Gemini 3 Pro vs Yi-Lightning
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
Gemini 3 Pro specs · Yi-Lightning specs- PriceYi-Lightning
Yi-Lightning publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Gemini 3 Pro does not.
- Context windowGemini 3 Pro
Gemini 3 Pro accepts 1.0M tokens vs 16K, 65.5× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesGemini 3 Pro
Gemini 3 Pro supports 4 modalities (text, vision, audio, video) vs 1 for Yi-Lightning.
- OpennessTie
Both are closed-weight, API-only.
On balance Gemini 3 Pro edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Yi-Lightning's 1. Yi-Lightning publishes pricing ($0.14 / 1M output tokens) while Gemini 3 Pro does not. Gemini 3 Pro accepts 1.0M tokens vs 16K, 65.5× the room for long documents and codebases.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Gemini 3 Pro handles text, vision, audio, video while Yi-Lightning handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both are closed-weight, API-only.
Gemini 3 Pro is the newer of the two, released 14 months after Yi-Lightning, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Gemini 3 Pro is usually picked for long context and rag workloads, while Yi-Lightning sees more deployments in chinese llm and cheapest llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Gemini 3 Pro | Yi-Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Other | |
| Released | Dec 2025 | Oct 2024 |
| Modalities | text, vision, audio, video | text |
| Context window | 1.0M tokens | 16K tokens |
| Max output | 65.5K tokens | , |
| Input · 1M | Pricing not published | $0.14 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | Pricing not published | $0.14 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-01 | , |
| Open weights | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $0.630
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $6.30
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $21.84
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Gemini 3 ProPricing unavailable
- Yi-Lightning$0.021
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU91.8
- HumanEval95.4
- GPQA91.9
Gemini 3 Pro fits when…
- Massive 1M-token context window
- State-of-the-art vision and document understanding
- Strong reasoning at competitive price
- Long-context tasks, handles 1.0M tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.
- Multimodal needs covering vision, audio, video.
Yi-Lightning fits when…
- Cheap
- Strong Chinese
- Fast
Consider Gemini 3 Flash
Google's high-speed, low-cost mid-tier with the same massive context window, popular for high-volume RAG.
Frequently asked
Is Gemini 3 Pro or Yi-Lightning cheaper?
Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.Which has the larger context window?
Gemini 3 Pro accepts 1.0M tokens vs 16K for Yi-Lightning.Is Gemini 3 Pro or Yi-Lightning better for coding?
Both Gemini 3 Pro and Yi-Lightning are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Neither model ships open weights, both are accessible only via their respective providers' APIs.When were Gemini 3 Pro and Yi-Lightning released?
Gemini 3 Pro was released by Google on 2025-12-09. Yi-Lightning was released by Other on 2024-10-16.
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