AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Reka Flash 3 Open vs Gemini 3.8 Flash Paid

Reka Flash 3 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Gemini 3.8 Flash — full profile ›

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

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

Reka Flash 3OpenRekaai

$0.1 /M input
$0.2 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host

TypeOpen-weight

Context window66K tokens

MultimodalNo

Self-hostYes

Gemini 3.8 FlashPaidGoogle

$0.75 /M input
$3.75 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)

TypeProprietary

Context window1M tokens

MultimodalYes

Self-hostNo

Choose Reka Flash 3 if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Reka Flash 3 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash specs

Spec	Reka Flash 3	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Winner
Maker	Rekaai	Google	–
Type	Open-weight	Proprietary	Reka Flash 3
Context window	66K tokens	1M tokens	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Input price	$0.1/M · free self-host	$0.75/M	Reka Flash 3
Output price	$0.2/M · free self-host	$3.75/M	Reka Flash 3
Vision / multimodal	No	Yes	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Tool / function calling	No	Yes	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Self-hostable	Yes	No (API only)	Reka Flash 3
License	Open weights	Proprietary	Reka Flash 3

Price gap & when to choose each

19×cheaper per output token

Reka Flash 3 is ~19× cheaper than Gemini 3.8 Flash on output tokens ($0.2 vs $3.75 per M tokens).

Choose Reka Flash 3 if…

You want to self-host or run on your cloud
You prioritize data privacy & control
You want the lowest operating costs
You are building open or reproducible AI

Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash if…

You want frontier performance through a managed API
You need the longer 1M context window
You value reliability & ecosystem
You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

Capability	Reka Flash 3	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Open weights (downloadable)	✓	✗
Self-hostable	✓	✗
Runs fully offline	✓	✗
Vision / multimodal	✗	✓
Tool / function calling	✗	✓
1M+ context window	✗	✓

Benchmarks: Reka Flash 3 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash

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

Reka Flash 3

Gemini 3.8 Flash

Intelligence index

5.6

41.2

Math index

33.7

–

GPQA

52.9%

95.3%

MMLU-Pro

66.9%

–

Humanity's Last Exam

4.4%

47.8%

Long Context Reasoning

81.3%

LiveCodeBench

43.5%

–

MATH-500

89.3%

–

AIME

51%

–

AIME 2025

33.7%

–

IFBench

30.4%

–

τ²-Bench

–

Terminal-Bench Hard

–

Coding index

–

76.3

SciCode

–

56.6%

τ-Bench Banking

–

44.9%

Terminal-Bench

–

87.6%

Speed

85.9 tok/s

339 tok/s

Latency

0.88s

12.31s

Intelligence per $

27.5

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Reka Flash 3 and Gemini 3.8 Flash score

🏆 Best value & openness: Reka Flash 3 (4.0 vs 3.3 / 5)

Criterion	Reka Flash 3	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Cost-efficiency	5.0	4.0
Context window	3.0	5.0
Openness	5.0	1.5
Self-hosting	5.0	1.0
Multimodality	2.0	5.0

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

Reka Flash 3 Open

Rekaai · Open-weight

Reka Flash 3 is a general-purpose, instruction-tuned large language model with 21 billion parameters, developed by Reka. It excels at general chat, coding tasks, instruction-following, and function calling. Featuring a...

Gemini 3.8 Flash Paid

Google · Proprietary

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.

Other models in these families

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

Other variants tracked

Reka Edge

Other variants tracked

Gemini 3.8 Flash (batch)Gemini 3.7 FlashGemini 3.7 Flash (batch)Gemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.6 Flash (batch)Gemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash (batch)Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGemini 3 Flash Preview (batch)Gemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash (batch)Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)

Frequently asked questions

Is Reka Flash 3 as good as Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Reka Flash 3 is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Gemini 3.8 Flash may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Reka Flash 3 locally?

Yes. Reka Flash 3 has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Gemini 3.8 Flash is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

How much cheaper is Reka Flash 3?

Reka Flash 3 costs $0.2/M output vs $3.75/M for Gemini 3.8 Flash — roughly 19x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.

Reka Flash 3 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Reka Flash 3 if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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