text model comparison
Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 4 Argon
Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Argon are both current text models, from Google. Gemini 3.8 Flash is 63% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Gemini 4 Argon, $0.75 vs $2. On Arena Text, Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 1496 Elo and Gemini 4 Argon 1520 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Both accept 1,048,576 tokens of context.
- Higher Arena Text
- Gemini 4 Argon1520 Elo against 1496 Elo
- Lower price per 1M input tokens
- Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.75 against $2
- Newer release
- Gemini 4 ArgonSep 2026 against Sep 2026
Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03
Side by side
Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Argon, 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 3.8 Flash | Gemini 4 Argon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $0.75 (better) | $2 |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $3.75 (better) | $10 |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1496 Elo (#6 of 51) | 1520 Elo (#1 of 51) (better) |
| Arena WebDev | 1583 Elo (#25 of 45) | 1679 Elo (#8 of 45) (better) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 68.4% (#26 of 42) | 86% (#10 of 42) (better) |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.4% (#4 of 41) | 96.4% (#1 of 41) (better) |
| SimpleQA Verified | 69.7% (#8 of 38) | 76% (#1 of 38) (better) |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | ||
| Release date | September 2, 2026 | September 30, 2026 |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Input | text, image, audio, video | text, image, video |
| Output | text | text |
Charts
Against every current text model
Where Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Argon land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.
Where each stands
On Arena Text, Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks #6 and Gemini 4 Argon #1 of 51 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#6of 51
1,496 Elo · ahead of 90%
Gemini 4 Argon:#1of 51
1,520 Elo · ahead of 100%
Arena WebDev
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#25of 45
1,583 Elo · ahead of 45%
Gemini 4 Argon:#8of 45
1,679 Elo · ahead of 84%
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#26of 42
68.4% · ahead of 39%
Gemini 4 Argon:#10of 42
86% · ahead of 76%
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#4of 41
95.4% · ahead of 90%
Gemini 4 Argon:#1of 41
96.4% · ahead of 100%
SimpleQA Verified
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#8of 38
69.7% · ahead of 78%
Gemini 4 Argon:#1of 38
76% · ahead of 100%
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#20of 52
$0.75 · cheaper than 63%
Gemini 4 Argon:#29of 52
$2 · cheaper than 24%
Price per 1M output tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#23of 52
$3.75 · cheaper than 57%
Gemini 4 Argon:#34of 52
$10 · cheaper than 25%
Context window
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Gemini 4 Argon:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Quality against price
Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 1,496 at $1.50; Gemini 4 Argon scores 1,520 at $4 (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, Gemini 4 Argon costs 2.7 times as much as Gemini 3.8 Flash, at each provider's listed rates.
10M input and 2M output tokens
Gemini 4 Argon costs 2.7× as much
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
- $15
- Gemini 4 Argon
- $40
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached
Gemini 4 Argon costs 2.6× as much
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
- $8.93
- Gemini 4 Argon
- $22.90
| Workload or rate | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Gemini 4 Argon |
|---|---|---|
| Example workloads | ||
| 10M input and 2M output tokens | $15 (better) | $40 |
| The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached | $8.93 (better) | $22.90 |
| The same, through the batch API | $7.50 | Not listed |
| Other listed rates | ||
| 1M input tokens, cached | $0.075 (better) | $0.10 |
| 1M input tokens, batch | $0.375 | Not listed |
| 1M output tokens, batch | $1.875 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, priority | $1.35 | Not listed |
| 1M output tokens, priority | $6.75 | 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 3.8 Flash
Where it leads
- Lower input and output prices, $0.75 and $3.75 vs $2 and $10 per 1M tokens
- Accepts audio input
- Cheaper cached input, $0.075 vs $0.10 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
Gemini 4 Argon
Where it leads
- Higher Arena Text score, 1520 Elo vs 1496 Elo
- Higher Arena WebDev score, 1679 Elo vs 1583 Elo
- Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 86% vs 68.4%
- Higher GPQA Diamond score, 96.4% vs 95.4%
- Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 76% vs 69.7%
- Longer responses, up to 1,000,000 vs 65,536 output tokens
Best for
- Long-horizon coding and knowledge work once it reaches general API access
Watch out for
- The $2 input and $10 output rates are introductory and end on November 30, 2026; from December 1 Google charges $4 and $20 per 1M tokens
- Not on the Gemini API free tier, and explicit context caching is not supported; implicit caching takes 95% off repeated input
- Answers longer than 64K tokens need background execution, and Google advises client timeouts of at least 15 minutes for hard prompts
From benchmark to production
Building on Gemini 3.8 Flash or Gemini 4 Argon?
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 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 4 Argon FAQ
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Gemini 4 Argon?
Gemini 3.8 Flash is 63% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Gemini 4 Argon, $0.75 vs $2. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $15 and Gemini 4 Argon $40 at standard rates.
Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Gemini 4 Argon?
Gemini 3.8 Flash charges $0.075 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% below its standard input rate, and Gemini 4 Argon $0.10, 95% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $8.93 and Gemini 4 Argon $22.90.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Gemini 4 Argon?
Gemini 4 Argon leads on Arena Text, 1520 Elo to 1496 Elo; Gemini 4 Argon leads on Arena WebDev, 1679 Elo to 1583 Elo; Gemini 4 Argon leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 86% to 68.4%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Gemini 4 Argon?
Both accept 1,048,576 tokens of context. Gemini 4 Argon returns up to 1,000,000 tokens per response, Gemini 3.8 Flash 65,536.
How do Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Argon differ in features?
Gemini 3.8 Flash takes text, image, audio and video input; Gemini 4 Argon takes text, image and video.
Further reading
More on Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Argon
Articles on Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Argon
- Gemini 4 Carbon: Benchmarks, Price and Who Gets It FirstOctober 29, 2026
- Gemini 4 Argon Benchmarks: What Independent Tests ShowOctober 1, 2026
- Gemini 4 Pro Leaks: What's Verified and What's HypeOctober 1, 2026
- Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS: Price, Rankings and the Fine PrintSeptember 25, 2026
Related comparisons
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Mistral Large 4
- Claude Fable 5 vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 4 Argon
- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Gemini 4 Argon vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6 Astra
- Gemini 4 Argon vs GPT-6 Sol
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Argon?
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