Gemini 3.8 Flash vs o4 Mini
| Signal | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Delta | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 100 | -- | |
Pricing | 96 | +1 | |
Context window size | 96 | +11 | |
Recency | 100 | +60 | |
Output Capacity | 77 | -3 | |
Benchmarks | 0 | -84 | |
| Overall Result | 3 wins | of 6 | 2 wins |
Score History
81
current score
o4 Mini
right now
81.4
current score
Gemini 3.8 Flash
o4 Mini
OpenAI
Gemini 3.8 Flash saves you $67.50/month
That's $810.00/year compared to o4 Mini at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash | o4 Mini | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 81 | 81 | o4 Mini |
| Rank | #81 | #79 | o4 Mini |
| Quality Rank | #81 | #79 | o4 Mini |
| Adoption Rank | #81 | #79 | o4 Mini |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 1049K | 200K | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
| Pricing | $0.75/$3.75/M | $1.10/$4.40/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 100 | 100 | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
| Pricing | 96 | 96 | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
| Context window size | 96 | 84 | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
| Recency | 100 | 40 | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
| Output Capacity | 77 | 80 | o4 Mini |
| Benchmarks | -- | 85 | o4 Mini |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 81/100 (rank #81), placing it in the top 72% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 81/100 (rank #79), placing it in the top 73% of all 290 models tracked.
With only a 0-point gap, these models are in the same performance tier. The practical difference in output quality is minimal - your choice should depend on pricing, latency requirements, and specific feature needs.
Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash when you need:
- Processing long documents or large codebases (1049K token context)
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Choose o4 Mini when you need:
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Gemini 3.8 Flash offers 18% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $67.50/month with Gemini 3.8 Flash vs $82.50/month with o4 Mini - a $15.00 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. Gemini 3.8 Flash also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (1049K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($3.75/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (81/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
Gemini 3.8 Flash and o4 Mini are extremely close in overall performance (only 0.4000000000000057 points apart). Your best choice depends entirely on which specific strengths matter most for your use case.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Gemini 3.8 Flash
18% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by Google
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Cost - 18% lower pricing; better value at scale
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | Gemini 3.8 Flash | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input) | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Web Search | ||
| Image Output |
Gemini 3.8 Flash
o4 Mini
OpenAI
Gemini 3.8 Flash saves you $1.41/month
That's 19% cheaper than o4 Mini at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | Gemini 3.8 Flash | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 1.0M | 200K |
| Max Output Tokens | 65,536 | 100,000 |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Created | Sep 2, 2026 | Apr 16, 2025 |