.75 per million tokens). All accept 1 M tokens of context. Gemini 3.6 Flash offers a batch tier at half price for jobs that do not need an immediate answer.
What would your product cost?
Estimate the monthly cost with your app's real volume. List prices, no cache or batch discounts.
With Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview you save $16.50 a month versus Gemini 3.6 Flash (63% less).
The 6 cheapest for this scenario (chat, last 12 months)
- 1Lyria 3 Pro Preview Google$0.00
- 2Lyria 3 Clip Preview Google$0.00
- 3Qwen3.7 Flash Qwen$0.97
- 4DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 DeepSeek$1.55
- 5Ministral 3 3B 2512 Mistral$1.90
- 6Qwen3.5-Flash Qwen$2.02
Paste your prompt: tokens and cost per model
Rough estimate (about 4 characters per token). Nothing is sent to any server.
Cost of sending it 1,000 times (input only)
- 1Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview Google$0.019
- 2Gemini 3.6 Flash Google$0.057
- 3Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic$0.152
- 4Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic$0.152
- 5Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic$0.304
- 6Claude Opus 5 Anthropic$0.380
- 7Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic$0.760
- 8Claude Fable 5 Anthropic$0.760
Popular comparisons
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- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Grok 4.7
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Grok 4.7
Frequently asked questions
Which is the better API choice: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview vs Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs 67% less on input and 60% less on output than Gemini 3.6 Flash ($0.250 / $1.50 versus $0.750 / $3.75 per million tokens). All accept 1 M tokens of context. Gemini 3.6 Flash offers a batch tier at half price for jobs that do not need an immediate answer.
Which is cheaper: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is cheaper: $0.250 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens, versus $0.750 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
Which has more context: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.6 Flash accept the same context: 1 M tokens.
Which is newer: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash was released on 07/21/2026; Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview on 03/03/2026.
What would 10,000 requests a month cost with Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview and Gemini 3.6 Flash?
With 1,500 input and 400 output tokens per request: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview: $9.75; Gemini 3.6 Flash: $26.25 a month, at list price.
Where do the prices come from and how often are they updated?
From the public catalogs of OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM, which publish each provider's list prices. They sync once a day and the last update date is shown above the comparison.
What does price per million tokens mean?
It is what the provider charges per million tokens you send (input) or the model generates (output). A token is roughly 4 characters. Output almost always costs more than input.
Sources: OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM. Prices in USD per million tokens, list price, no volume discounts. Prompt tokens are an estimate; each provider's tokenizer may differ.