High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Choose GPT-4.1 Mini
GPT-4.1 Mini costs 18% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($0.70 against $0.85 per million tokens).
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs GPT-4.1 Mini: price, context and capabilities
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite for reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), reasoning over long documents and the latest release. Choose GPT-4.1 Mini for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and writing and code generation.
In short
- GPT-4.1 Mini is 18% cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at the headline price ($0.70 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens).
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1.05M.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer model (July 2026, against Apr 14, 2025).
- Only Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite offers reasoning.
Which should you choose?
Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.
Writing and code generation
Choose GPT-4.1 Mini
GPT-4.1 Mini charges $1.60 per million output tokens, against $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. Output dominates the bill when answers are long.
Reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents)
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite charges $0.03 per million cached input tokens, against $0.10 for GPT-4.1 Mini.
Reasoning over long documents
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 76% on Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR), against 44% for GPT-4.1 Mini.
Latest release
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer release (July 2026, against Apr 14, 2025 for GPT-4.1 Mini).
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | GPT-4.1 Mini | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $0.93 | $0.80 | GPT-4.1 Mini, $0.13 less |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $18.50 | $16.00 | GPT-4.1 Mini, $2.50 less |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $400.00 | $360.00 | GPT-4.1 Mini, $40.00 less |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | GPT-4.1 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | |
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Generally available | Deprecated |
| Headline price | $0.85 / 1M tokens | $0.70 / 1M tokens |
| Input | $0.30 / 1M tokens | $0.40 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $2.50 / 1M tokens | $1.60 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.03 / 1M tokens | $0.10 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Max output | 66k | 33k |
| Released | July 2026 | Apr 14, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | No data | June 2024 |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Capabilities | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API | Vision, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API |
| API model id | gemini-3.5-flash-lite | gpt-4.1-mini |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | GPT-4.1 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.8% | 66.4% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 18.8% | 5% |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | 79% | 58.7% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 76% | 44% |
| Intelligence Index | 22.2 | No data |
| SciCode | 41.3% | No data |
| Terminal-Bench Hard | No data | 7.6% |
| IFBench (instruction following) | No data | 38.3% |
| τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) | No data | 52.9% |
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 3.5 Flash-Lite or GPT-4.1 Mini?
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite for reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), reasoning over long documents and the latest release. Choose GPT-4.1 Mini for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and writing and code generation.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GPT-4.1 Mini?
GPT-4.1 Mini is 18% cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at the headline price ($0.70 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens).
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GPT-4.1 Mini?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1.05M.
What is the difference between Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and GPT-4.1 Mini?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is made by Google and GPT-4.1 Mini by OpenAI. GPT-4.1 Mini is 18% cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at the headline price ($0.70 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens). Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1.05M. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer model (July 2026, against Apr 14, 2025). Only Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite offers reasoning.
How much do Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and GPT-4.1 Mini cost per month?
At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $18.50 and GPT-4.1 Mini costs $16.00, at standard rates.
Which is newer, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GPT-4.1 Mini?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite was released on July 2026 and GPT-4.1 Mini on Apr 14, 2025.