Which model is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or OpenAI o3?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 96.2% cheaper for input tokens ($0.07 vs. $2.00 per 1M tokens) and $0.30 vs. $8.00 for output tokens (26.7x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite delivers lower response latency at 78ms TTFT (1072ms faster than OpenAI o3) with 265 vs. 82 tok/s throughput. OpenAI o3 leads coding evaluations at 71.7% SWE-bench Verified vs. 55.4% for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and 87.7% vs. 68.4% on GPQA Diamond.
Verified daily via automated API latency tests and official documentation.
Zero-Shot RAG Verified
Verified Performance & Unit Economics Delta (12 Dimensions)
Daily synchronized metrics across token pricing, prompt cache economics, latency, throughput, and 5 capability benchmarks.
Metric / Dimension
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
OpenAI o3
Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.07
$2.00
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 26.7x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.30
$8.00
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (96.3% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M
$0.015
$0.500
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 33.3x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M
$0.07
$2.00
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 26.7x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output)
1,049k (33k out)
205k (100k out)
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (5.1x larger context)
Avg TTFT Response Latency
78ms
1150ms
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (1072ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput)
265 tok/s
82 tok/s
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (+183 tok/s faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding)
55.4%
71.7%
OpenAI o3 (+16.3% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM)
68.4%
87.7%
OpenAI o3 (+19.3% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline)
80.1%
89.8%
OpenAI o3 (+9.7% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic)
90.2%
98.6%
OpenAI o3 (+8.4% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR)
81.5 / 100
60.6 / 100
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (+20.9 pts)
Interactive Monthly Token Economics & ROI Forecaster
Model production workloads across prompt, completion, and cached context tokens, or switch models on the fly.
Which is cheaper: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or OpenAI o3?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.075/1M input tokens ($0.30/1M output) compared to $2.00/1M input ($8.00/1M output) for OpenAI o3.
Which model has lower TTFT latency and higher tok/s throughput: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or OpenAI o3?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite delivers faster first-token latency at 78ms TTFT (265 tok/s throughput) compared to 1150ms TTFT (82 tok/s) for OpenAI o3.
How do Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and OpenAI o3 compare on SWE-bench coding and GPQA Diamond reasoning?
On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 55.4% versus 71.7% for OpenAI o3. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 68.4% versus 87.7% for OpenAI o3 (and 90.2% vs 98.6% on MATH-500).
When should you choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (Google) for high-frequency data pipelines, real-time routing, large-scale document tagging, and ultra-low-cost conversational assistants — offering a 1,048k context window, 78ms TTFT, and $0.07/1M input pricing ($0.015/1M cached reads).
When should you choose OpenAI o3?
Choose OpenAI o3 (OpenAI) for algorithmic synthesis, mathematical verification, PhD-level scientific research, and multi-step tool planning — offering a 204k context window, 1150ms TTFT, and $2.00/1M input pricing ($0.500/1M cached reads).
