Model comparison
Gemini 3.1 Pro vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
Two Google tiers compared on the figures that decide which one a workload actually needs.
Catalog record checked August 14, 2026; individual provider fields may change.
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Frontier
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Budget
| Specification | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Tier | Frontier | Budget |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input / 1M tokens | $2 | Winner: $0.75 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $12 | Winner: $3.75 |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Parameters | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Reasoning levels | Not verified | minimal, low, medium, high |
| Modalities | text, image, video, audio, pdf | text, image, video, audio, pdf |
| Released | February 19, 2026 | July 21, 2026 |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [high] (2026-08-09) | 48 | Winner: 52 |
Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.
Pricing tiers: Gemini 3.1 Pro: Base tier is $2/$12 per million tokens; prompts above 200K tokens are priced at $4/$18. Prefer the Preview API id `gemini-3.1-pro-preview` (not a GA alias). · Gemini 3.6 Flash: Introductory paid-tier rates through 2026-12-31. From 2027-01-01 the standard paid rates are $1.50 / $7.50 per million tokens (Gemini API pricing). Cache is $0.075 / MTok through 2026-12-31, then $0.15. Wire calls to `gemini-3.6-flash`. Thinking levels are `minimal` / `low` / `medium` / `high` (API default medium).
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Google's Pro tier in limited preview since 2026-02-19, with a 1.05M-token context window and multimodal input.
Best for
- Very long documents
- Multimodal input
- Google Workspace integration
Watch out
Scored 12% on DeepSWE, far below every other model here including budget tiers — weak on agentic coding specifically. Pricing also steps up to $4/$18 above 200K tokens. Wire calls to `gemini-3.1-pro-preview`.
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Google's July 2026 Flash tier for multimodal volume work; 3.7 Flash is the newer coding/agent workhorse at the same introductory rate.
Best for
- Multimodal pipelines
- High-volume processing
- Video and audio input
Watch out
Introductory $0.75 input is 3.75× Luna; the $1.50 rate returns on 2027-01-01. 66K max output (65,536 tokens) is roughly half Luna's. Prefer 3.7 Flash for new coding-agent work unless you are pinned to 3.6.
Benchmark
DeepSWE 1.1 in context
Both models shown against the wider field, with cost per completed task alongside the score.
Local leader
Claude Opus 5 [max]
74%
Rows shown
24
Highest published reasoning effort per model (not best Pass@1)
Snapshot date
2026-08-13
Mirrored from deepswe.datacurve.ai
Better is toward the top-right (higher pass rate, lower cost). X-axis is reversed to match DeepSWE’s public chart. v1.1 uses average cost / tokens / steps; v1 uses published medians.
| # | Model | Pass@1 | Cost / task | Tokens / task | Steps / task |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Opus 5 [max] | 74% | $11.84 | 118k | 99 |
| 2 | GPT-5.6 Sol [max] | 73% | $8.39 | 60k | 61 |
| 3 | Claude Fable 5 [max] | 70% | $21.63 | 119k | 88 |
| 4 | GPT-5.6 Terra [max] | 70% | $4.95 | 72k | 76 |
| 5 | Kimi K3 [max] | 69% | $4.65 | 82k | 98 |
| 6 | GPT-5.6 Luna [max] | 67% | $3.03 | 73k | 102 |
| 7 | GPT-5.5 [xhigh] | 67% | $7.23 | 46k | 82 |
| 8 | Grok 4.6 [xhigh] | 67% | $5.50 | 71k | 87 |
| 9 | Gemini 3.7 Flash [high] | 65% | $2.18 | 107k | 125 |
| 10 | DeepSeek V4-Pro [max] | 63% | $0.24 | 106k | 155 |
| 11 | Claude Opus 4.8 [max] | 59% | $13.22 | 135k | 120 |
| 12 | Qwen3.8-Max [xhigh] | 58% | $3.73 | 95k | 111 |
| 13 | Muse Spark 1.2 [xhigh] | 55% | $3.70 | 99k | 101 |
| 14 | Claude Sonnet 5 [max] | 54% | $26.40 | 214k | 268 |
| 15 | Grok 4.5 [high] | 54% | $2.42 | 36k | 61 |
| 16 | DeepSeek V4-Flash [max] | 53% | $0.10 | 108k | 153 |
| 17 | Muse Spark 1.1 [xhigh] | 53% | $2.36 | 74k | 96 |
| 18 | GPT-5.4 [xhigh] | 52% | $5.65 | 71k | 70 |
| 19 | Gemini 3.6 Flash [high] | 47% | $4.42 | 96k | 117 |
| 20 | GLM 5.2 [max] | 44% | $3.92 | 78k | 129 |
| 21 | Gemini 3.5 Flash [high] | 36% | $3.45 | 76k | 105 |
| 22 | Kimi K2.7 Code | 31% | $2.82 | 59k | 149 |
| 23 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 [high] | 30% | $5.52 | 76k | 134 |
| 24 | Gemini 3.1 Pro [high] | 12% | $2.14 | 28k | 76 |
DeepSWE “Best” picks the highest published reasoning effort per model (not the highest pass rate). Small gaps may not be statistically meaningful — confirm on deepswe.datacurve.ai.
Common questions
Gemini 3.1 Pro vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.
Is Gemini 3.1 Pro or Gemini 3.6 Flash cheaper for input?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.75 per million input tokens, against $2 for Gemini 3.1 Pro — roughly 2.7× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Gemini 3.1 Pro has tiered pricing: Base tier is $2/$12 per million tokens; prompts above 200K tokens are priced at $4/$18. Prefer the Preview API id `gemini-3.1-pro-preview` (not a GA alias). Gemini 3.6 Flash has tiered pricing: Introductory paid-tier rates through 2026-12-31. From 2027-01-01 the standard paid rates are $1.50 / $7.50 per million tokens (Gemini API pricing). Cache is $0.075 / MTok through 2026-12-31, then $0.15. Wire calls to `gemini-3.6-flash`. Thinking levels are `minimal` / `low` / `medium` / `high` (API default medium).
Is Gemini 3.1 Pro or Gemini 3.6 Flash cheaper for output?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper at $3.75 per million output tokens, against $12 for Gemini 3.1 Pro — roughly 3.2× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Gemini 3.1 Pro has tiered pricing: Base tier is $2/$12 per million tokens; prompts above 200K tokens are priced at $4/$18. Prefer the Preview API id `gemini-3.1-pro-preview` (not a GA alias). Gemini 3.6 Flash has tiered pricing: Introductory paid-tier rates through 2026-12-31. From 2027-01-01 the standard paid rates are $1.50 / $7.50 per million tokens (Gemini API pricing). Cache is $0.075 / MTok through 2026-12-31, then $0.15. Wire calls to `gemini-3.6-flash`. Thinking levels are `minimal` / `low` / `medium` / `high` (API default medium).
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.1 Pro or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.
Should I use Gemini 3.1 Pro or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.1 Pro is the frontier tier and Gemini 3.6 Flash the budget tier. The useful question is whether your hardest task actually fails on the cheaper one — most production volume such as classification, extraction and summarisation does not.
Next step
Choosing between them
Tier and workload decide this more reliably than a leaderboard position does.
If both sit in the same tier, the decision usually comes down to context window and output price rather than headline capability — output tokens dominate real bills.
If one is a step up within the same provider, the useful question is whether your hardest task actually fails on the cheaper tier. Most production volume — classification, extraction, summarization — does not.
Choosing a harness rather than a model — Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, Muse Code, or Lovable? Compare agentic harnesses · Latest releases.