Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) vs GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) by Google or GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) scores 14.9 points higher (40.9 vs 26.0) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1623 vs $1184; both premium class). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026).
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) | GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 40.9 | 26.0 | −36.4% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 36.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,622.73 | $1,184.34 | −27.0% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 27.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 32.17s | 16.68s | −48.2% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 48.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (High): 36.4% less intelligence, 27.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 48.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- 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.
- GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) 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)GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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