High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Choose GPT-5 Mini
GPT-5 Mini costs 19% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($0.69 against $0.85 per million tokens).
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs GPT-5 Mini: price, context and capabilities
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite for very long inputs, the hardest reasoning tasks, reasoning over long documents and the latest release. Choose GPT-5 Mini for high-volume, cost-sensitive work, writing and code generation and reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents).
In short
- GPT-5 Mini is 19% cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at the headline price ($0.6875 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens).
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 400k.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer model (July 2026, against Aug 7, 2025).
Which should you choose?
Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.
Writing and code generation
Choose GPT-5 Mini
GPT-5 Mini charges $2.00 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 GPT-5 Mini
GPT-5 Mini charges $0.03 per million cached input tokens, against $0.03 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.
Very long inputs
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite reads up to 1.05M tokens per request, against 400k for GPT-5 Mini.
Hardest reasoning tasks
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 22.2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, against 16.8 for GPT-5 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 72.3% for GPT-5 Mini.
Latest release
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer release (July 2026, against Aug 7, 2025 for GPT-5 Mini).
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | GPT-5 Mini | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $0.93 | $0.75 | GPT-5 Mini, $0.18 less |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $18.50 | $15.00 | GPT-5 Mini, $3.50 less |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $400.00 | $325.00 | GPT-5 Mini, $75.00 less |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | GPT-5 Mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | |
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Generally available | Legacy |
| Headline price | $0.85 / 1M tokens | $0.6875 / 1M tokens |
| Input | $0.30 / 1M tokens | $0.25 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $2.50 / 1M tokens | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.03 / 1M tokens | $0.025 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 1.05M | 400k |
| Max output | 66k | 128k |
| Released | July 2026 | Aug 7, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | No data | May 2024 |
| 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-3.5-flash-lite | gpt-5-mini |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | GPT-5 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Index | 22.2 | 16.8 |
| SciCode | 41.3% | 39% |
| GPQA Diamond | 83.8% | 82.8% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 18.8% | 21.5% |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | 79% | 70.1% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 76% | 72.3% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard | No data | 33.3% |
| IFBench (instruction following) | No data | 75.4% |
| τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) | No data | 68.4% |
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-5 Mini?
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite for very long inputs, the hardest reasoning tasks, reasoning over long documents and the latest release. Choose GPT-5 Mini for high-volume, cost-sensitive work, writing and code generation and reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GPT-5 Mini?
GPT-5 Mini is 19% cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at the headline price ($0.6875 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens).
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GPT-5 Mini?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 400k.
What is the difference between Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and GPT-5 Mini?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is made by Google and GPT-5 Mini by OpenAI. GPT-5 Mini is 19% cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at the headline price ($0.6875 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens). Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 400k. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the newer model (July 2026, against Aug 7, 2025).
How much do Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and GPT-5 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-5 Mini costs $15.00, at standard rates.
Which is newer, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GPT-5 Mini?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite was released on July 2026 and GPT-5 Mini on Aug 7, 2025.