Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
About this model
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is an AI model from Google DeepMind, made available through the API on March 3, 2026. It can read up to 1,048,576 tokens in one request, roughly 1,966 pages of text, and write up to 65,536 tokens in a single answer. Besides text, it accepts images, video, files such as PDFs and audio as input.
Through the API it costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens. Its pricing sits in the middle of the market.
It supports extended reasoning: it can "think" step by step before answering, which helps on maths, code and complex questions. It can call tools and functions, so developers can connect it to search, databases or other software.
Quality scores
Rankings →Not rated yet. Independent test results usually appear a few weeks after a model is released.
Where to use it
Companies that serve this model through an API: 3. Prices per million tokens, cheapest first.
| Provider | Inputi | Outputi | Contexti | Uptime (24 h)i |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Google AI StudioOfficialCheapest | $0.13 | $0.75 | 1M | 100.0% |
Google AI StudioOfficial | $0.25 | $1.50 | 1M | 99.7% |
Google AI StudioOfficial | $0.45 | $2.70 | 1M | 99.9% |
Availability and prices come from OpenRouter’s public API and are refreshed daily. Uptime is the share of successful requests over the last 24 hours. Some providers run a compressed version of open models (fp8, int4), which is cheaper but can be slightly less accurate.
Use it in your code
Call Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview through OpenRouter’s OpenAI-compatible API: create a key on openrouter.ai, then run one of these examples.
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model": "google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello! What can you do?"}]}'import os
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1", api_key=os.environ["OPENROUTER_API_KEY"])
reply = client.chat.completions.create(
model="google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello! What can you do?"}],
)
print(reply.choices[0].message.content)import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({ baseURL: "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1", apiKey: process.env.OPENROUTER_API_KEY });
const reply = await client.chat.completions.create({
model: "google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview",
messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello! What can you do?" }],
});
console.log(reply.choices[0].message.content);The same code works with every model on this site: only the model ID changes. Many labs also offer their own API and SDK.
What it costs in practice
- 1,000 chat replies$0.575
- Summarise a 100-page document$0.014
- An app with 10,000 requests a day for a month$255
Similar-priced alternatives
| Model | Inputi | Outputi | Contexti | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Trinity Large ThinkingArcee AI | $0.25 | $0.80 | 256K | Compare with ⇄ |
Seed-2.0-LiteByteDance Seed | $0.25 | $2 | 256K | Compare with ⇄ |
Mercury 2Inception | $0.25 | $0.75 | 128K | Compare with ⇄ |
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision ExpDeepSeek | $0.22 | $0.65 | 1M | Compare with ⇄ |
MiniMax M2.7MiniMax | $0.21 | $0.84 | 200K | Compare with ⇄ |
Command A+Cohere | $0.30 | $1.50 | 192K | Compare with ⇄ |
News about Google DeepMind
See all →Frequently asked questions
- How much does Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview cost?
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens through the API. For example, 1,000 chat replies of about 500 tokens in and 300 out cost around $0.575.
- What is the context window of Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview?
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview can read up to 1,048,576 tokens in one request, about 1,966 pages of text. It can write up to 65,536 tokens in a single answer.
- Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview open source?
- No. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is a closed model: its weights are not published, so you use it through Google DeepMind’s own apps and API, or through cloud providers.
- Who makes Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview?
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview is made by Google DeepMind. It became available through the API on March 3, 2026.
- Can Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview read images?
- Yes. Besides text, it accepts images, video, files such as PDFs and audio as input.
- What are the alternatives to Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview?
- Models with a similar price from other companies include Trinity Large Thinking, Seed-2.0-Lite and Mercury 2. You can compare them side by side on this page.