multimodal model comparison
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash are both current multimodal models, from Google and Alibaba Qwen. Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash is 40% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite, $0.15 vs $0.25. Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000).
Data verified October 12, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-12
Side by side
Standard-tier prices in effect today. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M input tokens | $0.25 | $0.15 (better) |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $1.50 | $0.47 (better) |
| Cost of 10M input and 2M output tokens | $5.50 | $2.44 (better) |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% (#33 of 37) | Not measured |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 27.7% (#33 of 37) | Not measured |
| Provider | Alibaba Qwen | |
| Release date | May 7, 2026 | September 20, 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, image, audio, video |
| Output | text | text |
Scores:Epoch AI · 2026-10-12
When to choose each
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
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.
Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash
Best for
- Long audio and video understanding at low cost
- Agent pipelines that must reason over meetings, calls or recorded media
Watch out for
- Output is text only; for spoken replies Alibaba lists a separate realtime variant
- Alibaba's comparisons with Gemini 3.8 Flash are self-reported and have not been reproduced independently here
- The release date is the Alibaba Cloud announcement date, 2026-09-20
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash FAQ
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash?
Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash is 40% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite, $0.15 vs $0.25. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs $5.50 and Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash $2.44 at standard rates.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash?
Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000).
Related comparisons
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- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.5 Flash
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs GPT-4.1 nano
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs GPT-5.6 Luna
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs GPT-6 Luna
- GPT-4.1 nano vs Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash?
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