Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) by Google or Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) scores 6.9 points higher (40.9 vs 34.0) but costs 1.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1623 vs $1614; both premium class). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.6 Flash (High).
| Metric | Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.0 | 40.9 | +20.3% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 20.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,614.42 | $1,622.73 | +0.5% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 0.5% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 17.59s | 31.19s | +77.3% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 77.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) vs Gemini 3.6 Flash (High): 20.3% more intelligence, 0.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 77.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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