Model comparison
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Sol
Google against OpenAI, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.
Catalog record checked September 5, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Balanced
OpenAI
GPT-5.6 Sol
Frontier
| Specification | Gemini 3.6 Flash | GPT-5.6 Sol |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | |
| Tier | Balanced | Frontier |
| Context window | 1M | Winner: 1.05M |
| Max output | 64K | Winner: 128K |
| Input / 1M tokens | Winner: $0.75 | $4 |
| Output / 1M tokens | Winner: $3.75 | $20 |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Parameters | Not disclosedUnverified | flagship reasoning + coding model |
| Reasoning levels | low, medium, high | none, low, medium, high, xhigh, max |
| Modalities | text, image, video, audio, pdf | text, image |
| API model id | gemini-3.6-flash | gpt-5.6-sol |
| Released | July 21, 2026 | July 9, 2026 |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14) | 54 | Not verifiedUnverified |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] (2026-08-14) | Not verifiedUnverified | 61 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-07) | 78 | Winner: 88.8 |
| DeepSWE 1.1 (2026-07) | 48.6 | Not verifiedUnverified |
| Humanity's Last Exam (2026-08) | 51.2 | Not verifiedUnverified |
| GPQA Diamond (2026-07-09) | Not verifiedUnverified | 94.6 |
Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.
Benchmark receipts
- 2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (check measuredAt).
- 2026-08: Google DeepMind model evaluation report (vendor, HLE-Verified full set)Frontier-knowledge ceiling: extremely hard multi-domain questions written to be near-impossible without deep expertise. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Subset/tool configurations (text-only vs with-tools) differ between vendors and materially change scores; must match configuration to compare.
- 2026-07-09: OpenAI — GPT-5.6 evals table (vendor)Agentic terminal work: multi-step tasks executed in a sandboxed shell environment. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Scores across Terminal-Bench major versions (v1 vs v2) are NOT comparable; harness configuration (container, time limits) also shifts results.
- 2026-07: Google DeepMind model evaluation report (vendor, quoting Datacurve leaderboard; 3.7 report shows 49 — rounding conflict preserved)Agentic terminal work: multi-step tasks executed in a sandboxed shell environment. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Scores across Terminal-Bench major versions (v1 vs v2) are NOT comparable; harness configuration (container, time limits) also shifts results.
Pricing tiers: Gemini 3.6 Flash: $0.75/$3.75 per MTok (intro through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50). Multimodal input. · GPT-5.6 Sol: Launch list was $5/$30; cut to $4/$20 on 2026-08-21, promo held at least through 2026-11-21. Cached input $0.40/MTok; batch $2/$10. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026.
Gemini 3.6 Flash
Gemini 3.6 Flash is Google's balanced multimodal Flash tier with a 1M-token context.
Best for
- Multimodal pipelines
- High-volume processing
- Video and audio input
Watch out
Superseded by 3.7 Flash on quality; still a solid mid-tier.
GPT-5.6 Sol
OpenAI's GPT-5.6 flagship for complex reasoning and coding with a 1.05M-token context — top-tier but no longer the agentic-coding leader on the tracked boards.
Best for
- Complex reasoning
- Agentic coding
- Hard knowledge work
Watch out
At $4/$20 per MTok it is the priciest GPT-5.6 tier; 'max' effort and 'ultra' multi-agent mode multiply token use.
When the cheaper one wins
Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper on output at $3.75 per million tokens against $20 for GPT-5.6 Sol — about 5.3×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.
Run the model pickerEvidence confidence: High
How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.
- Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
- 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
- 2 shared named benchmarks with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Terminal-Bench 2.1.
- Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 6 days ago.
- Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.
Source receipts
Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: Google — Gemini 3.6 Flash (accessed 2026-08-29)
- Gemini 3.6 Flash: Google Cloud Gemini pricing (accessed 2026-08-29)
- GPT-5.6 Sol: OpenAI — GPT-5.6 (accessed 2026-08-29)
- GPT-5.6 Sol: OpenAI API pricing (gpt-5.6-sol $4/$20) (accessed 2026-08-29)
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Diving deeper on one model? Gemini 3.6 Flash · GPT-5.6 Sol
Common questions
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5.6 Sol
Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.6 Sol cheaper for input?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.75 per million input tokens, against $4 for GPT-5.6 Sol — roughly 5.3× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Gemini 3.6 Flash has tiered pricing: $0.75/$3.75 per MTok (intro through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50). Multimodal input. GPT-5.6 Sol has tiered pricing: Launch list was $5/$30; cut to $4/$20 on 2026-08-21, promo held at least through 2026-11-21. Cached input $0.40/MTok; batch $2/$10. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026.
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.6 Sol cheaper for output?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper at $3.75 per million output tokens, against $20 for GPT-5.6 Sol — roughly 5.3× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Gemini 3.6 Flash has tiered pricing: $0.75/$3.75 per MTok (intro through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50). Multimodal input. GPT-5.6 Sol has tiered pricing: Launch list was $5/$30; cut to $4/$20 on 2026-08-21, promo held at least through 2026-11-21. Cached input $0.40/MTok; batch $2/$10. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026.
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.6 Sol?
GPT-5.6 Sol accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for Gemini 3.6 Flash. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.6 Sol support the same reasoning levels?
Gemini 3.6 Flash exposes low, medium, high, while GPT-5.6 Sol exposes none, low, medium, high, xhigh, max.
Should I use Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.6 Sol?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the balanced tier and GPT-5.6 Sol the frontier tier. The useful question is whether your hardest task actually fails on the cheaper one — most production volume such as classification, extraction and summarisation does not.
Next step
Choosing between them
The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.
- Input price: Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 per 1M tokens versus $4 for GPT-5.6 Sol — a 5.3x difference at the headline tier.
- Context: GPT-5.6 Sol takes 1.05M against 1M for Gemini 3.6 Flash — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
- Measured capability: GPT-5.6 Sol leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 61 to 54 (measured 2026-08-14).
- Positioning: Gemini 3.6 Flash sits in the balanced tier, GPT-5.6 Sol in the frontier tier — most production volume (classification, extraction, summarisation) does not need the pricier tier.
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