Skip to main content
AI Choice Engine

Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Google against Qwen, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Google

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Budget

vs

Qwen

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Budget · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationGemini 3.5 Flash-LiteQwen 3.8 Flash Next
ProviderGoogleQwen
TierBudgetBudget
Context windowWinner: 1.05M262K
Max output66KNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$0.30Winner: $0.15
Output / 1M tokens$2.50Winner: $0.47
WeightsClosedOpen
ParametersNot disclosedUnverified125B total / 6B active (MoE) + 51B n-gram embedding table
Reasoning levelslow, medium, highNot verifiedUnverified
Modalitiestext, image, video, audio, pdftext, image, video
LicenseNot disclosedUnverifiedqwen-community-1.0
API model idgemini-3.5-flash-liteqwen3.8-flash
ReleasedJuly 21, 2026August 26, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)22.2Winner: 39.8

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.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis

    Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.

    Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check measuredAt.

Pricing tiers

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: $0.30/$2.50 per MTok; cached input $0.03/MTok. Google's recommended Flash-Lite tier (the older 3.1 Flash-Lite lists $0.25/$1.50).

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next: Hosted qwen3.8-flash lists $0.15/$0.47 per MTok on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio with a 1M context. The open checkpoint is 262,144 tokens native, extensible to 1M.

BudgetRecord checked September 26, 2026

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is Google's recommended Flash-Lite tier for high-volume, latency-sensitive agent loops.

Best for

  • High-volume agents
  • Document pipelines
  • Cost-sensitive multimodal

Watch out

Not Google's cheapest tier any more — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite lists $0.25/$1.50; weaker than Flash on hard reasoning.

BudgetOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next is Alibaba's experimental preview of the Qwen 4 architecture — very low active parameters plus an unusual n-gram embedding component for cheap long-context.

Best for

  • Early testing of Qwen 4 architecture
  • Cheap high-throughput work
  • Multimodal input

Watch out

Experimental preview; qwen-community-1.0 license is more restrictive than MIT/Apache; benchmark claims are vendor-reported.

When the cheaper one wins

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next is cheaper on output at $0.47 per million tokens against $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — about 5.3×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 2/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, parameter count, reasoning levels.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite · Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Common questions

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next cheaper for input?
Qwen 3.8 Flash Next is cheaper at $0.15 per million input tokens, against $0.30 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — roughly 2.0× 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 3.5 Flash-Lite has tiered pricing: $0.30/$2.50 per MTok; cached input $0.03/MTok. Google's recommended Flash-Lite tier (the older 3.1 Flash-Lite lists $0.25/$1.50). Qwen 3.8 Flash Next has tiered pricing: Hosted qwen3.8-flash lists $0.15/$0.47 per MTok on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio with a 1M context. The open checkpoint is 262,144 tokens native, extensible to 1M.
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next cheaper for output?
Qwen 3.8 Flash Next is cheaper at $0.47 per million output tokens, against $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — roughly 5.3× 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 3.5 Flash-Lite has tiered pricing: $0.30/$2.50 per MTok; cached input $0.03/MTok. Google's recommended Flash-Lite tier (the older 3.1 Flash-Lite lists $0.25/$1.50). Qwen 3.8 Flash Next has tiered pricing: Hosted qwen3.8-flash lists $0.15/$0.47 per MTok on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio with a 1M context. The open checkpoint is 262,144 tokens native, extensible to 1M.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite accepts 1.05M tokens against 262K for Qwen 3.8 Flash Next. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Should I use Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next?
Both sit in the budget tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite suits high-volume agents; Qwen 3.8 Flash Next suits early testing of qwen 4 architecture.
Can I self-host Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next?
Qwen 3.8 Flash Next publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Qwen 3.8 Flash Next costs $0.15 per 1M tokens versus $0.30 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — a 2x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite takes 1.05M against 262K for Qwen 3.8 Flash Next — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Qwen 3.8 Flash Next leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 39.8 to 22.2 (measured 2026-09-26).
  • Deployment: Qwen 3.8 Flash Next publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
Run the model pickerEstimate stack costAll model comparisons

Choosing a harness rather than a model — Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, Windsurf, or Lovable? Compare agentic harnesses · Latest releases.