Side by side · November 2026

GPT-6.1 Sol vs Gemini 3.8 Flash

GPT-6.1 Sol scores higher on the Models at Work leaderboard (70 vs 65 out of 100). On independent tests alone, GPT-6.1 Sol is ahead (81 vs 63). Gemini 3.8 Flash is cheaper: 1,000 support replies cost about $3.75 at list price, against $10 on GPT-6.1 Sol, which is 2.7 times as much. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, one of the independent tests, GPT-6.1 Sol leads 55 to 31.

Updated Nov 12, 2026 · every number links to who measured it
GPT-6.1 Sol · OpenAIGemini 3.8 Flash · Google
Leaderboard rank#6#12
Score (0–100)7065
Kind of workEveryday defaultHigh-volume work
Price per 1M tokens$2 to read · $10 to write$0.75 to read · $3.75 to write
Reads at once1M tokens (about 750,000 words)1M tokens (about 750,000 words)
Where you can get itOpenAI API, Amazon Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (Google Cloud), ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu, Microsoft 365 CopilotGemini Enterprise Agent Platform (Google Cloud), Gemini app (Google AI Pro and Ultra)
Can a company host it itselfNoNo
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index5531
Humanity's Sixth Sense (Scale)46.6041.60
Arena Text scoreNot measured1497 (rank 8)
Scale SWE-Bench Pro V2 (mini-swe-agent)Not measured58.80%
Humanity's Last Exam, Diamond (Scale)Not measured34.30
Best forDrafting proposals and reports, Summarising long documents, Back-office tasks with several steps, Answering questions from company documentsFirst-pass support replies, Summarising documents, images and recordings at volume, Routine multi-step tasks on a budget

Cost of 1,000 jobs

1,000 of theseGPT-6.1 SolGemini 3.8 Flash
Support repliesthe customer message, the account notes and two help articles read; a 300-word reply written$10$3.75
Documents processeda two-page invoice or form read; the fields pulled out$7$2.63
Calls summariseda 40-minute call transcript read; a summary and next steps written$26$9.75
Contracts revieweda 40-page contract read against a checklist; a memo of issues written$75$28
Drafts writtena brief and one example read; a 600-word email or proposal section written$11$4.13

Worked out from each vendor’s list price and a fixed size for each job. A product built on a model charges its own price on top. See what every model costs for the same jobs.

Choose GPT-6.1 Sol for

  • Drafting proposals and reports
  • Summarising long documents
  • Back-office tasks with several steps
  • Answering questions from company documents

The sensible OpenAI default: 55 on Artificial Analysis's index against 57 for GPT-6 Astra, at a fifth of Astra's list price.

Caveats: Two points separate it from Astra on the index, which is within noise; test Astra only where Sol's answers fall short. The ChatGPT plans are listed from our researcher's reading of OpenAI's launch page, which blocked automated reading this run; on ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu an owner has to switch the model on. In Microsoft 365 Copilot it is rolling out in phases across Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Chat with usage limits Microsoft has not published, per Microsoft's 30 September post; admins commenting there report users already reaching them.

Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash for

  • First-pass support replies
  • Summarising documents, images and recordings at volume
  • Routine multi-step tasks on a budget

Fast and well liked in blind votes for the money, at under half the list price of Gemini 4 Argon, but users report more made-up answers than rivals and Google doubles the price on 1 January 2027.

Caveats: $0.75 in / $3.75 out per million tokens (the unit vendors bill by) is introductory; Google's pricing page says $1.50 / $7.50 from 1 January 2027. Users report more invented facts and more dropped details between messages than with rival models: have someone check its output. Third Flash release in six weeks: expect Google to retire versions quickly and plan for re-testing. In the Gemini app it is for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, per Google's launch post. Google Workspace is not listed: no Google page we read names the model and a Workspace plan.

