Gemini 3 Pro vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Gemini 3 Pro and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite both come from Google, Gemini 3 Pro was released in November 2025, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite followed 8 months later in July 2026.
The two models share 2 published benchmarks. Gemini 3 Pro leads on 2 of them. The widest gaps are on MRCR v2 (8-needle), where Gemini 3 Pro scores 26.3% against 21.3%; CharXiv-R, where Gemini 3 Pro scores 81.4% against 76.5%. Averaged across everything we track, Gemini 3 Pro sits at 70.5% and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at 53.2%.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the cheaper API at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens, roughly 7 times cheaper than Gemini 3 Pro at $2 and $12. Both accept a context window of about 1M tokens. Gemini 3 Pro accepts text, images, audio, and video as input, while Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite accepts text and images.
| Characteristic | Gemini 3 Pro | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Company | ||
| Release Date | November 17, 2025 | July 21, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 1.0M | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 66K | 66K |
| Input Price / 1M | $2.00 | $0.30 |
| Output Price / 1M | $12.00 | $2.50 |
| Average Score | 70.5% | 53.2% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| MRCR v2 (8-needle) | 26.3% | 21.3% |
| CharXiv-R | 81.4% | 76.5% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Gemini 3 Pro — 0.7, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — 0.5.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 5.0x cheaper: input $0.30/1M vs $2.00/1M tokens.
Same context size: 1M tokens.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is newer: released 7/21/2026 vs 11/17/2025.
More About These Models
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Gemini 3 Pro or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Which model is cheaper — Gemini 3 Pro or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Which has a larger context window — Gemini 3 Pro or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
The Gemini 3 Pro and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Gemini 3 Pro or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.