text model comparison
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen
Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 4 Hydrogen are both current text models, from Google. Both cost $1.50 per 1M input tokens. On Arena Text, Gemini 3.6 Flash scores 1483 Elo and Gemini 4 Hydrogen 1490 Elo (Arena, measured November 11, 2026). Both accept 1,048,576 tokens of context.
- Higher Arena Text
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen1490 Elo against 1483 Elo
- Newer release
- Gemini 4 HydrogenNov 2026 against Jul 2026
Data verified November 15, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-15
Side by side
Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 4 Hydrogen, 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 3.6 Flash | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $1.50 | $1.50 |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $7.50 | $7.50 |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1483 Elo (#13 of 50) | 1490 Elo (#7 of 50) (better) |
| Arena WebDev | 1538 Elo (#34 of 45) | 1704 Elo (#7 of 45) (better) |
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% (#11 of 40) | Not measured |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 58.9% (#29 of 39) | Not measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% (#11 of 36) | Not measured |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | ||
| Release date | July 21, 2026 | November 12, 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 3.6 Flash and Gemini 4 Hydrogen land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.
Where each stands
On Arena Text, Gemini 3.6 Flash ranks #13 and Gemini 4 Hydrogen #7 of 50 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#13of 50
1,483 Elo · ahead of 76%
Gemini 4 Hydrogen:#7of 50
1,490 Elo · ahead of 88%
Arena WebDev
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#34of 45
1,538 Elo · ahead of 25%
Gemini 4 Hydrogen:#7of 45
1,704 Elo · ahead of 86%
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#11of 40
94.1% · ahead of 74%
Gemini 4 Hydrogen: Not scored
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#29of 39
58.9% · ahead of 26%
Gemini 4 Hydrogen: Not scored
SimpleQA Verified
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#11of 36
66.2% · ahead of 71%
Gemini 4 Hydrogen: Not scored
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#32of 58
$1.50 · cheaper than 44%
Gemini 4 Hydrogen:#32of 58
$1.50 · cheaper than 44%
Price per 1M output tokens
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#36of 58
$7.50 · cheaper than 37%
Gemini 4 Hydrogen:#36of 58
$7.50 · cheaper than 37%
Context window
Gemini 3.6 Flash:#12of 68
1.05M tokens · longer than 61%
Gemini 4 Hydrogen:#12of 68
1.05M tokens · longer than 61%
Quality against price
Gemini 3.6 Flash scores 1,483 at $3; Gemini 4 Hydrogen scores 1,490 at $3 (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 Carbon | $4 | 1,526 | |
| Gemini 4 Argon | $4 | 1,522 | |
| Muse Wonder | Meta | $8 | 1,511 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | $8 | 1,507 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $1.50 | 1,497 | |
| Muse Spark 1.3 | Meta | $2 | 1,497 |
| Gemini 4 Hydrogen | $3 | 1,490 | |
| Kimi K3 | Moonshot Kimi | $6 | 1,487 |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | OpenAI | $8 | 1,485 |
| Kimi K3.1 Pro | Moonshot Kimi | $4 | 1,485 |
| Qwen3.8-Max | Alibaba Qwen | $3 | 1,484 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | $3 | 1,483 | |
| GLM-5.3 | Z.ai | $2.15 | 1,482 |
| GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | $11 | 1,481 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,481 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Pro | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.54 | 1,480 |
| GPT-5.4 | OpenAI | $5.63 | 1,475 |
| DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash | DeepSeek | $0.52 | 1,475 |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | Z.ai | $0.24 | 1,475 |
| GPT-6 Astra | OpenAI | $20 | 1,474 |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | $1.13 | 1,473 | |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,473 |
| Grok 4.20 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,472 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | OpenAI | $4.50 | 1,468 |
| Grok 4.5 | xAI | $3 | 1,466 |
| DeepSeek-V4-Pro | DeepSeek | $1.98 | 1,464 |
| Grok 4.6 | xAI | $3 | 1,457 |
| GPT-6 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,457 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | $0.85 | 1,455 | |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.45 | 1,453 |
| Step 5 Preview | StepFun | $1.43 | 1,449 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Flash | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.18 | 1,448 |
| Grok 4.7 | xAI | $3 | 1,443 |
| Grok 4.3 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,442 |
| GPT-6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.20 | 1,441 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | Anthropic | $0.20 | 1,421 |
| Mistral Large 4 | Mistral AI | $1.05 | 1,420 |
| GPT-4.1 | OpenAI | $3.50 | 1,415 |
| Inkling 2 Small | Thinking Machines Lab | $0.47 | 1,412 |
| Solar Pro 4 | Upstage | $0.52 | 1,387 |
| 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
At each provider's listed rates.
