text model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash are both current text models, from Anthropic and Google. Gemini 3.8 Flash is 63% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Sonnet 5, $0.75 vs $2. On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5 scores 1462 Elo and Gemini 3.8 Flash 1496 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000).
- Higher Arena Text
- Gemini 3.8 Flash1496 Elo against 1462 Elo
- Lower price per 1M input tokens
- Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.75 against $2
- Longer context window
- Gemini 3.8 Flash1.05M tokens against 1M tokens
- Newer release
- Gemini 3.8 FlashSep 2026 against Jun 2026
Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03
Side by side
Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash, line by line
Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $2 | $0.75 (better) |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $10 | $3.75 (better) |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1462 Elo (#29 of 51) | 1496 Elo (#6 of 51) (better) |
| Arena WebDev | 1540 Elo (#33 of 45) | 1583 Elo (#25 of 45) (better) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 65.6% (#28 of 42) | 68.4% (#26 of 42) (better) |
| GPQA Diamond | 90.5% (#26 of 41) | 95.4% (#4 of 41) (better) |
| SimpleQA Verified | 33.7% (#31 of 38) | 69.7% (#8 of 38) (better) |
| LiveBench Overall | 74.85 points (#4 of 4) | Not measured |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| Release date | June 30, 2026 | September 2, 2026 |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Input | text | text, image, audio, video |
| Output | text | text |
Scores:Arena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03LiveBench · 2026-06-25
Charts
Against every current text model
Where Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.
Where each stands
On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5 ranks #29 and Gemini 3.8 Flash #6 of 51 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text
Claude Sonnet 5:#29of 51
1,462 Elo · ahead of 44%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#6of 51
1,496 Elo · ahead of 90%
Arena WebDev
Claude Sonnet 5:#33of 45
1,540 Elo · ahead of 27%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#25of 45
1,583 Elo · ahead of 45%
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Claude Sonnet 5:#28of 42
65.6% · ahead of 34%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#26of 42
68.4% · ahead of 39%
GPQA Diamond
Claude Sonnet 5:#26of 41
90.5% · ahead of 35%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#4of 41
95.4% · ahead of 90%
SimpleQA Verified
Claude Sonnet 5:#31of 38
33.7% · ahead of 19%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#8of 38
69.7% · ahead of 78%
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Claude Sonnet 5:#29of 52
$2 · cheaper than 24%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#20of 52
$0.75 · cheaper than 63%
Price per 1M output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5:#34of 52
$10 · cheaper than 25%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#23of 52
$3.75 · cheaper than 57%
Context window
Claude Sonnet 5:#26of 64
1M tokens · longer than 22%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Quality against price
Claude Sonnet 5 scores 1,462 at $4; Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 1,496 at $1.50 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.
Quality against price: the data
| Model | Provider | Blended price per 1M tokens | Arena Text (Elo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon | $4 | 1,520 | |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | $8 | 1,509 |
| Muse Wonder | Meta | $8 | 1,507 |
| Claude Fable 5 | Anthropic | $20 | 1,504 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Anthropic | $20 | 1,504 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $1.50 | 1,496 | |
| Muse Spark 1.3 | Meta | $2 | 1,495 |
| Claude Opus 5 | Anthropic | $10 | 1,492 |
| Kimi K3 | Moonshot Kimi | $6 | 1,488 |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | OpenAI | $8 | 1,485 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | $3 | 1,483 | |
| GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | $11 | 1,482 |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic | $10 | 1,482 |
| Qwen3.8-Max | Alibaba Qwen | $3 | 1,482 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,481 |
| GLM-5.3 | Z.ai | $2.15 | 1,481 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Pro | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.54 | 1,480 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,477 |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | Z.ai | $0.24 | 1,477 |
| GPT-6 Astra | OpenAI | $20 | 1,476 |
| DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash | DeepSeek | $0.52 | 1,476 |
| GPT-5.4 | OpenAI | $5.63 | 1,475 |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | $1.13 | 1,473 | |
| Grok 4.20 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,472 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | OpenAI | $4.50 | 1,467 |
| Grok 4.5 | xAI | $3 | 1,465 |
| DeepSeek-V4-Pro | DeepSeek | $1.98 | 1,465 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,462 |
| GPT-6 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,458 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | $0.85 | 1,456 | |
| Grok 4.6 | xAI | $3 | 1,455 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.45 | 1,453 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Flash | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.18 | 1,448 |
| Step 5 Preview | StepFun | $1.43 | 1,448 |
| Grok 4.3 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,442 |
| GPT-6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.20 | 1,441 |
| Grok 4.7 | xAI | $3 | 1,441 |
| Mistral Large 4 | Mistral AI | $1.05 | 1,432 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | Anthropic | $0.20 | 1,425 |
| GPT-4.1 | OpenAI | $3.50 | 1,415 |
| Solar Pro 4 | Upstage | $0.52 | 1,388 |
| GPT-4.1 mini | OpenAI | $0.70 | 1,383 |
| GPT-4.1 nano | OpenAI | $0.18 | 1,322 |
Cost
What each costs
Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.
