Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — Specifications
Compiled by Mustafa Ihsan from the vendor’s published documentation · Last updated
| Developer | |
|---|---|
| Type | Fast / high-volume |
| Modality | Text, Image, Video, Audio, PDF → Text |
| Parameters | Undisclosed |
| Context window | 1M |
| Max output | 65K |
| License | Proprietary |
| Open weights | No |
| Released | 2026-07 |
| Input price | $0.30 /1M |
| Output price | $2.50 /1M |
| API providers | Gemini API (Google AI Studio), Google Cloud (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform), Gemini app |
Benchmarks
| Google-reported | SWE-Bench Pro (Public) 54.2%; Terminal-bench 2.1 54.0%; OSWorld-Verified 74.0%; GDPval-AA v2 1140 Elo; GDM-MRCR v2 (8-needle, 128K) 72.2%. |
|---|
What is Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (gemini-3.5-flash-lite) is Google’s low-cost, low-latency model for high-volume work such as translation, classification, document parsing and sub-agent tasks. It became generally available on 21 July 2026, alongside Gemini 3.6 Flash, and its model card says it is based on Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite. It reads text, images, video, audio and PDFs, with a 1,048,576-token input limit and up to 65,536 output tokens, and supports thinking, function calling, search grounding and computer use.
On the Gemini API it costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 output. Batch and Flex requests cost half ($0.15 / $1.25), Priority costs $0.54 / $4.50, and cached input is $0.03. Google Cloud charges the same global rates, and the Gemini API also offers it on its free tier. Google reports 54.2% on SWE-Bench Pro, 54.0% on Terminal-bench 2.1 and 74.0% on OSWorld-Verified, against 38.3%, 31.0% and 54.3% for Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite.
It costs far less than Gemini 3.5 Flash ($1.50 / $9.00 on Google Cloud), and Google names it as the replacement for older models: gemini-3.1-flash-lite ($0.25 / $1.50) shuts down on 7 May 2027, and from 1 December 2026 calls to gemini-2.5-flash route to 3.5 Flash-Lite at its rates. Estimate a monthly bill with the AI API cost calculator or see every Gemini rate in our Gemini API pricing guide.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite pricing: API cost per 1M tokens
| Input (per 1M tokens) | $0.300 |
|---|---|
| Output (per 1M tokens) | $2.50 |
| Output/input ratio | 8.3× |
| Blended (4:1 in:out) | $0.740 per 1M tokens |
What Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs per month
Real monthly spend at a 4:1 input-to-output mix — the ratio a typical chat or RAG workload actually produces.
| Workload | Tokens / month | Cost / month |
|---|---|---|
| Side project | 1M in / 0.25M out | $0.93 |
| Small team | 20M in / 5M out | $19 |
| Production | 200M in / 50M out | $185 |
Run your own numbers in the AI API cost calculator.
Cheaper alternatives to Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
| Model | Blended $/1M | You save |
|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.1 8B open | $0.0240 | 97% cheaper |
| Mistral NeMo 12B open | $0.0292 | 96% cheaper |
| Gemma 3 4B open | $0.0600 | 92% cheaper |
Frequently asked questions
How much does Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cost per 1M tokens?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.300 per 1M input tokens and $2.50 per 1M output tokens. At a typical 4:1 input-to-output mix that blends to about $0.740 per 1M tokens.
How much does Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cost per month?
A small-team workload of 20M input and 5M output tokens a month costs about $19 on Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. A side project (1M in / 0.25M out) costs roughly $0.93.
What is a cheaper alternative to Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Llama 3.1 8B is the strongest cheaper option in our database at $0.0240 per 1M blended — about 97% less than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. It is also open-weight, so self-hosting is an option.
Can I run Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite locally?
No. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is a closed, API-only model — the weights are not released, so it cannot be self-hosted.
Why does Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite charge more for output than input?
Output tokens are generated one at a time and cannot be batched the way a prompt can, so they cost the provider more to serve. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite charges 8.3× more for output, which is why prompt-heavy workloads are far cheaper to run than generation-heavy ones.
See every Gemini model priced side by side: Gemini API pricing.
Prices are the published list rates for the model's primary API and are reviewed as providers change them. Volume, batch and cached-input discounts are not included. Compare every model side by side in the AI models database or the LLM leaderboard.