# Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-vs-gemini-3-6-flash
- Last updated: September 4, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 5
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5

## Quick Verdict

Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite only makes more sense when its price, context window, or workload-specific category wins matter more than the overall score.

## Summary

- Gemini 3.6 Flash leads overall 70.11 to 56.13.
- The clearest category separation is in multimodal & grounded, where the averages are 37.2 for Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and 82.3 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) in Agentic, with scores of 34.1% and 73.8%.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Google | Google |
| Type | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Reasoning | Non-Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 56.13 | 70.11 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 8 | 8 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $1.50 / $7.50 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Coming soon
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite public-lane score: 43.3 (Estimated · #105/151)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash public-lane score: 50.7 (Supported · #60/151)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Gert Labs | 38.46% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 34.1% | 73.8% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| OSWorld-Verified | Coming soon | 83% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Coming soon
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite public-lane score: 38.1 (Estimated · #148/183)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash public-lane score: 58.9 (Supported · #30/183)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Vibe Code Bench | 0.00% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | 80.1% | 88.1% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | 62.8% | 79.6% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| deepSwe | Coming soon | 49% | Coming soon |
| cursorBench32 | Coming soon | 53.5% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Coming soon
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite public-lane score: 37.2 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash public-lane score: 82.3 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CharXiv | 73.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Coming soon
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite public-lane score: Coming soon
- Gemini 3.6 Flash public-lane score: 77.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

### Knowledge

- Winner: Coming soon
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite public-lane score: 51.7 (Estimated · #79/181)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash public-lane score: 68.6 (Supported · #18/181)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 81.1% | 93.4% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 86.2% | 89.3% | Gemini 3.6 Flash |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is ahead overall on BenchLM right now.

### Where is the biggest gap between Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Gemini 3.6 Flash?

The widest category gap is in multimodal & grounded, where the averages are 37.2 for Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and 82.3 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.

### How many benchmarks does Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite cover on BenchLM?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite currently has 8 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Gemini 3.6 Flash cover on BenchLM?

Gemini 3.6 Flash currently has 8 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Claude Fable 5.1](/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-gemini-3-1-flash-lite)
- [Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Claude Fable 5.1](/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-gemini-3-6-flash)
- [Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs GPT-6 Astra](/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-vs-gpt-6-astra)
- [Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-6 Astra](/compare/gemini-3-6-flash-vs-gpt-6-astra)

## Explore More

- [Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite profile](/models/gemini-3-1-flash-lite)
- [Gemini 3.6 Flash profile](/models/gemini-3-6-flash)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)