AI Models · Paid vs Paid

Gemini 3.6 Flash Paid vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview Paid

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.

Gemini 3.6 Flash — full profile ›  ·  Gemini 3 Flash Preview — full profile ›

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Choose Gemini 3 Flash Preview for the lower output price ($3/M vs $7.5/M). Choose Gemini 3.6 Flash if you need the larger 1M context window.

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview specs

SpecGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3 Flash Preview
MakerGoogleGoogle
TypeProprietaryProprietary
Context window1M tokens1M tokens
Input price$1.5/M$0.5/M
Output price$7.5/M$3/M
Vision / multimodalYesYes
Tool / function callingYesYes
Self-hostableNo (API only)No (API only)
LicenseProprietaryProprietary

Feature comparison

CapabilityGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3 Flash Preview
Open weights (downloadable)✗✗
Self-hostable✗✗
Runs fully offline✗✗
Vision / multimodal✓✓
Tool / function calling✓✓
1M+ context window✓✓

Benchmarks: Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Gemini 3 Flash Preview delivers 2× more intelligence per dollar.
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Intelligence index
50.1
37.8
Coding index
69.2
–
GPQA
92.8%
89.8%
Humanity's Last Exam
38.3%
34.7%
Long Context Reasoning
69.7%
66.3%
SciCode
52.7%
50.6%
τ-Bench Banking
24.5%
17.5%
Terminal-Bench
77.5%
–
Math index
–
97
MMLU-Pro
–
89%
LiveCodeBench
–
90.8%
AIME 2025
–
97%
IFBench
–
78%
τ²-Bench
–
80.4%
Terminal-Bench Hard
–
38.6%
Speed
255.3 tok/s
0 tok/s
Latency
12.25s
0s
Intelligence per $
16.7
33.6

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 3 Flash Preview score

🤝 Neck and neck on these criteria (3.3 vs 3.3 / 5).
CriterionGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3 Flash Preview
Cost-efficiency4.04.0
Context window5.05.0
Openness1.51.5
Self-hosting1.01.0
Multimodality5.05.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Gemini 3.6 Flash Paid

Google · Proprietary

Gemini 3.6 Flash is a high-efficiency model from Google for coding, agentic workflows, and web and app development. It is designed to produce polished outputs with fewer unnecessary edits and...

Gemini 3 Flash Preview Paid

Google · Proprietary

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is a high speed, high value thinking model designed for agentic workflows, multi turn chat, and coding assistance. It delivers near Pro level reasoning and tool...

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked
Gemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3 Flash PreviewGemini 2.5 Flash
Other variants tracked
Gemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash

Frequently asked questions

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview — which is cheaper?

Gemini 3 Flash Preview is cheaper on output ($3/M vs $7.5/M).

Which has the larger context window?

Gemini 3.6 Flash offers the larger context window (1M tokens).

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Gemini 3 Flash Preview for the lower output price ($3/M vs $7.5/M). Choose Gemini 3.6 Flash if you need the larger 1M context window.

People also compare

Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3 Flash Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Flash

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