text model comparison
Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next are both current text models, from Google and Alibaba Qwen. On Arena WebDev, Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 1583 Elo and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next 1628 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Gemini 3.8 Flash has the larger context window, 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens.
- Higher Arena WebDev
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next1628 Elo against 1583 Elo
- Longer context window
- Gemini 3.8 Flash1.05M tokens against 262K tokens
- Newer release
- Gemini 3.8 FlashSep 2026 against Aug 2026
Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03
Side by side
Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next, 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 | Qwen3.8-Flash-Next |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $0.75 | Not listed |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $3.75 | Not listed |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena WebDev | 1583 Elo (#25 of 45) | 1628 Elo (#18 of 45) (better) |
| Arena Text | 1496 Elo (#6 of 51) | Not measured |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 68.4% (#26 of 42) | Not measured |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.4% (#4 of 41) | Not measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 69.7% (#8 of 38) | Not measured |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | Alibaba Qwen | |
| Release date | September 2, 2026 | August 26, 2026 |
| Access | API only | open weights |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | Not reported |
| Input | text, image, audio, video | text, image, video |
| Output | text | text |
Charts
Against every current text model
Where Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.
Where each stands
On Arena WebDev, Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks #25 and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next #18 of 45 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%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: Not scored
Arena WebDev
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#25of 45
1,583 Elo · ahead of 45%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next:#18of 45
1,628 Elo · ahead of 61%
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#26of 42
68.4% · ahead of 39%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: Not scored
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#4of 41
95.4% · ahead of 90%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: Not scored
SimpleQA Verified
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#8of 38
69.7% · ahead of 78%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: Not scored
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#20of 52
$0.75 · cheaper than 63%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: Not listed
Price per 1M output tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#23of 52
$3.75 · cheaper than 57%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: Not listed
Context window
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next:#55of 64
262K tokens · longer than 13%
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 3.8 Flash | Qwen3.8-Flash-Next |
|---|---|---|
| Other listed rates | ||
| 1M input tokens, cached | $0.075 | Not listed |
| 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
- Larger context window 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens
- Accepts audio input
- 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
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Where it leads
- Higher Arena WebDev score, 1628 Elo vs 1583 Elo
- Open weights you can run yourself
Best for
- Self-hosted agentic coding on limited accelerator memory
- Research on the Qwen4 architecture
Watch out for
- Alibaba calls it experimental; the hosted qwen3.8-flash API is a different, production model
- The Qwen Community License requires a separate licence before a model-as-a-service business uses it
- Native context is 262,144 tokens; 1M needs YaRN scaling
From benchmark to production
Building on Gemini 3.8 Flash or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next?
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 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next FAQ
Do Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next 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 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next?
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next leads on Arena WebDev, 1628 Elo to 1583 Elo. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next?
Gemini 3.8 Flash has the larger context window, 1,048,576 vs 262,144 tokens.
How do Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next differ in features?
Gemini 3.8 Flash takes text, image, audio and video input; Qwen3.8-Flash-Next takes text, image and video.
Can I run Gemini 3.8 Flash or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next myself?
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is released as open weights you can run yourself; Gemini 3.8 Flash is available through its provider's API only.
Further reading
More on Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Articles on Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS: Price, Rankings and the Fine PrintSeptember 25, 2026
Related comparisons
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Mistral Large 4
- Muse Spark 1.3 vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Claude Fable 5.1 vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- GLM-5.3-Flash vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs Qwen3.8-Max
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6 Astra
- Claude Opus 4.8 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next?
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