Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Qwen3-235B-A22B
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
Google · Mar 2026
The cheapest Gemini 3 model: multimodal input and a 1M context for $0.25/$1.50 — built for massive-scale pipelines.
Alibaba (Qwen) · Jul 2025
The most popular open general-purpose Qwen: 235B MoE with hybrid thinking, a staple of the 2025 open-source ecosystem.
The verdict
These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. Qwen3-235B-A22B is about 1.5x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite also takes 1M of context versus 262K for Qwen3-235B-A22B. And Qwen3-235B-A22B is open-weights (Apache 2.0), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
Specs & pricing
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Qwen3-235B-A22B | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | — | 69.0 |
| Input price / 1M | $0.25 | $0.22 |
| Output price / 1M | $1.5 | $0.88 |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 33K |
| Open weights | no | yes (Apache 2.0) |
| Reasoning model | no | yes |
| Multimodal input | text, image, audio, video | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | Nov 2025 | Apr 2025 |
| Released | Mar 2026 | Jul 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $4.75 | $3.52 |
* 10M input + 1.5M output tokens per month at list prices, no caching. Green = better value on that row.
Frequently asked questions
- Which is better, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Qwen3-235B-A22B?
- These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. Qwen3-235B-A22B is about 1.5x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite also takes 1M of context versus 262K for Qwen3-235B-A22B. And Qwen3-235B-A22B is open-weights (Apache 2.0), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
- Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Qwen3-235B-A22B?
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs $0.25/$1.5 per million input/output tokens, while Qwen3-235B-A22B costs $0.22/$0.88. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $4.75 versus $3.52.
- Which model is better for coding, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Qwen3-235B-A22B?
- We don't yet track SWE-bench Verified results for both models; check their individual pages for coding-related scores.