Model comparison
Same task, different trade-offs.
We are not looking for an absolute winner. The comparison shows which model better suits your work, budget and required speed.
Models being compared
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Older profile · current status unverified
Data from July 31, 2026
Release date unverified
A fast model for documents, images, video and audio. It is suitable for a first pass that finds and organizes information from a large volume of source material.
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Data from September 27, 2026
Published September 2, 2026
Processes text, images, audio and video; the output is text.
Price, speed and usage
Medium · $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens; a token is a small piece of text
$0.75 input / $3.75 output per million tokens through December 31, 2026. From January 1, 2027: $1.50 / $7.50.
Very fast · generated 304 tokens per second in the measurement
We have not independently measured speed on a comparable basis.
Online service from Google and Gemini products
Gemini API and Google AI Studio
Very long input · up to 1 million tokens (small pieces of text)
1,048,576 input tokens; output capped at 65,536 tokens.
Text, images, video and audio as input
Text, images, video, audio and PDF → text
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Use when…
- Finding and sorting information in documents and media
- Interactive assistants with fast responses
- First pass through long documents
Choose another model when…
- Final strategic decision without further review
- The hardest scientific and logic problems
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Use when…
- Analysis of documents, audio and video
- Programming and multi-step business tasks
Choose another model when…
- A different model is needed to generate images or audio directly.
Original sources