text model comparison

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Mercury 3

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3 are both current text models, from Google and Inception. Mercury 3 is 20% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite, $0.20 vs $0.25. Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000).

Lower price per 1M input tokens: Mercury 3$0.20 against $0.25
Longer context window: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite1.05M tokens against 1M tokens
Newer release: Mercury 3Oct 2026 against May 2026

Data verified October 23, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-23

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3, line by line

Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.

Fact	Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite	Mercury 3
Price
Price per 1M input tokens	$0.25	$0.20 (better)
Price per 1M output tokens	$1.50	$0.70 (better)
Independent benchmarks
GPQA Diamond	81.8% (#36 of 40)	Not measured
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)	27.7% (#36 of 40)	Not measured
Specs
Provider	Google	Inception
Release date	May 7, 2026	October 19, 2026
Access	API only	API only
Context window	1,048,576 tokens	1,000,000 tokens
Max output	65,536 tokens	131,072 tokens
Input	text, image, audio, video	text
Output	text	text

No independent benchmark has scored both models yet. Each rank counts the current models scored on that benchmark.

Scores:Epoch AI · 2026-10-12

Charts

Against every current text model

Where Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3 land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.

Where each stands

Only Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has a current GPQA Diamond score: #36 of 40. Each bar is the share of current models it beats.

Independent benchmarks

GPQA Diamond

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite:#36of 40

81.8% · ahead of 10%

Mercury 3: Not scored

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite:#36of 40

27.7% · ahead of 10%

Mercury 3: Not scored

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite:#10of 49

$0.25 · cheaper than 81%

Mercury 3:#7of 49

$0.20 · cheaper than 83%

Price per 1M output tokens

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite:#13of 49

$1.50 · cheaper than 75%

Mercury 3:#7of 49

$0.70 · cheaper than 88%

Context window

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite:#10of 64

1.05M tokens · longer than 67%

Mercury 3:#26of 64

1M tokens · longer than 22%

Scores fromEpoch AI · 2026-10-12

Cost

What each costs

Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.

The same work, priced

For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs 1.6 times as much as Mercury 3, at each provider's listed rates.

10M input and 2M output tokens
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs 1.6× as much
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
$5.50
Mercury 3
$3.40
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs 2.0× as much
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
$3.48
Mercury 3
$1.78

Workload or rate	Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite	Mercury 3
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens	$5.50	$3.40 (better)
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached	$3.48	$1.78 (better)
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached	$0.025	$0.02 (better)
1M input tokens, cached audio	$0.05	Not listed
1M input tokens, audio	$0.50	Not listed

Verdict

When to choose each

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Where it leads

Accepts image, audio and video input

Best for

High-volume multimodal extraction and translation

Watch out for

The published price for audio input differs from the listed text, image, and video input price
Google's earliest published shutdown date is 2027-05-07; migrate to gemini-3.5-flash-lite.

Full Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite profile

Mercury 3

Where it leads

Lower input and output prices, $0.20 and $0.70 vs $0.25 and $1.50 per 1M tokens
Longer responses, up to 131,072 vs 65,536 output tokens
Cheaper cached input, $0.02 vs $0.025 per 1M tokens

Best for

Latency-critical agent loops and real-time search agents
High-volume text generation at low cost

Watch out for

The recorded rates are list prices; a 50% launch discount was running with no published end date
Inception comparisons are its own, and no independent benchmark score is recorded here yet

Full Mercury 3 profile

From benchmark to production

Building on Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Mercury 3?

Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.

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FAQ

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Mercury 3 FAQ

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Mercury 3?

Mercury 3 is 20% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite, $0.20 vs $0.25. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs $5.50 and Mercury 3 $3.40 at standard rates.

Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Mercury 3?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite charges $0.025 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% below its standard input rate, and Mercury 3 $0.02, 90% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs $3.48 and Mercury 3 $1.78.

Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Mercury 3?

Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000). Mercury 3 returns up to 131,072 tokens per response, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite 65,536.

How do Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3 differ in features?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite takes text, image, audio and video input; Mercury 3 takes text.

Choosing between Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3?

Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.

A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
Routing between models by cost and difficulty

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