text model comparison
Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Step 5 Preview
Gemini 3.8 Flash and Step 5 Preview are both current text models, from Google and StepFun. Gemini 3.8 Flash is 25% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Step 5 Preview, $0.75 vs $1. On Arena Text, Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 1496 Elo and Step 5 Preview 1448 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000).
- Higher Arena Text
- Gemini 3.8 Flash1496 Elo against 1448 Elo
- Lower price per 1M input tokens
- Gemini 3.8 Flash$0.75 against $1
- Longer context window
- Gemini 3.8 Flash1.05M tokens against 1M tokens
Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03
Side by side
Gemini 3.8 Flash and Step 5 Preview, 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 | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $0.75 (better) | $1 |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $3.75 | $2.70 (better) |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1496 Elo (#6 of 51) (better) | 1448 Elo (#34 of 51) |
| Arena WebDev | 1583 Elo (#25 of 45) (better) | 1571 Elo (#29 of 45) |
| 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 | StepFun | |
| Release date | September 2, 2026 | Not reported |
| Access | API only | API only |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Input | text, image, audio, video | text, image, video |
| Output | text | text |
Charts
Against every current text model
Where Gemini 3.8 Flash and Step 5 Preview 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 Step 5 Preview #34 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%
Step 5 Preview:#34of 51
1,448 Elo · ahead of 32%
Arena WebDev
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#25of 45
1,583 Elo · ahead of 45%
Step 5 Preview:#29of 45
1,571 Elo · ahead of 36%
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#26of 42
68.4% · ahead of 39%
Step 5 Preview: Not scored
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#4of 41
95.4% · ahead of 90%
Step 5 Preview: Not scored
SimpleQA Verified
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#8of 38
69.7% · ahead of 78%
Step 5 Preview: Not scored
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#20of 52
$0.75 · cheaper than 63%
Step 5 Preview:#21of 52
$1 · cheaper than 59%
Price per 1M output tokens
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#23of 52
$3.75 · cheaper than 57%
Step 5 Preview:#20of 52
$2.70 · cheaper than 63%
Context window
Gemini 3.8 Flash:#11of 64
1.05M tokens · longer than 67%
Step 5 Preview:#26of 64
1M tokens · longer than 22%
Quality against price
Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 1,496 at $1.50; Step 5 Preview scores 1,448 at $1.43 (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, Step 5 Preview costs 1.0 times as much as Gemini 3.8 Flash, at each provider's listed rates.
10M input and 2M output tokens
Step 5 Preview costs 1.0× as much
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
- $15
- Step 5 Preview
- $15.40
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached
Gemini 3.8 Flash costs 1.2× as much
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
- $8.93
- Step 5 Preview
- $7.30
| Workload or rate | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Example workloads | ||
| 10M input and 2M output tokens | $15 (better) | $15.40 |
| The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached | $8.93 | $7.30 (better) |
| 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 price per 1M input tokens, $0.75 vs $1
- Lower cost for 10M input and 2M output tokens, $15 vs $15.40
- Higher Arena Text score, 1496 Elo vs 1448 Elo
- Higher Arena WebDev score, 1583 Elo vs 1571 Elo
- 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
Step 5 Preview
Where it leads
- Lower price per 1M output tokens, $2.70 vs $3.75
Best for
- Long-context agentic coding and finance work
Watch out for
- A preview: StepFun publishes no release date, parameter count or benchmark scores for it
- Output tokens are billed including the reasoning trace, and output is capped at 64K tokens
From benchmark to production
Building on Gemini 3.8 Flash or Step 5 Preview?
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 Step 5 Preview FAQ
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Step 5 Preview?
Gemini 3.8 Flash is 25% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Step 5 Preview, $0.75 vs $1. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $15 and Step 5 Preview $15.40 at standard rates.
Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Step 5 Preview?
Gemini 3.8 Flash charges $0.075 per 1M cached input tokens, 90% below its standard input rate, and Step 5 Preview $0.10, 90% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $8.93 and Step 5 Preview $7.30.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Step 5 Preview?
Gemini 3.8 Flash leads on Arena Text, 1496 Elo to 1448 Elo; Gemini 3.8 Flash leads on Arena WebDev, 1583 Elo to 1571 Elo. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Step 5 Preview?
Both accept about 1.05M tokens of context (1,048,576 and 1,000,000). Gemini 3.8 Flash returns up to 65,536 tokens per response, Step 5 Preview 64,000.
How do Gemini 3.8 Flash and Step 5 Preview differ in features?
Gemini 3.8 Flash takes text, image, audio and video input; Step 5 Preview takes text, image and video.
Further reading
More on Gemini 3.8 Flash and Step 5 Preview
Articles on Gemini 3.8 Flash and Step 5 Preview
- Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS: Price, Rankings and the Fine PrintSeptember 25, 2026
Related comparisons
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Mistral Large 4
- MiMo-V2.6-Flash vs Step 5 Preview
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Muse Spark 1.3 vs Step 5 Preview
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- DeepSeek-V4-Pro vs Step 5 Preview
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Grok 4.20 vs Step 5 Preview
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- Grok 4.3 vs Step 5 Preview
- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- GPT-6.1 Terra vs Step 5 Preview
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.8 Flash and Step 5 Preview?
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