Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium

    Comparison

    As of August 20, 2026, Gemini 3.6 Flash is 60% cheaper per million tokens than GPT-5 Medium. Gemini 3.6 Flash is $0.75 / $3.75 per million input/output tokens versus GPT-5 Medium at $1.25 / $10.00. Sources: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing and https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing

    Sources: Gemini API pricing (https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing); OpenAI API pricing (https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing)

    Better value

    Gemini 3.6 Flash

    Google

    $4.50blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.75

    Output

    $3.75

    1M ctx|Proprietary
    60%
    cheaper

    GPT-5 Medium

    OpenAI

    $11.25blended / 1M

    Input

    $1.25

    Output

    $10.00

    400K ctx|Proprietary
    Save $6.75 per million tokens by choosing Gemini 3.6 Flash over GPT-5 Medium.

    Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    Gemini 3.6 Flash
    GPT-5 Medium
    Provider
    Provider
    Google
    OpenAI
    License
    Proprietary
    Proprietary
    Release Date
    2026-07-21
    2025-08-07
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price-40%
    $0.75
    $1.25
    Output Price-63%
    $3.75
    $10.00
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $4.50
    $11.25
    Model Details
    Context Window
    1M
    400K
    Max Output Tokens
    65.5K
    128K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    2026-03-31
    2024-09-30
    Throughput
    189.1623152597947 tok/s
    90 tok/s
    Benchmarks
    88.1%
    86.4%
    48.6%
    46.7%
    52.7%
    1527.83
    1419
    68.7%
    60.4%
    7.5%
    83%
    89.4%
    82.2%
    88.9%
    88.4%
    63.3%
    10.6%
    48.5%
    65.4%
    14%
    53.1%
    79.7%
    63.9%
    89.3%
    54%
    48.7%
    74.9%
    Benchmark Wins
    Gemini 3.6 Flash 3|1 GPT-5 Medium

    Verdict

    Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium: the bottom line

    Gemini 3.6 Flash offers both lower pricing and stronger benchmark performance across the board, making it the clear value leader in this comparison.

    Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium FAQ

    Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5 Medium?

    As of August 20, 2026, Gemini 3.6 Flash is 60% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens ($4.50 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). GPT-5 Medium costs $1.25 / $10.00 per million tokens ($11.25 blended). Sources: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing and https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium cost per million tokens?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash Gemini API pricing is $0.75 input and $3.75 output per million tokens via Google. GPT-5 Medium OpenAI API pricing is $1.25 input and $10.00 output per million tokens via OpenAI. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5 Medium?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash has a published SWE-bench Verified score of 79.6%. GPT-5 Medium does not have that eval on this page yet.

    What is the context window for Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash supports a 1M token context window, while GPT-5 Medium supports 400K tokens. Gemini 3.6 Flash offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5 Medium?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash leads on 3 of 4 shared benchmarks versus GPT-5 Medium's 1 wins. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5 Medium better for production use?

    Both Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5 Medium are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, Gemini 3.6 Flash has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5 Medium in my app?

    Yes. Call Gemini 3.6 Flash through Google and GPT-5 Medium through OpenAI with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published Gemini API pricing and OpenAI API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing and https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5 Medium?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash supports up to 66K output tokens per request, while GPT-5 Medium supports up to 128K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5 Medium?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash runs at approximately 189.1623152597947 tokens/second while GPT-5 Medium runs at 90 tokens/second. Gemini 3.6 Flash is faster in raw throughput. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5 Medium from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5 Medium pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75/M input and $3.75/M output. GPT-5 Medium costs $1.25/M input and $10.00/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

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