Performance Benchmarks for gemini-3.5-flash-lite

Analyze how gemini-3.5-flash-lite stacks up against other frontier models in terms of cost-to-performance and raw intelligence (LMArena Elo).

2026 Performance Summary

🚀 Intelligence (Elo): 1458
💰 API Cost (Input): $3e-7 / 1M tokens
⚡ API Cost (Output): $0.0000025 / 1M tokens
⏱️ Real-world Throughput: 88 tokens/s

Analysis: gemini-3.5-flash-lite is currently positioned on the Pareto Frontier. This means it offers a unique and optimal balance between intelligence (Elo: 1458) and cost ($3e-7/1M tokens), making it a top-tier choice for its price bracket.

Highly Recommended Alternatives

Frontier Model	LMArena Elo	API Cost (1M)	Throughput
gemini-3-flash	1473	$5e-7	59
mimo-v2.5-pro	1468	$4.35e-7	91
hy3	1457	$1.32e-7	53
gemma-4-31b	1451	$1e-7	155
qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507	1423	$9e-8	52

*These models represent the Pareto Frontier (optimal cost-to-performance).*