Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview vs Sonar
Side-by-side specs, pricing and capabilities. Both models run on Clade under one subscription, so you can switch between them in the same conversation.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview comes from Google and Sonar from Perplexity. The practical difference for most people is context, price, and which input types each one accepts.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview holds more in a single conversation — 1.0M tokens against 128K — which matters for long documents and large codebases.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview is the cheaper of the two on input tokens at $0.25 / 1M tokens.
| Specification | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Perplexity | |
| Model ID | gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview | sonar |
| Context window | 1.0M | 128K |
| Max output | 66K | — |
| Input price | $0.25 / 1M tokens | $1.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $1.50 / 1M tokens | $1.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-01 | — |
| Input types | text, image, video, audio, file | text, image, file |
| Output types | text | text |
| Plan | Free | Free |
Which should you use?
Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview when…
- You need the larger context window — 1.0M against 128K.
- Cost matters: input runs at $0.25 / 1M tokens versus $1.00 / 1M tokens.
- You want longer single responses — up to 66K output tokens.
- You need video and audio input, which the other model does not accept.
Related comparisons
Try both on Clade
You do not have to choose. One Clade subscription gives you Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview, Sonar, and every other model on the platform.