Rate
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash: price
Gemini 3.8 Flash is 2.7× cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5 for a typical chat workload (1,500 tokens in, 500 out).
| Item | Claude Sonnet 5 | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Input per 1M tokens | $2.00 | $0.75 |
| Output per 1M tokens | $10.00 | $3.75 |
| Cached input per 1M | $0.20 | $0.075 |
| 1,000 chat messages1,500 tokens in, 500 out each | $8.00 | $3.00 |
| Summarize a 50-page PDF30,000 tokens in, 1,000 out | $0.07 | $0.026 |
| One coding-agent task60,000 tokens in, 4,000 out, no caching | $0.16 | $0.06 |
Gemini 3.8 Flash: Promo price through Dec 31, 2026; $1.50 in / $7.50 out from Jan 1, 2027.
List prices checked September 28, 2026. Price is half the story: see how people rate each one today.
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash in numbers
Output, usually the bigger part of the bill, costs $10.00 on Claude Sonnet 5 and $3.75 on Gemini 3.8 Flash, so Gemini 3.8 Flash is 2.7× cheaper there. Input costs $2.00 versus $0.75 per million tokens. For a coding-agent task (60,000 tokens in, 4,000 out) that is $0.16 on Claude Sonnet 5 and $0.06 on Gemini 3.8 Flash. Claude Sonnet 5 accepts 1M tokens of context and Gemini 3.8 Flash 1.05M tokens. Claude Sonnet 5 came out on June 30, 2026 and Gemini 3.8 Flash on September 2, 2026.
Claude Sonnet 5 is made by Anthropic; Gemini 3.8 Flash by Google. Estimate your own bill for both in the cost calculator.
Which one feels dumber today?
- Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic
–no votes yet - Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle–no votes yet
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash cheaper?
Gemini 3.8 Flash is 2.7× cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5 for a typical chat workload (1,500 tokens in, 500 out). Output, usually the bigger part of the bill, costs $10.00 on Claude Sonnet 5 and $3.75 on Gemini 3.8 Flash, so Gemini 3.8 Flash is 2.7× cheaper there.
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
It depends on the task, and price is only part of it. Check how people rate each one today on the Claude Sonnet 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash pages, and read what users report in Discussions.