API cost decision in 10 seconds

🔥Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite vs 🔥Gemma 4 31B

Pick Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite when budget and context both matter.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-17T02:07:32Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is estimated at $0.3 vs $0.3 for Gemma 4 31B, saving $0.005 (1.6% lower).

Cost-first pickGemini 2.5 Flash Lite

Context-first pickGemini 2.5 Flash Lite

Sample savings$0.0051.6%

10x traffic gap$0.05

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.05. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cheaper input Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite $0.1 vs $0.12 / 1M

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is $0.02 cheaper per 1M input tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).

Cheaper output Gemma 4 31B $0.4 vs $0.37 / 1M

Gemma 4 31B is $0.03 cheaper per 1M output tokens (7.5% lower; 1.08x difference).

Larger context Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite 1.05M vs 262.14K

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite has 786.43K more context (4x larger).

Sample workload Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite $0.3 vs $0.3

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is $0.005 cheaper on the standard workload (1.6% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite Calculating… Estimated API cost

Gemma 4 31B Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite has the lower input price; Gemma 4 31B has the lower output price; Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.3 for Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite and $0.3 for Gemma 4 31B.

Best Fit

Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite when you care most about lower input-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Gemma 4 31B when you care most about lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is estimated at $0.3 vs $0.3 for Gemma 4 31B, saving $0.005 (1.6% lower).
Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is $0.005 cheaper on the standard workload (1.6% lower).
Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is $0.02 cheaper per 1M input tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).
Gemma 4 31B is $0.03 cheaper per 1M output tokens (7.5% lower; 1.08x difference).
Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite has 786.43K more context (4x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	🔥Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (Google)	🔥Gemma 4 31B (Google)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.1	$0.12
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.4	$0.37
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.3	$0.3
Context Window	1.05M	262.14K
Release Date	2025-07-22	2026-04-02
Popularity Rank current rank	#13	#18

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is estimated at $0.3 vs $0.3 for Gemma 4 31B, saving $0.005 (1.6% lower).
High-volume input processing	Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Gemma 4 31B	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) can replace Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
Gemma 4 31B (free) can replace Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
Lyria 3 Pro Preview can replace Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
Lyria 3 Clip Preview can replace Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #3
Owl Alpha · OpenRouter · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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Google catalog

Review all tracked Google models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

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Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is a lightweight reasoning model in the Gemini 2.5 family, optimized for ultra-low latency and cost efficiency. It offers improved throughput, faster token generation, and better performance...

Gemma 4 31B

Gemma 4 31B Instruct is Google DeepMind's 30.7B dense multimodal model supporting text and image input with text output. Features a 256K token context window, configurable thinking/reasoning mode, native function...