What people running them say

GPT-6.1 Sol: The launch thread on Hacker News, a developer forum, argued over its own title: 'near-Astra for a fifth of the price' drew 955 comments, most of them about which work to send to Sol and which to a dearer model.

Gemini 3.8 Flash: A very large Hacker News (developer forum) thread: 1,160 upvotes, 669 comments. simonw had it build an interactive chart as a web page in '13 seconds' for '1.8 cents'; colechristensen calls it 'competitive with opus/fable and also FAST'; several use it for the bulk of the work while a stronger model writes the plan. The pushback is about reliability: one user says it 'gives me the most hallucinations' (made-up facts) of the major models, others complain it ignores what was said one message earlier, and in some subjects its knowledge stops at early 2025, which hurts research tasks.

Questions people ask

Which is better, GPT-6.1 Sol or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

GPT-6.1 Sol scores higher on the Models at Work leaderboard (70 vs 65 out of 100). On independent tests alone, GPT-6.1 Sol is ahead (81 vs 63). Gemini 3.8 Flash is cheaper: 1,000 support replies cost about $3.75 at list price, against $10 on GPT-6.1 Sol, which is 2.7 times as much. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, one of the independent tests, GPT-6.1 Sol leads 55 to 31.

When should I choose GPT-6.1 Sol over Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Choose GPT-6.1 Sol for drafting proposals and reports, summarising long documents, back-office tasks with several steps, answering questions from company documents. The sensible OpenAI default: 55 on Artificial Analysis's index against 57 for GPT-6 Astra, at a fifth of Astra's list price.

When should I choose Gemini 3.8 Flash over GPT-6.1 Sol?

Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash for first-pass support replies, summarising documents, images and recordings at volume, routine multi-step tasks on a budget. Fast and well liked in blind votes for the money, at under half the list price of Gemini 4 Argon, but users report more made-up answers than rivals and Google doubles the price on 1 January 2027.

Which is cheaper, GPT-6.1 Sol or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

GPT-6.1 Sol costs $2 per million tokens it reads (input) and $10 per million tokens it writes (output) on OpenAI's list price (OpenAI API pricing, read Nov 12, 2026). A token is about three-quarters of a word. Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 per million tokens it reads (input) and $3.75 per million tokens it writes (output) on Google's list price (Gemini API Pricing, read Nov 12, 2026). A token is about three-quarters of a word.

What do 1,000 jobs cost on GPT-6.1 Sol and Gemini 3.8 Flash?

At list price: 1,000 support replies cost $10 on GPT-6.1 Sol and $3.75 on Gemini 3.8 Flash; 1,000 documents processed cost $7 on GPT-6.1 Sol and $2.63 on Gemini 3.8 Flash; 1,000 calls summarised cost $26 on GPT-6.1 Sol and $9.75 on Gemini 3.8 Flash; 1,000 contracts reviewed cost $75 on GPT-6.1 Sol and $28 on Gemini 3.8 Flash; 1,000 drafts written cost $11 on GPT-6.1 Sol and $4.13 on Gemini 3.8 Flash. A product built on either model charges its own price on top.

Scores come from the Models at Work leaderboard: Score is 0 to 100 and computed, not typed. 40% is independent testing (Artificial Analysis, Arena, Scale, Epoch, Vals and others; each test is scaled against the best score on this board, and tests of real work, such as finished freelance projects or professional tasks, count double the exams). 30% is price: the vendor's list price for a typical mix of reading and writing, on a fixed scale from $0.05 to $60 per million tokens, so a model that costs a fifth as much gains real ground. 15% is what people report after running it, from Signals and linked threads. 15% is fit: how much text it can take in at once and where a business can get it (the products and clouds that carry it), with a small credit for open weights. A missing component drops out and the rest are reweighted. A model with no independent test yet is provisional and ranks below every measured one. Within three points is a tie. Vendor-published figures are labelled and never counted. Prices are vendor list prices where published; a typical mix assumes three parts reading to one part writing.