- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper (and better) than Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Google’s new model beat its competitors on many criteria
- Variable reasoning improves efficiency and speed
Google has lifted the lid on its new and improved Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite, its most cost-effective Series 3 model designed specifically for developers.
Based on internal testing, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite delivers up to 2.5x faster first response token performance than Gemini 2.5 Flash as well as 45% faster output generation, while maintaining or improving quality and reducing costs.
The company has confirmed that pricing for the new 3.1 model will be $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per 1 million output tokens – a significant reduction from $0.30/$2.50 for 2.5 Flash, but an increase from $0.10/$0.40 for 2.5 Flash Lite.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Launches as Affordable Developer Mode
Google also offered comparisons with other third-party models, including GPT-5 mini ($0.25/$2.00), Claude 4.5 Haiku ($1.00/$5.00), and Grok 4.1 Fast ($0.20/$0.50), revealing that 3.1 Flash Lite outperforms leading competing models in six of 11 benchmark tests.
In terms of model usability, developers can adjust the degree of reasoning used by the model to alternate between instant responses for simple tasks and deeper reasoning for complex tasks.
Some of the use cases cited by Google include high-volume translation, content moderation, user interface and dashboard generation, and simulations.
The model is now available in preview for developers via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio and for business users in Vertex AI.
More broadly, the news comes just weeks after Google launched its 3.1 Pro model, which beats models like Claude Sonnet 4.6, Opus 4.6, GPT-5.2 and GPT-5.3-Codex in most benchmarks.
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