Gemini 3 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash Vision: which model should you choose?
We compared Gemini 3 Flash and Gemini 3 Flash Vision on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Gemini 3 Flash has the stronger average benchmark score; Gemini 3 Flash is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Gemini 3 Flash
Gemini 3 Flash is a multimodal model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $15.67 per million input tokens and $70.15 per million output tokens, and averages 83.6 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $15.67 / 1M
- Output
- $70.15 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 83.6
- Open weights
- No
Gemini 3 Flash Vision
Gemini 3 Flash Vision is a multimodal model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $15.06 per million input tokens and $82.14 per million output tokens, and averages 81.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $15.06 / 1M
- Output
- $82.14 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 81.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Gemini 3 Flash | Gemini 3 Flash Vision | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $15.67 | $15.06 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $70.15 | $82.14 | A |
| Context window | 128,000 | 400,000 | B |
| Max output | 65,536 | 32,768 | A |
| Average score | 83.6 | 81.9 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1450.7 | 1430.3 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Gemini 3 Flash wins 9, Gemini 3 Flash Vision wins 3, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash | Gemini 3 Flash Vision | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 83.7 | 81.8 | 1.9 | Gemini 3 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.3 | 75.7 | 4.6 | Gemini 3 Flash |
| SWE-bench Verified | 72.5 | 71.4 | 1.1 | Gemini 3 Flash |
| HumanEval | 86.2 | 84.5 | 1.7 | Gemini 3 Flash |
| MATH-500 | 89.0 | 87.5 | 1.5 | Gemini 3 Flash |
| AIME 2025 | 84.5 | 82.4 | 2.1 | Gemini 3 Flash |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.3 | 73.2 | 6.1 | Gemini 3 Flash |
| IFEval | 91.0 | 86.9 | 4.1 | Gemini 3 Flash |
| TruthfulQA | 84.8 | 85.5 | 0.7 | Gemini 3 Flash Vision |
| HellaSwag | 89.8 | 91.5 | 1.7 | Gemini 3 Flash Vision |
| MMMU | 78.2 | 80.3 | 2.1 | Gemini 3 Flash Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1450.7 | 1430.3 | 20.4 | Gemini 3 Flash |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Gemini 3 Flash costs about $29.29 per million tokens and Gemini 3 Flash Vision costs about $31.83. Gemini 3 Flash is roughly 8% cheaper than Gemini 3 Flash Vision. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Gemini 3 Flash Vision has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for Gemini 3 Flash. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Gemini 3 Flash wins 9, Gemini 3 Flash Vision wins 3, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Gemini 3 Flash leads Gemini 3 Flash Vision by 1.7 points (83.6 versus 81.9).
The price picture favours Gemini 3 Flash. The context picture favours Gemini 3 Flash Vision. 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 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Gemini 3 Flash if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
- The workload needs multi-step reasoning.
Choose Gemini 3 Flash Vision if
- You need the larger 400,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is Gemini 3 Flash better than Gemini 3 Flash Vision?
On the index average, Gemini 3 Flash leads Gemini 3 Flash Vision by 1.7 points (83.6 versus 81.9). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Gemini 3 Flash wins 9 benchmarks, Gemini 3 Flash Vision wins 3.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash or Gemini 3 Flash Vision?
Gemini 3 Flash is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.29 per million tokens, versus $31.83 for Gemini 3 Flash Vision.
Which has the larger context window?
Gemini 3 Flash Vision has the larger context window at 400,000 tokens. Gemini 3 Flash has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Gemini 3 Flash is proprietary; Gemini 3 Flash Vision is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Gemini 3 Flash for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.