Gemini 3.8 Flash vs GPT-6 Astra
Harvey LAB-AA 1.1?
Gemini 3.8 Flashat high0
GPT-6 Astraat max8.6
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.8 Flash | GPT-6 Astra |
|---|---|---|
| Arena Text · creative writing | 1,487 · high | 1,450 · max |
| EQ-Bench Longform Creative Writing 1.11 | 76.8 | 82.8 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing v3 | 1,747.9 | 2,173.3 |
| Lech Mazur Short-Story | 0.1 · high | 3.4 · high |
| Harvey LAB-AA 1.1 | 0 · high | 8.6 · max |
Specs
| Spec | Gemini 3.8 Flash | GPT-6 Astra |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M | !$0.75 | $10 |
| Output, per 1M | !$3.75 | $50 |
| Cost per task? | $0.93 | $1.54 |
| Speed, tok/s | — | 59 |
| Context | 1M | 1.05M |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Released | Sep 2026 | Sep 2026 |
| See images | ✓ | ✓ |
| Read PDFs | ✓ | Partial |
| Hear audio | ✓ | — |
| Watch video | ✓ | — |
| Call tools | ✓ | ✓ |
| Force a tool call | Partial | Partial |
| Return strict JSON | ✓ | ✓ |
| Search the web | ✓ | ✓ |
| Run code | ✓ | ✓ |
| Use a computer | ? | ✓ |
What breaks when you switch
Gemini 3.8 Flash → GPT-6 Astra
Monitoring can return HTTP 403›
Misalignment monitoring can return HTTP 403 before streaming or errors after output; match misalignment_policy_violation and handle stream errors.
No none reasoning effort›
The none reasoning effort is unsupported on GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol; use low instead.
Remove unsupported sampling parameters›
When reasoning effort is not none, remove temperature, top_p and top_logprobs, plus Chat Completions logprobs or Responses output logprobs inclusion.
GPT-6 Astra → Gemini 3.8 Flash
Context: 1.05M → 1M
Sampling parameters are ignored›
temperature, top_p and top_k are ignored now and will cause HTTP 400 in future generations; remove them from requests.
No minimal thinking level›
The minimal thinking level returns an error; avoid minimal.