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Model cost comparisonGemini 3.8 Flash vs Claude Haiku 5.5: Cost
Gemini 3.8 Flash and Claude Haiku 5.5 side by side, using prices from each provider's own pricing page.
At list price, Claude Haiku 5.5 costs about 7.5x less per typical request than Gemini 3.8 Flash.
Price per token
| USD per 1M tokens | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Claude Haiku 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $0.75 | $0.10 |
| Cached input / cache reads | $0.075 | $0.01 |
| Output | $3.75 | $0.50 |
| Batch input | $0.375 | $0.05 |
| Batch output | $1.88 | $0.25 |
| 1,000 typical requests | $3.00 | $0.40 |
| 1M typical requests a month | $3,000 | $400 |
A typical request here is 2,000 input and 400 output tokens. Prices checked October 30, 2026.
Gemini 3.8 Flash's price changes on January 1, 2027, to $1.50 / $7.50. Claude Haiku 5.5 costs more for prompts over 100,000 tokens: $0.50 input and $2.50 output. Claude Haiku 5.5 uses a newer tokenizer that counts the same text as about 30% more tokens, so compare cost per task, not just price per token.
Which is cheaper?
At list price, Claude Haiku 5.5 is about 7.5x cheaper than Gemini 3.8 Flash for the same typical request. But price per token isn't cost per task. What matters is the cost of a successful result: a cheaper model that needs retries, longer prompts or more output can end up costing more.
How to decide
- Pick 50 to 200 real requests and the answers you'd accept.
- Run both models on them and record pass rate, tokens used and latency.
- Divide total cost by the number of passing answers: that's your cost per successful task.
- Route each kind of request to the model with the lowest cost per successful task.
Use both
You don't have to choose one. apicuts routes each request to the lowest-cost model that passes your evaluations, with your approval, and guarantees at least 20% lower cost after our fee. See how routing works.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.8 Flash cheaper than Claude Haiku 5.5?
Per typical request at list price, Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper: $0.40 vs $3.00 per 1,000 requests of 2,000 input and 400 output tokens.
Should I switch from Gemini 3.8 Flash to Claude Haiku 5.5?
Only for the requests where it passes your quality checks. Test on your own evaluation set first, then route the requests that pass.
Sources: Google's Gemini API pricing page, Anthropic's pricing page. Checked October 30, 2026.
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