High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Choose Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B costs 9% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($0.78 against $0.85 per million tokens).
Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3.8 27B: price, context and capabilities
Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash for reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents). Choose Qwen3.8 27B for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and the latest release.
In short
- Qwen3.8 27B is 9% cheaper than Gemini 2.5 Flash at the headline price ($0.775 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens).
- Gemini 2.5 Flash reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M.
- Qwen3.8 27B is the newer model (Aug 14, 2026, against June 2025).
- Only Gemini 2.5 Flash offers batch api.
Which should you choose?
Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.
Reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents)
Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash
Gemini 2.5 Flash charges $0.03 per million cached input tokens, against $0.09 for Qwen3.8 27B.
Latest release
Choose Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B is the newer release (Aug 14, 2026, against June 2025 for Gemini 2.5 Flash).
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Qwen3.8 27B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $0.93 | $0.83 | Qwen3.8 27B, $0.10 less |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $18.50 | $16.50 | Qwen3.8 27B, $2.00 less |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $400.00 | $350.00 | Qwen3.8 27B, $50.00 less |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | Qwen3.8 27B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) | |
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Legacy | Generally available |
| Headline price | $0.85 / 1M tokens | $0.775 / 1M tokens |
| Input | $0.30 / 1M tokens | $0.20 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $2.50 / 1M tokens | $2.50 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.03 / 1M tokens | $0.09 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Max output | 66k | 236k |
| Released | June 2025 | Aug 14, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | January 2025 | No data |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Capabilities | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching |
| API model id | gemini-2.5-flash | qwen3.8-27b |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench Hard | 12.1% | No data |
| GPQA Diamond | 68.3% | No data |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 4.7% | No data |
| IFBench (instruction following) | 39% | No data |
| τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) | 14.9% | No data |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | 65.5% | No data |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 49.9% | No data |
Independent evaluations by Artificial Analysis, run the same way for every model, at the reasoning setting shown. Percentages unless marked as an index.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3.8 27B?
Choose Gemini 2.5 Flash for reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents). Choose Qwen3.8 27B for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and the latest release.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B is 9% cheaper than Gemini 2.5 Flash at the headline price ($0.775 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens).
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3.8 27B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M.
What is the difference between Gemini 2.5 Flash and Qwen3.8 27B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash is made by Google and Qwen3.8 27B by Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). Qwen3.8 27B is 9% cheaper than Gemini 2.5 Flash at the headline price ($0.775 / 1M tokens vs $0.85 / 1M tokens). Gemini 2.5 Flash reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M. Qwen3.8 27B is the newer model (Aug 14, 2026, against June 2025). Only Gemini 2.5 Flash offers batch api.
How much do Gemini 2.5 Flash and Qwen3.8 27B cost per month?
At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, Gemini 2.5 Flash costs $18.50 and Qwen3.8 27B costs $16.50, at standard rates.
Which is newer, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B was released on Aug 14, 2026 and Gemini 2.5 Flash on June 2025.