text model comparison
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash are both current text models, from Google. On Arena Text, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview scores 1487 Elo and Gemini 3.8 Flash 1496 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Both accept 1,048,576 tokens of context.
- Higher Arena Text
- Gemini 3.8 Flash1496 Elo against 1487 Elo
- Newer release
- Gemini 3.8 FlashSep 2026 against Feb 2026
Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03
Side by side
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | Not listed | $0.75 |
| Price per 1M output tokens | Not listed | $3.75 |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1487 Elo (#10 of 51) | 1496 Elo (#6 of 51) (better) |
| Arena WebDev | 1447 Elo (#36 of 45) | 1583 Elo (#25 of 45) (better) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 59.6% (#30 of 42) | 68.4% (#26 of 42) (better) |
| GPQA Diamond | 94.4% (#6 of 41) | 95.4% (#4 of 41) (better) |
| SimpleQA Verified | 73.5% (#4 of 38) (better) | 69.7% (#8 of 38) |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | ||
| Release date | February 19, 2026 | September 2, 2026 |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Input | text, image, audio, video | text, image, audio, video |
| Output | text | text |
Charts
Against every current text model
Where Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview ranks #10 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
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#10of 51
1,487 Elo · ahead of 82%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#6of 51
1,496 Elo · ahead of 90%
Arena WebDev
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#36of 45
1,447 Elo · ahead of 20%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#25of 45
1,583 Elo · ahead of 45%
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#30of 42
59.6% · ahead of 29%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#26of 42
68.4% · ahead of 39%
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#6of 41
94.4% · ahead of 88%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#4of 41
95.4% · ahead of 90%
SimpleQA Verified
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#4of 38
73.5% · ahead of 92%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#8of 38
69.7% · ahead of 78%
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Not listed
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#20of 52
$0.75 · cheaper than 63%
Price per 1M output tokens
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Not listed
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#23of 52
$3.75 · cheaper than 57%
Context window
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Quality against price
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.
| Workload or rate | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Other listed rates | ||
| 1M input tokens, cached | Not listed | $0.075 |
| 1M input tokens, batch | Not listed | $0.375 |
| 1M output tokens, batch | Not listed | $1.875 |
| 1M input tokens, cached, prompts over 200K tokens | $0.40 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, cached, prompts up to 200K tokens | $0.20 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, priority | Not listed | $1.35 |
| 1M output tokens, priority | Not listed | $6.75 |
| 1M input tokens, prompts over 200K tokens | $4 | Not listed |
| 1M output tokens, prompts over 200K tokens | $18 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, prompts up to 200K tokens | $2 | Not listed |
| 1M output tokens, prompts up to 200K tokens | $12 | Not listed |
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
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Where it leads
- Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 73.5% vs 69.7%
Best for
- Multimodal reasoning and agentic coding evaluations
Watch out for
- This preview endpoint may change before becoming stable; production use should account for its published prompt-length price tiers
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Where it leads
- Higher Arena Text score, 1496 Elo vs 1487 Elo
- Higher Arena WebDev score, 1583 Elo vs 1447 Elo
- Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 68.4% vs 59.6%
- Higher GPQA Diamond score, 95.4% vs 94.4%
- A cached-input rate, $0.075 per 1M tokens
- Batch pricing, $0.375 input and $1.875 output 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 Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash FAQ
Do Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash discount cached input?
Gemini 3.8 Flash lists a cached-input rate of $0.075 per 1M tokens, 90% below its standard input rate. No cached-input rate is listed for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads on Arena Text, 1496 Elo to 1487 Elo; Gemini 3.8 Flash leads on Arena WebDev, 1583 Elo to 1447 Elo; Gemini 3.8 Flash leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 68.4% to 59.6%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Both accept 1,048,576 tokens of context. Both return up to 65,536 tokens per response.
Further reading
More on Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
Articles on Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS: Price, Rankings and the Fine PrintSeptember 25, 2026
Related comparisons
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Mistral Large 4
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Grok 4.20
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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