Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

Pick up to 3 models · pricing, context and capabilities · simulate your product cost

Data updated on September 30, 2026· 217 models

Google3.8 Flash

Gemini 3.8 Flash is Google's most intelligent Flash model with significant gains from 3.7 Flash across software engineering, agentic tasks, and multi-step reasoning.

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Reasoning estimated
▲
Speed estimated
Input
Output
Context
▲1 M tokens
Max output
▲66 K
Input, $ per 1M tokens
▲$0.750
Output, $ per 1M tokens
$3.75
Cache read, $ per 1M
$0.075
Batch (input / output)
$0.375 / $1.88
Tool calling
Yes
Released
▲09/02/2026
Knowledge cutoff
—
API id
google/gemini-3.8-flash
OpenAITurbo Instruct

This model is a variant of GPT-3.5 Turbo tuned for instructional prompts and omitting chat-related optimizations.

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Reasoning estimated
Speed estimated
Input
Output
Context
4 K tokens
Max output
4 K
Input, $ per 1M tokens
$1.50
Output, $ per 1M tokens
▲$2.00
Cache read, $ per 1M
—
Batch (input / output)
—
Tool calling
No
Released
09/21/2023
Knowledge cutoff
2021-08
API id
openai/gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct
Third model (optional)
text image audio video PDF / file reasoning (1 to 5, estimated by family) speed (1 to 4, estimated by family)▲ best value among the selected

Which is the better API choice: Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?

  • Gemini 3.8 Flash: cheapest input (50% less than GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct)
  • GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct: cheapest output
  • Gemini 3.8 Flash: largest context (1 M)
  • Gemini 3.8 Flash: the newest (09/02/2026)
  • Gemini 3.8 Flash: most reasoning (estimated)

Pricing is split: Gemini 3.8 Flash wins on input and GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct wins on output. Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts more context (1 M). On capabilities, Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts images; Gemini 3.8 Flash has a reasoning mode; only Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts audio. Gemini 3.8 Flash offers a batch tier at half price for jobs that do not need an immediate answer.

What would your product cost?

Estimate the monthly cost with your app's real volume. List prices, no cache or batch discounts.

Gemini 3.8 Flash
$26.25/mo
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
$30.50/mo

With Gemini 3.8 Flash you save $4.25 a month versus GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct (14% less).

The 6 cheapest for this scenario (chat, last 12 months)

  1. 1Lyria 3 Pro Preview Google$0.00
  2. 2Lyria 3 Clip Preview Google$0.00
  3. 3Qwen3.7 Flash Qwen$0.97
  4. 4DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 DeepSeek$1.55
  5. 5Ministral 3 3B 2512 Mistral$1.90
  6. 6Qwen3.5-Flash Qwen$2.02

Paste your prompt: tokens and cost per model

Rough estimate (about 4 characters per token). Nothing is sent to any server.

76tokens approx.287 characters

Cost of sending it 1,000 times (input only)

  1. 1Gemini 3.8 Flash Google$0.057
  2. 2GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct OpenAI$0.114
  3. 3Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic$0.152
  4. 4Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic$0.152
  5. 5Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic$0.304
  6. 6Claude Opus 5 Anthropic$0.380
  7. 7Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic$0.760
  8. 8Claude Fable 5 Anthropic$0.760

Popular comparisons

Frequently asked questions

Which is the better API choice: Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?

Pricing is split: Gemini 3.8 Flash wins on input and GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct wins on output. Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts more context (1 M). On capabilities, Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts images; Gemini 3.8 Flash has a reasoning mode; only Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts audio. Gemini 3.8 Flash offers a batch tier at half price for jobs that do not need an immediate answer.

Which is cheaper: Gemini 3.8 Flash and GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?

Gemini 3.8 Flash is cheaper: $0.750 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens, versus $1.50 / $2.00 for GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct.

Which has more context: Gemini 3.8 Flash and GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?

Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts 1 M tokens of context; GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct accepts 4 K.

Which is newer: Gemini 3.8 Flash and GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?

Gemini 3.8 Flash was released on 09/02/2026; GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct on 09/21/2023.

What would 10,000 requests a month cost with Gemini 3.8 Flash and GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?

With 1,500 input and 400 output tokens per request: Gemini 3.8 Flash: $26.25; GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct: $30.50 a month, at list price.

Where do the prices come from and how often are they updated?

From the public catalogs of OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM, which publish each provider's list prices. They sync once a day and the last update date is shown above the comparison.

What does price per million tokens mean?

It is what the provider charges per million tokens you send (input) or the model generates (output). A token is roughly 4 characters. Output almost always costs more than input.

Sources: OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM. Prices in USD per million tokens, list price, no volume discounts. Prompt tokens are an estimate; each provider's tokenizer may differ.