Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Grok 4.5
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
| Specification |
by Google
|
by xAI
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current flagship | Current flagship |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.50/Mtok | $2.00/Mtok |
| Output | $7.50/Mtok | $6.00/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $3.00/Mtok | $3.00/Mtok |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 500K tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
textimageaudiovideo
|
textimage
|
| Benchmarks sources: Artificial Analysis / Artificial Analysis, LMSYS Chatbot Arena (UC Berkeley), xAI Grok 4.5 launch post | ||
| Independent composite scores measured for both models — each on its own scale | ||
| AA Intelligence Index | 50.1 | 53.8 |
| AA Agentic Index | 38.7 | 45.7 |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | 23.5 | 26.4 |
| GDPval-AA v2 | 1423 ELO | 1527.9 ELO |
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | 1482.7 ELO | 1468.8 ELO |
| Per-benchmark results published for Grok 4.5 only — no independent per-benchmark scores exist for Gemini 3.6 Flash yet | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | — | 83.3 vendor |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
Google — $1.50/$7.50/Mtok
|
xAI — $2.00/$6.00/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Grok 4.5 | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $3 | $3 | $0 (0%) |
| 10M tokens | $30 | $30 | $0 (0%) |
| 100M tokens | $300 | $300 | $0 (0%) |
| 1000M tokens | $3000 | $3000 | $0 (0%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above
Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash if…
- you need the longer context: 1M tokens vs 500K (2×)
Pick Grok 4.5 if…
- this pairing gives Grok 4.5 no edge on price, context, cache discount, or measured performance — pick it only for qualitative fit (ecosystem, compliance, model behavior on your prompts)
Try Gemini 3.6 Flash on Google
The cheaper option here — Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $3.00/Mtok blended on Google.
Summary
Gemini 3.6 Flash by Google costs $1.50/Mtok input and $7.50/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image, audio, video input.
Grok 4.5 by xAI costs $2.00/Mtok input and $6.00/Mtok output, with a 500K-token context window. It supports text, image input.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.
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