Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Max)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google or GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) by OpenAI? 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
GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) scores 7.2 points higher (47.0 vs 39.8) but costs 3.1× as much to run the benchmark ($3465 vs $1100; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) when you need intelligence above 39.8, and Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when 39.8 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.8 | 47.0 | +18.1% GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is 18.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $3,464.84 | +215.0% GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is 3.1× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 91.96s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium): 18.1% more intelligence, 215.0% 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-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)GPT-5.6 Sol (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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