THE TICKER · HEAD-TO-HEAD · CHECKED DAILY · LAST CHANGE 2026-10-13
GPT-5 MINI VS GEMINI 3.5 FLASH LITE
OpenAI vs Google, in USD per million tokens, cross-checked daily against the public pricing dataset. 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 34 models on the board — plus how much of it is waste either way.