Claude Haiku vs Gemini Flash
The cheap tier, where the shape of the job matters more than the leaderboard. Both now carry a million-token context. Gemini Flash, on 3.8, is priced to run constantly, which makes it the better agent workhorse; Haiku 5.5 stays inside the Claude family, so prompts and tool definitions port cleanly from Sonnet.
| Claude Haiku | Gemini Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | |
| Current release | Haiku 5.5 | 3.8 Flash |
| Tier | Fast & cheap | Fast & cheap |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Cost | Low cost | Low cost |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision, audio |
| Open weights | No | No |
Cost is a tier, not a quote, providers change prices often. Check Anthropic and Google before you commit. Last updated 2026-10-21.
Which one to pick
Claude HaikuAnthropic · Haiku 5.5
High-volume, low-latency work where speed and cost matter most
Reach for it when- You already run Claude and want one prompt style across tiers
- Latency-sensitive classification
Gemini FlashGoogle · 3.8 Flash
High-volume agent loops and prototyping, cheap enough to run constantly
Reach for it when- Cheap agent loops that run constantly
- You already build on Gemini
Related comparisons
- GPT Luna vs Gemini FlashBoth are built for volume, and both got materially cheaper in 2026, OpenAI cut Luna's price by 80% in July, Google shipped 3.7 Flash in August and 3.8 Flash since.
- Claude Haiku vs GPT LunaTwo small models that now list at the same $0.10 and $0.50 per million tokens, though Haiku 5.5 charges more once a prompt passes 100K tokens.