Gemini 3.1 Pro preview vs Gemini 3 Flash preview

Gemini 3.1 Pro preview vs Gemini 3 Flash preview: Gemini 3 Flash preview is cheaper by 75% on average. Gemini 3.1 Pro preview from Google Vertex AI (1,048,576-token context, reasoning, tool calls) vs. Gemini 3 Flash preview from Google Vertex AI (1,048,576-token context, reasoning, tool calls). Use Agent Command Center to A/B both in shadow mode and pick the winner per workload.

Side-by-side cost

Live workload comparison

Same workload run through both models. The cheaper one is highlighted.

3,000
01,048,576
400
065,536
5,000
01,000,000
Google Vertex AI
$1,644/mo
Input $2.00/M · Output $12.00/M
Google Vertex AI
$411/mo
Input $0.500/M · Output $3.00/M
At this workload, Gemini 3 Flash preview is 75% cheaper than Gemini 3.1 Pro preview — a savings of $1,233/month ($14,793/year).
Production recipe — Agent Command Center
strategy: cost-optimized
primary:
  model: gemini-3-flash-preview
  provider: vertex-ai
fallback:
  model: gemini-3-1-pro-preview
  provider: vertex-ai
shadow: { sample_rate: 0.05 }   # mirror 5% of traffic to compare quality live
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview Gemini 3 Flash preview
Input price $2.00/M $0.500/M
Output price $12.00/M $3.00/M
Context window 1,048,576 1,048,576
Max output 65,536 65,535
Function calling
Vision
Audio input
Reasoning
Prompt caching
Structured output
Pricing verified May 12, 2026 May 12, 2026
Cheaper option
~75% cheaper than Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
Larger context
1,048,576 tokens
More capabilities
6 of 6 capability flags advertised

Benchmark comparison

Side-by-side public benchmark scores. Greener bar = winner.

Chatbot Arena ELOgeneral
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
1,492
Gemini 3 Flash preview
GPQA Diamondreasoning
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
94.3%
Gemini 3 Flash preview
SWE-bench Verifiedagent
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
80.6%
Gemini 3 Flash preview
MMMU-Promultimodal
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
80.5%
Gemini 3 Flash preview
ARC-AGI-2reasoning
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
77.1%
Gemini 3 Flash preview
SciCodecode
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
59.0%
Gemini 3 Flash preview
Humanity's Last Examreasoning
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
44.4%
Gemini 3 Flash preview