Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Grok 4.5
Gemini 3.6 Flash comes out ahead, 73 to 69 and 64 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash
69/100- ECI154.5
- Price$1.50 / $9.00
- Context1.05M
- Our pickGoogle
Gemini 3.6 Flash
73/100- ECI154.3
- Price$0.75 / $3.75
- Context1.05M
xAIGrok 4.5
64/100- ECI154.0
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context500K
Gemini 3.6 Flash is our pick
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Gemini 3.5 Flash (69) and Grok 4.5 (64). It leads on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 3.5 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 · Gemini 3.6 Flash 154.3 · Grok 4.5 154.0
- Lowest priceGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.6 Flash $1.50 · Grok 4.5 $3.00 · Gemini 3.5 Flash $3.38 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Gemini 3.6 Flash 1,048,576 · Grok 4.5 500,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Gemini 3.6 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Grok 4.5: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Grok 4.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 84 | 84 | 83 |
| Price | 25% | 25 | 42 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 100 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 48 |
| Overall | 100% | 69/100 | 73/100 | 64/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle | Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle | Grok 4.5xAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 154.5 (best) | 154.3 | 154.0 |
| ECI rank | #33 of 148 (best) | #34 of 148 | #36 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 92.8% | 94.1% (best) | 93.4% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 62.8% (best) | 59.0% | 57.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 95.6% | 94.2% | 97.8% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 79.3% | — | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 66.2% (best) | 66.2% (best) | 48.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.50 | $0.75 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $9.00 | $3.75 (best) | $6.00 |
| Cached input | $0.15 | $0.075 (best) | $0.30 |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.38 | $1.50 (best) | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Over 200K: $4.00 / $12.00 |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Google API | Official xAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 500,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 65,536 tokens | 500,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | Yes | Yes | No |
| Video | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gemini-3.5-flash | gemini-3.6-flash | grok-4.5 |
| API providers | 32 (best) | 25 | 24 |
| Released | May 19, 2026 | Jul 21, 2026 | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Mar 2026 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash$33.00
- Gemini 3.6 Flash$15.00
- Grok 4.5$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Grok 4.5?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Gemini 3.5 Flash (69) and Grok 4.5 (64). It leads on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Grok 4.5?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.75 input / $3.75 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Grok 4.5 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price); Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.50 input / $9.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.50 per million tokens for Gemini 3.6 Flash versus $3.00 for Grok 4.5 (2× as much) and $3.38 for Gemini 3.5 Flash (2.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 (#33 of 148), Gemini 3.6 Flash 154.3 (#34 of 148) and Grok 4.5 154.0 (#36 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (152.5–156.6 vs 152.6–156.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3.6 Flash 94.1%, Grok 4.5 93.4%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 92.8%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Gemini 3.5 Flash 62.8%, Gemini 3.6 Flash 59.0%, Grok 4.5 57.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Grok 4.5 97.8%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 95.6%, Gemini 3.6 Flash 94.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 3.5 Flash 66.2%, Gemini 3.6 Flash 66.2%, Grok 4.5 48.3%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.6 Flash and Grok 4.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3.5 Flash leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 500,000 for Grok 4.5. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash up to 65,536, Gemini 3.6 Flash up to 65,536, Grok 4.5 up to 500,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Grok 4.5 accepts text and images. Gemini 3.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini 3.6 Flash and Grok 4.5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the newest, released Jul 21, 2026. Grok 4.5 came out Jul 8, 2026; Gemini 3.5 Flash came out May 19, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Jan 2025, Gemini 3.6 Flash Mar 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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