All comparisons
Gemini 3.8 Flash vs. its predecessors and closest competitors
Pricing
| Metric Type | Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle · via OpenRouter | GLM 5.3Z.AI · via OpenRouter | GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI · via OpenRouter | Kimi K3Moonshot AI · via OpenRouter | Gemini 3.7 FlashGoogle · via OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputper 1M tokens | $0.83TextImageVideoFileAudio | $0.079Text | $2.00FileImageText | $0.24TextImage | $0.75TextImageVideoFileAudio |
| Outputper 1M tokens | $4.13Text | $1.40Text | $12.00Text | $10.80Text | $3.75Text |
| Reasoningper 1M tokens | $4.13 | — | — | — | $3.75 |
| Cached inputper 1M tokens | $0.083 | $0.078 | $0.20 | $0.21 | $0.075 |
| Cache writeper 1M tokens | $0.042 | — | $2.50 | — | $0.042 |
| Image inputper 1M tokens | $0.83 | — | — | — | $0.75 |
| Audio inputper 1M tokens | $0.83 | — | — | — | $0.75 |
| Cached audio inputper 1M tokens | $0.083 | — | — | — | $0.075 |
| Web searchper request | $0.014 | — | $0.010 | — | $0.014 |
This comparison matrix breaks down the API token costs, context caching rates, and modality support across five leading LLMs available via OpenRouter:
- Gemini 3.8 Flash & 3.7 Flash (Google)
- GLM 5.3 (Z.AI)
- GPT-5.6 Terra (OpenAI)
- Kimi K3 (Moonshot AI)
Main highlights:
- Both Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 3.7 Flash offer the lowest entry barrier at $0.75 / 1M input tokens and $3.75 / 1M output tokens, making them up to 4× cheaper on outputs than GPT-5.6 Terra and Kimi K3.
- Google’s Flash models natively accept Text, Image, Video, File, and Audio inputs at the base rate ($0.75/1M tokens), whereas competing models primarily handle text and static images/files.
- Gemini delivers massive savings for long-context workloads with $0.075/1M cached input and an industry-low $0.042/1M cache write.
- Gemini explicitly separates reasoning token costs ($3.75/1M) and offers live web search grounding at $0.014/request, slightly higher than GPT-5.6 Terra's $0.010/request.
Related comparisons
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 vs. the closest competing modelsDeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GLM 5.3 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Terra
- GLM 5.3 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Terra vs Kimi K3 vs Gemini 3.7 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 flash 0731GLM 5.3 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Terra vs Gemini 3.7 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
- GLM 5.3 vs. the closest competing modelsGLM 5.3 vs GLM 5.2 vs Kimi K3 vs GPT-5.6 Sol vs Claude Fable 5
- Muse Spark Open vs Muse Spark 1.3 and the leading open-weight modelsMuse Spark Open vs Muse Spark 1.3 vs Kimi K3 vs GLM 5.3 vs Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
- Gemini 3.7 Flash vs. the closest competing modelsGemini 3.7 Flash vs Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra vs Muse Spark 1.2 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
- Kimi K3 vs the latest frontier modelsGPT-5.6 Sol vs Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8 vs Kimi K3 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
Sources
Model makers/Providers:Google ·Z.AI ·OpenAI ·Moonshot AI ·OpenRouter