What is Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite good for?

High-throughput subagent tasks and document parsing in agent workflows. It takes text, images, video and audio and is one of the cheaper models in Google's lineup.

When is Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite not a good fit?

Closed weights, so no self-hosting. Output is text only. It costs more than Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite, the two cheaper models in Google's lineup.

What is the cheapest way to run Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

The cheapest hosted rate is $0.30 / $2.50 per 1M tokens via Google Cloud.

How does Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite compare with Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite?

Google says Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is much better in quality than Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite at every thinking level, and aims it at high-throughput work like agentic search and document processing. Same 1M-token context and text, image, audio and video input. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite lists at 20% more per 1M input tokens and 67% more per 1M output tokens than Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite. It came out 4 months later and has a newer knowledge cutoff (March 2026 against January 2025).

Can I self-host Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

No. Google Cloud does not publish the weights; Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is available only through hosted APIs.

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

The successor to Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite, built for high-throughput subagent tasks and document parsing in agentic workflows.

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Jump to: Specs Pricing Similar models FAQ More from Google Cloud

List price via Google Cloud

Input: $0.30 / 1M tokens
Output: $2.50 / 1M tokens

1 provider

Key Specifications

Context window: 1M tokens
Max output: 66K tokens
Knowledge cutoff: Mar 2026; web search available
Released: Jul 2026
Inputs: Text, image, video, audio

Capabilities Show details: Reasoning Thinks before it answers, always on or as a switchable mode. Function calling Connect to external tools, APIs, and systems. Structured output Return responses in structured formats like JSON. Web search Search the web for up-to-date information. Code execution Write and execute code in a sandboxed environment. File upload Process uploaded documents, spreadsheets, and other files.

Hosted API pricing

Input tokens M Output tokens M

Provider	Input / 1M tokens	Output / 1M tokens	Cost at 10M in + 2M out
Google Cloud Creator	$0.30	$2.50	$8.00	View

Heads up: Prices are estimates using base-tier, on-demand rates per 1M tokens from published pages. Providers may serve a shorter context or a quantized build than the creator's release. Verify with the provider before provisioning. How we estimate costs.

Similarly priced models

The models nearest Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by blended rate, each at its own cheapest provider.

Model	Blended / 1M	Input / 1M	Output / 1M	Context	Cutoff	vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B Alibaba Cloud	$0.58	$0.38	$1.55	262K		−14%
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp DeepSeek	$0.59	$0.44	$1.32	1M		−12%
GPT-4.1 Mini OpenAI	$0.60	$0.40	$1.60	1M	Jun 2024	−10%
Qwen3.5-27B Alibaba Cloud	$0.65	$0.30	$2.40	262K		−3%
Gemini 2.5 Flash Google Cloud	$0.67	$0.30	$2.50	1M	Jan 2025	0%
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite This model Google Cloud	$0.67	$0.30	$2.50	1M	Mar 2026
Mistral Large 3 Mistral	$0.67	$0.50	$1.50	256K		0%
Qwen3.5-Plus Alibaba Cloud	$0.73	$0.40	$2.40	1M		+10%
Qwen3-235B-A22B Thinking (2507) Alibaba Cloud	$0.75	$0.30	$3.00	262K		+13%
GLM-5 Z.AI	$0.77	$0.60	$1.60	200K		+15%
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B DeepSeek	$0.80	$0.80	$0.80	131K		+20%

Prices are USD per 1M tokens at each model's cheapest listed provider. Blended is the cost of 10M input plus 2M output tokens, spread over the 12M.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite good for?: High-throughput subagent tasks and document parsing in agent workflows. It takes text, images, video and audio and is one of the cheaper models in Google's lineup.
When is Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite not a good fit?: Closed weights, so no self-hosting. Output is text only. It costs more than Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite, the two cheaper models in Google's lineup.
What is the cheapest way to run Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?: The cheapest hosted rate is $0.30 / $2.50 per 1M tokens via Google Cloud.
How does Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite compare with Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite?: Google says Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is much better in quality than Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite at every thinking level, and aims it at high-throughput work like agentic search and document processing. Same 1M-token context and text, image, audio and video input. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite lists at 20% more per 1M input tokens and 67% more per 1M output tokens than Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite. It came out 4 months later and has a newer knowledge cutoff (March 2026 against January 2025).
Can I self-host Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?: No. Google Cloud does not publish the weights; Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is available only through hosted APIs.

More from Google Cloud

Model	Context	Cutoff	Input / 1M	Output / 1M
Gemini 2.5 Flash	1M	Jan 2025	$0.30	$2.50
Gemini 3 Flash Preview	1M	Jan 2025	$0.50	$3.00
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite	1M	Jan 2025	$0.25	$1.50
Gemini 3.6 Flash	1M	Mar 2026	$1.50	$7.50
Gemini 3.7 Flash	1M	Mar 2026	$1.50	$7.50
Gemma 4 26B A4B Open weights	256K	Jan 2025	$0.13	$0.40
Gemma 4 31B Open weights	256K	Jan 2025	$0.13	$0.37
Gemini 2.5 Pro	1M	Jan 2025	$1.25	$10.00