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Gemini 3.8 Flash

Google's best fast model: a middle ground between cheap and capable. It understands audio and video too.

Last updated October 16, 2026.

Costs here use the prices AI companies charge software developers, so they show relative cost, not your monthly bill. See what ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini charge you.

Made by Google, the company behind Gemini. Everyday and cheap.

What it costs

1,000-word essay: $0.01 (about 1 cent)
100 chat messages: $1.08
50-page PDF summary: $0.03 (about 3 cents)

Based on list prices and the assumptions on How we work. Your real cost will differ.

At a glance

Smartness: ★★★★☆ (4 of 5) (our banding of the Artificial Analysis score, where available)
Reads at once: about 1,570 pages (rule of thumb)
Understands: text, pictures, video, files, audio
Free to download and run yourself: No
Free to use: Not free for developers. Free app plans

App plans and prices for Gemini: see plans.

Best for

cheap but capableaudio and video

Watch out for

Costs several times more than the cheapest options.

Picked for

Research

Appears in

Frequently asked

How much does Gemini 3.8 Flash cost to use?
A 1,000-word essay costs about $0.01 (about 1 cent); summarizing a 50-page PDF about $0.03 (about 3 cents). These are developer (API) prices, not an app subscription.

What is Gemini 3.8 Flash best for?
Google's best fast model: a middle ground between cheap and capable. It understands audio and video too.

How much can Gemini 3.8 Flash read at once?
About 1,570 pages (a rule of thumb: 1,048,576 tokens at roughly 500 words a page).

Can I download Gemini 3.8 Flash for free?
No. It is only available through the maker or other paid services.

Under the hood

Maker	Google
Price per 1M input tokens	$0.82
Price per 1M output tokens	$4.13
Context size	1.05M tokens (1,048,576)
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index	40.9 (source, via OpenRouter)
Open weights	No
Speed	Not measured yet
Listed	2026-09-02

Maker's description (technical)

Gemini 3.8 Flash is Google's most intelligent Flash model with significant gains from 3.7 Flash across software engineering, agentic tasks, and multi-step reasoning.

View on OpenRouter. Our verdict above is editorial, not benchmarked by us.