Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Nova Lite 2: cost comparison
Prices updated 2026-11-05 · computed from live provider data
Short answer: Gemini 3.8 Flash is cheaper on a
3:1 input/output blend — $0.750 per million tokens versus
$1.07, a 30% difference.
Gemini 3.8 Flash offers the larger context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Nova Lite 2.
Head to head
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nova Lite 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M tokens | $0.375 | $0.380 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $1.88 | $3.16 |
| Blended 3:1, per 1M | $0.750 | $1.07 |
| Context window | 1,048,576 | 1,000,000 |
| Vendor | empiriolabs |
Monthly cost at real volumes
| Workload (input / output) | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Nova Lite 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1M in / 250K out | $0.844 | $1.17 |
| 10M in / 2.5M out | $8.44 | $11.70 |
| 100M in / 25M out | $84.38 | $117 |
Which should you pick?
Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash when you need the longer context window (1,048,576 vs 1,000,000 tokens). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash when price per token dominates your workload — high-volume classification, extraction, or batch summarisation.