The same work, priced
For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs 2.7 times as much as Gemini 3.8 Flash, at each provider's listed rates.
10M input and 2M output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5 costs 2.7× as much
- Claude Sonnet 5
- $40
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
- $15
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached
Claude Sonnet 5 costs 2.7× as much
- Claude Sonnet 5
- $23.80
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
- $8.93
| Workload or rate | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Example workloads | ||
| 10M input and 2M output tokens | $40 | $15 (better) |
| The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached | $23.80 | $8.93 (better) |
| The same, through the batch API | Not listed | $7.50 |
| Other listed rates | ||
| 1M input tokens, cached | $0.20 | $0.075 (better) |
| 1M input tokens, batch | Not listed | $0.375 |
| 1M output tokens, batch | Not listed | $1.875 |
| 1M input tokens, priority | Not listed | $1.35 |
| 1M output tokens, priority | Not listed | $6.75 |
Your own bill will differ. These figures use list prices and example workloads. The AI Model Cost Audit reviews your real usage, shortlists models that score as well for each task for less, and estimates the savings.
Launch price $100, regular price $150
Verdict
When to choose each
Claude Sonnet 5
Where it leads
- Longer responses, up to 128,000 vs 65,536 output tokens
Best for
- Agentic coding evaluations with current introductory API pricing
Watch out for
- The launch price is introductory through 2026-08-31; refresh pricing before evaluating workloads after that date
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Where it leads
- Lower input and output prices, $0.75 and $3.75 vs $2 and $10 per 1M tokens
- Higher Arena Text score, 1496 Elo vs 1462 Elo
- Higher Arena WebDev score, 1583 Elo vs 1540 Elo
- Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 68.4% vs 65.6%
- Higher GPQA Diamond score, 95.4% vs 90.5%
- Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 69.7% vs 33.7%
- Accepts image, audio and video input
- Cheaper cached input, $0.075 vs $0.20 per 1M tokens
Best for
- High-volume agentic and coding workloads where per-token cost dominates the decision
- Multimodal pipelines that need audio, video and PDF input in one model
Watch out for
- The listed price is promotional and ends 31 December 2026; on 1 January 2027 input and output both double, to $1.50 and $7.50, and cached input goes from $0.075 to $0.15
- Output pricing is billed inclusive of thinking tokens, so reasoning-heavy prompts cost more than the output length suggests
- Google’s published comparisons are against its own previous Flash release and were not independently reproduced here
From benchmark to production
Building on Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.
AI Model Cost AuditLaunch price $100, regular price $150What the audit includes
FAQ
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Gemini 3.8 Flash is 63% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Sonnet 5, $0.75 vs $2. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $40 and Gemini 3.8 Flash $15 at standard rates.
Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Claude Sonnet 5 charges $0.20 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% below its standard input rate, and Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.075, 90% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $23.80 and Gemini 3.8 Flash $8.93.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads on Arena Text, 1496 Elo to 1462 Elo; Gemini 3.8 Flash leads on Arena WebDev, 1583 Elo to 1540 Elo; Gemini 3.8 Flash leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 68.4% to 65.6%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000). Claude Sonnet 5 returns up to 128,000 tokens per response, Gemini 3.8 Flash 65,536.
How do Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash differ in features?
Claude Sonnet 5 takes text input; Gemini 3.8 Flash takes text, image, audio and video.
Further reading
More on Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Articles on Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS: Price, Rankings and the Fine PrintSeptember 25, 2026
- Claude Sonnet 5: a practical guide for production teamsJuly 1, 2026
Related comparisons
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-5.4
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Mistral Large 4
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-6 Sol
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Production evaluation
Choosing between Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.
- A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
- Routing between models by cost and difficulty