Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
Side-by-side API pricing and Artificial Analysis performance for Gemini 3.6 Flash (Google) and GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct (OpenAI). Green cells mark the better value in each row.
Prices updated Sep 14, 2026, 1:10 AM UTC · refreshed hourly
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct OpenAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Input $/1M | $0.75 | $1.50 |
| Output $/1M | $3.75 | $2.00 |
| Blended $/1M (3:1) | $1.50 | $1.63 |
| RAG example (30K in / 2K out) | $0.03 | $0.049 |
| Quality & speed | ||
| Intelligence Index | 34.3 | — |
| Coding Index | 69.2 | — |
| Agentic Index | 30.2 | — |
| Output speed (tok/s) | 222 | — |
| Time to first token | 15.35s | — |
| Specs | ||
| Context window | 1.05M | 4K |
| Input modalities | text, image, video, file, audio | text |
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct?
Gemini 3.6 Flash has the lower blended API price at $1.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 input:output mix), versus $1.63 for the other model. Prices are live from OpenRouter and refresh about hourly.
Which is better for RAG workloads?
For a typical RAG request (30K input / 2K output tokens), Gemini 3.6 Flash costs about $0.03 per request versus $0.049. Also compare context windows: Gemini 3.6 Flash offers 1.05M and GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct offers 4K.
Which scores higher on Artificial Analysis benchmarks?
Gemini 3.6 Flash leads on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (34.3 vs —). Check coding and agentic indices on this page for workload-specific tradeoffs.