audio model comparison
Gemini 3.8 Live vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Gemini 3.8 Live and GPT-4o Transcribe are both current audio models, from Google and OpenAI. Gemini 3.8 Live is 17% cheaper per audio minute than GPT-4o Transcribe, $0.005 vs $0.006.
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 Live | GPT-4o Transcribe |
|---|---|---|
| Price per audio minute | $0.005 (better) | $0.006 |
| Artificial Analysis AA-WER v2 | Not measured | 3.96 % WER (#6 of 6) |
| Provider | OpenAI | |
| Release date | September 15, 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, audio | text, audio |
| Output | text, audio | text |
When to choose each
Gemini 3.8 Live
Best for
- Customer-facing voice agents that need natural turn-taking
Watch out for
- Audio is billed per token; the per-minute figures are Google's equivalents ($0.005 input, $0.018 output)
- No independent voice 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 Live vs GPT-4o Transcribe FAQ
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Live or GPT-4o Transcribe?
Gemini 3.8 Live is 17% cheaper per audio minute than GPT-4o Transcribe, $0.005 vs $0.006.
Related comparisons
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Live Preview vs Gemini 3.8 Live
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Live Preview vs GPT-4o Transcribe
- Gemini 3.5 Live Translate Preview vs GPT-4o Transcribe
- Gemini 3.5 Transcribe vs Gemini 3.8 Live
- Gemini 3.5 Transcribe vs GPT-4o Transcribe
- Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS vs Gemini 3.8 Live
- Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS vs GPT-4o Transcribe
- Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS vs Gemini 3.8 Live
- Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS vs GPT-4o Transcribe
- Gemini 3.8 Live vs GPT Transcribe
Production evaluation
Choosing between Gemini 3.8 Live 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