High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Either one
Both cost $0.85 per million tokens on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token.
Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: price, context and capabilities
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite for reasoning over long documents and the latest release; on the other points the two are level or the data is missing.
In short
- Both cost the same at the headline price ($0.85 / 1M tokens).
- Both accept 1.05M tokens per request.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer model (July 2026, against June 2025).
Which should you choose?
Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.
Reasoning over long documents
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 76% on Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR), against 49.9% for Gemini 2.5 Flash.
Latest release
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer release (July 2026, against June 2025 for Gemini 2.5 Flash).
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $0.93 | $0.93 | = |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $18.50 | $18.50 | = |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $400.00 | $400.00 | = |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Legacy | Generally available |
| Headline price | $0.85 / 1M tokens | $0.85 / 1M tokens |
| Input | $0.30 / 1M tokens | $0.30 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $2.50 / 1M tokens | $2.50 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.03 / 1M tokens | $0.03 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Max output | 66k | 66k |
| Released | June 2025 | July 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | January 2025 | No data |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Capabilities | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API |
| API model id | gemini-2.5-flash | gemini-3.5-flash-lite |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 68.3% | 83.8% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 4.7% | 18.8% |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | 65.5% | 79% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 49.9% | 76% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard | 12.1% | No data |
| IFBench (instruction following) | 39% | No data |
| τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) | 14.9% | No data |
| Intelligence Index | No data | 22.2 |
| SciCode | No data | 41.3% |
Independent evaluations by Artificial Analysis, run the same way for every model, at the reasoning setting shown. Percentages unless marked as an index.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose Gemini 2.5 Flash or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite for reasoning over long documents and the latest release; on the other points the two are level or the data is missing.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Both cost the same at the headline price ($0.85 / 1M tokens).
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Both accept 1.05M tokens per request.
What is the difference between Gemini 2.5 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 2.5 Flash is made by Google and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by Google. Both cost the same at the headline price ($0.85 / 1M tokens). Both accept 1.05M tokens per request. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer model (July 2026, against June 2025).
How much do Gemini 2.5 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cost per month?
At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, Gemini 2.5 Flash costs $18.50 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $18.50, at standard rates.
Which is newer, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite was released on July 2026 and Gemini 2.5 Flash on June 2025.