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Claude Opus 4.8 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash — Price, Context, and Capability Compared

Verdict

Claude Opus 4.8 costs 3.0× more per blended million tokens than Gemini 3.6 Flash. Gemini 3.6 Flash has the larger context window (1,000,000 tokens). Default to Gemini 3.6 Flash unless you specifically need Claude Opus 4.8's edge.

Spec comparison

Claude Opus 4.8Gemini 3.6 Flash
Price (input)$5.00/M$1.50/M
Price (output)$25.00/M$9.00/M
Blended price$10.00/M$3.38/M
Context window500,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output64,000 tokens64,000 tokens
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision, audio
Reasoning modeYesYes
Released2026-042026-06
Speed58 t/s114 t/s

Cost at scale (3:1 blended)

Tokens / monthClaude Opus 4.8Gemini 3.6 FlashDelta
1,000,000$10.00$3.38$6.63 (3.0×)
10,000,000$100.00$33.75$66.25 (3.0×)
100,000,000$1000.00$337.50$662.50 (3.0×)

Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if…

  • Elite coding and multi-step reasoning
  • Strong instruction following on ambiguous prompts
  • Extended-thinking mode
  • Complex, multi-step tasks where Fable 5’s premium isn’t justified.

Choose Gemini 3.6 Flash if…

  • Faster than Gemini 3.5 Flash
  • Top-tier coding and agentic performance for its price
  • 1M-token context
  • Latency-sensitive coding and agentic tasks that still need a huge context window.

Run this exact matchup right now

Send the same prompt to Claude Opus 4.8 and Gemini 3.6 Flash side by side and see the outputs yourself.

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FAQ

Is Claude Opus 4.8 cheaper than Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper, at $3.38 per million blended tokens vs $10.00 for Claude Opus 4.8.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.8 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash has the larger context window: 1,000,000 tokens vs 500,000.

Can Claude Opus 4.8 replace Gemini 3.6 Flash for coding?

Both are viable for coding. Elite coding and multi-step reasoning (Claude Opus 4.8) vs Faster than Gemini 3.5 Flash (Gemini 3.6 Flash) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.8 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is faster: 114 t/s vs 58 t/s, measured on our speed benchmarks.

Related

Claude Opus 4.8 pricingGemini 3.6 Flash pricingvs Grok 4.3vs Gemini 3.1 Provs Claude Opus 4vs Claude Fable 5Premium model tests

Pricing verified 2026-06-07. Specs verified 2026-08-08.