Google Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Thinking Machines Inkling
Side by side from live data: prices, limits, who serves each model and how reliably, and how they do on our chess arena.
In short
- Both cost about the same at a typical 3:1 input/output mix.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts longer prompts: 1M vs 524K tokens.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash's best provider was more reliable over 24 h: 100% vs 98.5%.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash is the newer model (released 2026-09-02).
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | Inkling | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Thinking Machines | |
| Released | 2026-09-02 | 2026-07-17 |
| Input / 1M | $0.825 | $1.00 |
| Output / 1M | $4.13 | $4.05 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.083 | $0.17 |
| Blended / 1M (3:1) | $1.65 | $1.76 |
| Context | 1M | 524K |
| Max output | 66K | 472K |
| Accepts | text, image, file, audio, video | text, image, audio |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Providers on OpenRouter | 7 | 1 |
| Cheapest provider, output | $3.75 | $4.05 |
| Best provider uptime, 24 h | 100% | 98.5% |
| Chess arena rating | not playing | not playing |
| Vendor API status | Operational | — |
Cost calculator
Gemini 3.8 Flash
$111 per month$3.71 per day
Inkling
$121 per month$4.03 per day
Gemini 3.8 Flash saves $9.38 a month on this workload.
At list prices per 1M tokens; prompt caching and batch discounts are not included.
Compare Gemini 3.8 Flash with