audio model comparison
Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and GPT-4o Transcribe are both current audio models, from Google and OpenAI. GPT-4o Transcribe is 56% cheaper per audio minute than Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS, $0.006 vs $0.0135.
Data verified October 13, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-13
Side by side
Standard-tier prices in effect today. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS | GPT-4o Transcribe |
|---|---|---|
| Price per audio minute | $0.0135 | $0.006 (better) |
| Artificial Analysis Speech Arena | 1274 Elo (#4 of 11) | Not measured |
| Artificial Analysis AA-WER v2 | Not measured | 3.96 % WER (#6 of 6) |
| Provider | OpenAI | |
| Release date | September 22, 2026 | March 20, 2025 |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | Not reported | 16,000 tokens |
| Max output | Not reported | 2,000 tokens |
| Input | text | text, audio |
| Output | audio | text |
Scores:Artificial Analysis · 2026-10-13Artificial Analysis · 2026-10-13
When to choose each
Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS
Best for
- Narration, audiobooks and product audio where voice quality matters more than cost
- Narration and voice output attached to an existing Gemini text pipeline
- Audio generation budgeted before the 2027 price step
Watch out for
- Google doubles the rates on 2027-01-01, to $1.00 input and $18 output per 1M tokens (about $0.027 per minute)
- Audio output is billed in audio tokens, which do not convert one-for-one to text tokens, so a text-token budget does not predict this cost
- Google's pricing page lists no context window or output cap for this model, so both are recorded as unknown
- No independent speech-quality benchmark is recorded here
GPT-4o Transcribe
Best for
- Speech transcription
Watch out for
- OpenAI announced its deprecation on 2026-08-26 and recommends GPT Transcribe, which costs $0.0045 per minute against about $0.006 here
Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS vs GPT-4o Transcribe FAQ
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS or GPT-4o Transcribe?
GPT-4o Transcribe is 56% cheaper per audio minute than Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS, $0.006 vs $0.0135.
Related comparisons
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- Gemini 3.1 Flash Live Preview vs GPT-4o Transcribe
- Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS
- Gemini 3.5 Live Translate Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS
- Gemini 3.5 Live Translate Preview vs GPT-4o Transcribe
- Gemini 3.5 Transcribe vs Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS
- Gemini 3.5 Transcribe vs GPT-4o Transcribe
- Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS vs Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS
- Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and GPT-4o Transcribe?
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