10M input and 2M output tokens
The same price
- Gemini 3.6 Flash
- $30
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen
- $30
| Workload or rate | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
|---|---|---|
| Example workloads | ||
| 10M input and 2M output tokens | $30 | $30 |
| The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached | Not listed | $17.18 |
| The same, through the batch API | Not listed | $15 |
| Other listed rates | ||
| 1M input tokens, cached | Not listed | $0.075 |
| 1M input tokens, batch | Not listed | $0.75 |
| 1M output tokens, batch | Not listed | $3.75 |
| 1M input tokens, priority | Not listed | $2.70 |
| 1M output tokens, priority | Not listed | $13.50 |
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 3.6 Flash
Where it leads
No measured lead over Gemini 4 Hydrogen in this data.
Best for
- Current multimodal agentic evaluations balancing speed and capability
Watch out for
- Not in the pinned LiveBench snapshot; its independent scores here come from Epoch AI's own GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath and SimpleQA Verified runs
Gemini 4 Hydrogen
Where it leads
- Higher Arena Text score, 1490 Elo vs 1483 Elo
- Higher Arena WebDev score, 1704 Elo vs 1538 Elo
- A cached-input rate, $0.075 per 1M tokens
- Batch pricing, $0.75 input and $3.75 output per 1M tokens
Best for
- Everyday coding, tool-using agents and parallel sub-agents at a mid-tier price
- Document, chart and video workflows over very long multimodal inputs
Watch out for
- In Google's own table Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on Terminal-Bench 4.1 (63.9% against 57.0%), OSWorld-2.1 (83.9% against 77.6%) and Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 (59.9% against 51.4%)
- A request returns at most 65,536 output tokens by default; longer outputs, up to 1,048,576 tokens, need Google long-decode mode, and only implicit context caching is supported
- Arena places it below Claude Sonnet 5.5 on WebDev (1704 against 1772) and just below Gemini 3.8 Flash on Arena Text (1490 against 1497), on 4,741 text and 1,997 WebDev votes so far; Epoch AI has not measured it yet
From benchmark to production
Building on Gemini 3.6 Flash or Gemini 4 Hydrogen?
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 $150
FAQ
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen FAQ
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Gemini 4 Hydrogen?
Both cost $1.50 per 1M input tokens. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $30 and Gemini 4 Hydrogen $30 at standard rates.
Do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 4 Hydrogen discount cached input?
Gemini 4 Hydrogen lists a cached-input rate of $0.075 per 1M tokens, 95% below its standard input rate. No cached-input rate is listed for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Gemini 4 Hydrogen?
Gemini 4 Hydrogen leads on Arena Text, 1490 Elo to 1483 Elo; Gemini 4 Hydrogen leads on Arena WebDev, 1704 Elo to 1538 Elo. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Gemini 4 Hydrogen?
Both accept 1,048,576 tokens of context. Both return up to 65,536 tokens per response.
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More on Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 4 Hydrogen
Articles on Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 4 Hydrogen
- Gemini 4 Pro Leaks: What's Verified and What's HypeOctober 1, 2026
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Claude Opus 5: Route by TierJuly 26, 2026
Related comparisons
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-5.3
- DeepSeek-V4-Pro vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen
- DeepSeek-V4-Pro vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen
- Claude Opus 5 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Grok 4.20
- Gemini 4 Argon vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 4 Hydrogen?
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