Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs GPT-5 nano

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across knowledge, coding, math, and reasoning.

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 55 to 31. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5 nano is the reasoning model in the pair, while Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 400K for GPT-5 nano.

Quick Verdict

Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-5 nano only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Knowledge

GPT-5 nano

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

51.2

GPT-5 nano

71.2

63
MMLU
-
62
GPQA
71.2
60
SuperGPQA
-
58
OpenBookQA
-
63
MMLU-Pro
-
1
HLE
-

Coding

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
55
HumanEval
-
22
SWE-bench Verified
-
21
LiveCodeBench
-

Mathematics

GPT-5 nano

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

63.1

GPT-5 nano

85.2

63
AIME 2023
-
65
AIME 2024
-
64
AIME 2025
85.2
59
HMMT Feb 2023
-
61
HMMT Feb 2024
-
60
HMMT Feb 2025
-
62
BRUMO 2025
-
71
MATH-500
-

Reasoning

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
60
SimpleQA
-
58
MuSR
-
74
BBH
-

Instruction Following

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
79
IFEval
-

Multilingual

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
73
MGSM
-

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or GPT-5 nano?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is ahead overall, 55 to 31. The biggest single separator in this matchup is AIME 2025, where the scores are 64 and 85.2.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or GPT-5 nano?

GPT-5 nano has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 71.2 versus 51.2. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or GPT-5 nano?

GPT-5 nano has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 85.2 versus 63.1. Inside this category, AIME 2025 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 9, 2026

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