Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google or Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-03.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) scores 27.7 points higher (57.7 vs 30.0) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($5903 vs $4547; both flagship class). Pick Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium).
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.0 | 57.7 | +92.3% Gemini 4 Carbon (Medi… is 92.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,546.75 | $5,903.03 | +29.8% Gemini 4 Carbon (Medi… is 29.8% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 34.07s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium): 92.3% more intelligence, 29.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh) scores 55.30 for $3746.
- Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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