THE TICKER · HEAD-TO-HEAD · CHECKED DAILY · LAST CHANGE 2026-08-04
GPT-5 MINI VS GEMINI 3.5 FLASH LITE
OpenAI vs Google, in USD per million tokens, verified daily against public list prices. Same jobs, both meters running.
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs 1.2x more than GPT-5 Mini for the same job — a 1,000-token prompt with a 3,000-token reply runs $0.0078 vs $0.0063. At 1,000 runs a day, that gap is $46.50 a month for identical traffic.
SIDE BY SIDE
| GPT-5 Mini → | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite → | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | OpenAI | |
| Input / MTok | $0.250 | $0.300 |
| Output / MTok | $2.00 | $2.50 |
| Output multiple | 8.0x | 8.3x |
| 1K prompt + 3K reply | $0.0063 | $0.0078 |
SAME JOB, BOTH BILLS
| Scenario | GPT-5 Mini | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A typical prompt | $0.0019 | $0.0023 | 1.2x |
| A 20-turn conversation | $0.0090 | $0.01 | 1.2x |
| Summarizing a 10-page document | $0.0084 | $0.01 | 1.2x |
| One agent run | $0.02 | $0.03 | 1.2x |
| A code review request | $0.0079 | $0.0098 | 1.2x |
Output sizes use the same editorial ratios as the Burn Calculator. Estimates, not invoices — and price is not a benchmark: the cheaper model is only a bargain if it does the job.
SETTLE IT WITH YOUR OWN PROMPT
Paste a real prompt into the Burn Calculator and see what it costs on GPT-5 Mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and the other 15 models on the board — plus how much of it is waste either way.