Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: pricing and benchmarks
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 70% cheaper on input tokens ($0.30 vs $1.00 per 1M). Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 50% cheaper on output tokens ($2.50 vs $5.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $195.00 a month versus $550.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5, 65% less. Roughly tied. Claude Haiku 4.5 scores 142.4 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 145.1 on the Epoch Capabilities Index, and their confidence intervals overlap.
Prices verified September 14, 2026.
Which should you choose?
Roughly tied. Claude Haiku 4.5 scores 142.4 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 145.1 on the Epoch Capabilities Index, and their confidence intervals overlap.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.85 per 1M tokens (3:1 input-to-output mix) vs $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5, 57% less.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite delivers equal or higher overall capability for 57% less.
Pricing and specs
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| API model ID | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | gemini-3.5-flash-lite |
| Input / 1M tokens | $1.00 | $0.30 |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.03 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $5.00 | $2.50 |
| Long-context rates | — | — |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 64K tokens | 66K tokens |
| Batch discount | 50% off | 50% off |
Benchmarks
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 142.4 | 145.1 |
| GPQA Diamond· Science reasoning | 61.6% | 77.8% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3)· Advanced math | — | 26.0% |
| SimpleQA Verified· Factual accuracy | 13.2% | — |
| ARC-AGI-2· Abstract reasoning | 4.0% | 10.3% |
| DeepSWE· Coding | — | — |
| APEX-Agents· Agentic work | 8.9% | — |
Source: Epoch AI, best recorded result per model (CC BY 4.0). A dash means no published score. See all benchmarks
Monthly cost for real workloads
| Workload | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Support chatbot 100,000 replies a month, ~1,500 input tokens (system prompt + history) and ~400 output tokens each. | $350.00 | $145.00 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 59% cheaper |
Document Q&A (RAG) 50,000 questions a month with ~8,000 tokens of retrieved context and ~600 output tokens each. | $550.00 | $195.00 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 65% cheaper |
Coding agent 10,000 agent steps a month, ~40,000 input tokens each (70% read from the prompt cache) and ~2,000 output tokens. | $248.00 | $94.40 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 62% cheaper |
Estimates use standard list prices and ignore cache-write surcharges. Different tokenizers can count the same text differently, so test with your own prompts.
Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cost calculator
- $195.00/mo$0.0039 / request
- Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic$550.00/mo$0.01 / request
Standard-tier list prices. Long-context rates apply automatically where the provider publishes a threshold. Excludes cache-write surcharges, taxes, batch and volume discounts.
Claude Haiku 4.5 pricing notes
Anthropic’s fastest model, with near-frontier intelligence.
- Cache writes cost $1.25 (5-minute cache) or $2 (1-hour cache) per 1M tokens.
- Uses Anthropic’s previous tokenizer.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite pricing notes
Google’s lowest-cost Gemini 3.5 model for high-volume work.
- The same input price applies to text, image, video and audio.
- Output price includes thinking tokens.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Claude Haiku 4.5 cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 70% cheaper on input tokens ($0.30 vs $1.00 per 1M). Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 50% cheaper on output tokens ($2.50 vs $5.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $195.00 a month versus $550.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5, 65% less.
- Which is more capable, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
- Roughly tied. Claude Haiku 4.5 scores 142.4 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite scores 145.1 on the Epoch Capabilities Index, and their confidence intervals overlap.
- How much does Claude Haiku 4.5 cost per 1M tokens?
- Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1.00 per 1M input tokens and $5.00 per 1M output tokens, and $0.10 per 1M cached input tokens on Anthropic’s standard tier.
- How much does Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cost per 1M tokens?
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $2.50 per 1M output tokens, and $0.03 per 1M cached input tokens on Google’s standard tier.
- Which has the larger context window, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite has the larger context window: 1.05M tokens versus 200K for Claude Haiku 4.5.