OpenAI o3-mini vs Gemini 1.5 Flash

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

OpenAI o3-mini

OpenAI

Affordable reasoning model for coding tasks. Best price-performance for algorithm-heavy work.

Input$1.10/M
Output$4.40/M
Context200K tokens
Best ForAlgorithm design, coding challenges, debugging
Benchmark80/100

Gemini 1.5 Flash

Google

Cheapest Gemini model. Good for high-volume, simple tasks.

Input$0.075/M
Output$0.300/M
Context1M tokens
Best ForHigh-volume simple tasks, cost optimization

Cost Comparison by Scenario

Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.

ScenarioOpenAI o3-miniGemini 1.5 FlashSavings
Small Script (1K lines) $0.17 $0.01 Gemini 1.5 Flash saves $0.16 (93%)
Medium Feature (10K lines) $1.27 $0.09 Gemini 1.5 Flash saves $1.18 (93%)
Large Project (50K lines) $6.33 $0.43 Gemini 1.5 Flash saves $5.89 (93%)
Code Review (5K lines) $0.30 $0.02 Gemini 1.5 Flash saves $0.28 (93%)

Verdict

Gemini 1.5 Flash wins on both price and performance — $0.075/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.

For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.

Compare with Other Models