Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash: pricing and benchmarks
Claude Haiku 5.5 is 87% cheaper on input tokens ($0.10 vs $0.75 per 1M). Claude Haiku 5.5 is 87% cheaper on output tokens ($0.50 vs $3.75 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Claude Haiku 5.5 costs $55.00 a month versus $412.50 for Gemini 3.8 Flash, 87% less. Roughly tied. Claude Haiku 5.5 scores 159.0 and Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 157.2 on the Epoch Capabilities Index, and their confidence intervals overlap.
Prices verified October 17, 2026.
Which should you choose?
Roughly tied. Claude Haiku 5.5 scores 159.0 and Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 157.2 on the Epoch Capabilities Index, and their confidence intervals overlap.
Claude Haiku 5.5 scores 75.1% on FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3) vs 68.4% for Gemini 3.8 Flash.
Claude Haiku 5.5 costs $0.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 input-to-output mix) vs $1.50 for Gemini 3.8 Flash, 87% less.
Claude Haiku 5.5 delivers equal or higher overall capability for 87% less.
Pricing and specs
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| API model ID | claude-haiku-5-5 | gemini-3.8-flash |
| Input / 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.75 |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.01 | $0.075 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $0.50 | $3.75 |
| Long-context rates | $0.50 in / $2.50 out above 100K prompt tokens | — |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 128K tokens | 66K tokens |
| Batch discount | 50% off | 50% off |
Benchmarks
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 159.0 | 157.2 |
| GPQA Diamond· Science reasoning | 89.6% | 95.4% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3)· Advanced math | 75.1% | 68.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified· Factual accuracy | 23.8% | 69.7% |
| ARC-AGI-2· Abstract reasoning | — | 89.2% |
| DeepSWE· Coding | — | 73.8% |
| APEX-Agents· Agentic work | 56.1% | 64.3% |
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 5.5 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Support chatbot 100,000 replies a month, ~1,500 input tokens (system prompt + history) and ~400 output tokens each. | $35.00 | $262.50 | Claude Haiku 5.5 87% cheaper |
Document Q&A (RAG) 50,000 questions a month with ~8,000 tokens of retrieved context and ~600 output tokens each. | $55.00 | $412.50 | Claude Haiku 5.5 87% 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. | $24.80 | $186.00 | Claude Haiku 5.5 87% 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 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash cost calculator
- $55.00/mo$0.0011 / request
- Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle$412.50/mo$0.0083 / 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 5.5 pricing notes
Anthropic’s fastest, lowest-cost model, priced by prompt length, with a 1M-token context window.
- Prompts over 100K tokens, counting cache reads and writes, are billed at $0.50 input / $2.50 output per 1M tokens.
- Cache writes cost $0.125 (5-minute cache) or $0.20 (1-hour cache) per 1M tokens, 5x that above 100K tokens.
- US-only inference (inference_geo: "us") costs 1.1x.
Gemini 3.8 Flash pricing notes
Google’s newest Flash model, with thinking, tool use and a 1M-token context window.
- Introductory price through December 31, 2026. From January 1, 2027: $1.50 input, $0.15 cached, $7.50 output per 1M tokens.
- Output price includes thinking tokens.
- Priority inference costs 1.8x the standard rate.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Claude Haiku 5.5 cheaper than Gemini 3.8 Flash?
- Claude Haiku 5.5 is 87% cheaper on input tokens ($0.10 vs $0.75 per 1M). Claude Haiku 5.5 is 87% cheaper on output tokens ($0.50 vs $3.75 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Claude Haiku 5.5 costs $55.00 a month versus $412.50 for Gemini 3.8 Flash, 87% less.
- Which is more capable, Claude Haiku 5.5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
- Roughly tied. Claude Haiku 5.5 scores 159.0 and Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 157.2 on the Epoch Capabilities Index, and their confidence intervals overlap.
- How much does Claude Haiku 5.5 cost per 1M tokens?
- Claude Haiku 5.5 costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.50 per 1M output tokens, and $0.01 per 1M cached input tokens on Anthropic’s standard tier.
- How much does Gemini 3.8 Flash cost per 1M tokens?
- Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 per 1M input tokens and $3.75 per 1M output tokens, and $0.075 per 1M cached input tokens on Google’s standard tier.
- Which has the larger context window, Claude Haiku 5.5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
- Gemini 3.8 Flash has the larger context window: 1.05M tokens versus 1M for Claude Haiku 5.5.