Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning vs Gemini 3 Flash Turbo: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning and Gemini 3 Flash Turbo on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Flash Turbo has the stronger average benchmark score; Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning
Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $17.05 per million input tokens and $66.77 per million output tokens, and averages 83.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.05 / 1M
- Output
- $66.77 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 83.7
- Open weights
- No
Gemini 3 Flash Turbo
Gemini 3 Flash Turbo is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $17.07 per million input tokens and $69.05 per million output tokens, and averages 84.1 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.07 / 1M
- Output
- $69.05 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 84.1
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.05 | $17.07 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $66.77 | $69.05 | A |
| Context window | 128,000 | 200,000 | B |
| Max output | 32,768 | 16,384 | A |
| Average score | 83.7 | 84.1 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1446.9 | 1473.4 | B |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning wins 3, Gemini 3 Flash Turbo wins 8, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.2 | 87.9 | 0.7 | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8 | 77.5 | 4.3 | Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning |
| SWE-bench Verified | 72.5 | 72.5 | 0.0 | Tie |
| HumanEval | 86.9 | 90.6 | 3.7 | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo |
| MATH-500 | 86.2 | 87.6 | 1.4 | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo |
| AIME 2025 | 79.4 | 81.3 | 1.9 | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo |
| LiveCodeBench | 77.7 | 78.5 | 0.8 | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo |
| IFEval | 90.2 | 88.9 | 1.3 | Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 86.6 | 87.4 | 0.8 | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo |
| HellaSwag | 92.2 | 89.5 | 2.7 | Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning |
| MMMU | 79.8 | 83.0 | 3.2 | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo |
| Arena Elo | 1446.9 | 1473.4 | 26.5 | Gemini 3 Flash Turbo |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning costs about $29.48 per million tokens and Gemini 3 Flash Turbo costs about $30.06. Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning is roughly 2% cheaper than Gemini 3 Flash Turbo. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Gemini 3 Flash Turbo has the larger context window at 200,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning wins 3, Gemini 3 Flash Turbo wins 8, and 1 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Flash Turbo leads Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning by 0.4 points (84.1 versus 83.7).
The price picture favours Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning. The context picture favours Gemini 3 Flash Turbo. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 3 Flash Turbo for quality-sensitive work and Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 32,768-token output limit.
Choose Gemini 3 Flash Turbo if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 200,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning better than Gemini 3 Flash Turbo?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Flash Turbo leads Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning by 0.4 points (84.1 versus 83.7). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning wins 3 benchmarks, Gemini 3 Flash Turbo wins 8.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning or Gemini 3 Flash Turbo?
Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.48 per million tokens, versus $30.06 for Gemini 3 Flash Turbo.
Which has the larger context window?
Gemini 3 Flash Turbo has the larger context window at 200,000 tokens. Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning is proprietary; Gemini 3 Flash Turbo is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 3 Flash Turbo for quality-sensitive work and Gemini 3 Flash Reasoning for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.