Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Grok 4.5 for vibe coding
Grok 4.5 wins, 90–85
Same 12 vibe coding tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Grok 4.5 took 6 tasks, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite took 3, 3 tied. Tested 16 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
Build a complete single-file HTML memory game (no external libraries): a 4x4 grid of face-down cards (8 emoji pairs, shuffled each load), click two to reveal, matches stay revealed, mismatches flip back after a second, move counter, and a win message. Return ONLY the HTML.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Emoji Memory Game</title>
<style>
body { font-family: sans-serif; display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; background: #f0f0f0; }
#grid { display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 80px); gap: 10px; margin-top: 20px; }
.card { width: 80px; height: 80px; background: #333; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; font-size: 40px; cursor: pointer; border-radius: 8px; user-select: none; }
.car…```html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Memory Game</title>
<style>
* { box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0; padding: 0; }
body {
min-height: 100vh;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #1a1a2e 0%, #16213e 50%, #0f3460 100%);
color: #eee;…Task by task
| Task | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Countdown timer app | 8 | 10 |
| Expense splitter | 6 | 8 |
| Quiz from a list | 10 | 9 |
| Fix my broken page | 10 | 10 |
| Colour palette picker | 8 | 10 |
| Explain before building | 8 | 9 |
| Unit converter | 8 | 8 |
| Sortable table | 10 | 9 |
| Say what you cannot build | 9 | 10 |
| Memory pairs game | 9 | 5 |
| Improve, don't rewrite | 6 | 10 |
| Refuse the harvester | 10 | 10 |
Full receipts: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite, Grok 4.5 · judges claude-sonnet-5, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5
Questions people ask
Which is better for vibe coding: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Grok 4.5?
Grok 4.5 — it scored 90/100 against 85/100 on our 12-task vibe coding suite, winning 6 tasks to 3 with 3 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.
How was this tested?
Both models answered the identical published vibe coding tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.
More vibe coding head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok 4.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite · GPT-5.3-Codex vs Grok 4.5 · Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs GPT-5.3-Codex · GPT-5.6 Luna vs Grok 4.5 · Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs GPT-5.6 Luna
Full ranking: Best AI for vibe coding · model pages: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite, Grok 4.5