Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs OpenAI: o3 Mini benchmark

Name: Gemini 3.6 Flash vs OpenAI: o3 Mini AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Gemini 3.6 Flash (Google) and OpenAI: o3 Mini (OpenAI) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, OpenAI: o3 Mini is ahead by 54 points (1,560 vs 1,506; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, OpenAI: o3 Mini resolves 78.5% versus 70.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Gemini 3.6 Flash streams faster (198 tok/s) while Gemini 3.6 Flash is the cheaper output token ($3.75/1M). Gemini 3.6 Flash has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

Share Analysis:

WhatsApp Telegram X / Post LinkedIn Reddit

Google

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Google Jul 21 workhorse. Now shares the 3.7 Flash introductory $0.75/$3.75 rate through Dec 31 2026.

Elo 1,506$3.75/1M out

OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (openai/o3-mini). Preview until a second source matches.

Elo 1,560$4.4/1M out

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Instant pairwise benchmark recalculation across 400+ LLMs

Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Gemini 3.6 Flash (5)vsOpenAI: o3 Mini (5)

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 5W (50%)Overall: Even matchupOpenAI: o3 Mini: 5W (50%)

← Gemini 3.6 FlashOpenAI: o3 Mini →

OpenAI: o3 Mini (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,506vs1,560

Coding Elo

1,514vs1,585

SWE-bench

70.8%vs78.5%

LiveBench

67.2%vs72.4%

GPQA Diamond

79.6%vs87.2%

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 0WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 5W

Gemini 3.6 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

198 tok/svs92 tok/s

Time to first token

92 msvs290 ms

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 2WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 0W

Gemini 3.6 Flash (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$3.75/1Mvs$4.4/1M

Input price

$0.75/1Mvs$1.1/1M

Context window

1Mvs200k

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 3WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 0W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageEven 3–3

Preference Elo

OpenAI: o3 Mini

54 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Gemini 3.6 Flash

106 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Gemini 3.6 Flash

$0.65/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,506

EloHigh is better

1,560+4%

Code Elo

High is better

1,514

Code EloHigh is better

1,585+5%

LiveBench

High is better

67.2%

LiveBenchHigh is better

72.4%+8%

SWE-bench

High is better

70.8%

SWE-benchHigh is better

78.5%+11%

GPQA

High is better

79.6%

GPQAHigh is better

87.2%+10%

TTFT

Low is better

+215%92 ms

TTFTLow is better

290 ms

Speed

High is better

+115%198 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

92 tok/s

In $

Low is better

+47%$0.75/1M

In $Low is better

$1.1/1M

Out $

Low is better

+17%$3.75/1M

Out $Low is better

$4.4/1M

Context

High is better

+424%1M

ContextHigh is better

200k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 21% with Gemini 3.6 Flash

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Gemini 3.6 Flash$82.50 / mo

In: $26.25Out: $56.25

OpenAI: o3 Mini$104.50 / mo

In: $38.50Out: $66.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Gemini 3.6 Flash is estimated to save $22.00/month ($264/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
OpenAI: o3 Mini:Pick OpenAI: o3 Mini when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Gemini 3.6 Flash:Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Gemini 3.6 Flash:Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsOpenAI: o3 Mini

Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).

High-volume chatGemini 3.6 Flash

Lower output list price ($3.75/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 3.6 Flash

Lower TTFT (92 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 3.6 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).
High-volume chat	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Lower output list price ($3.75/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Lower TTFT (92 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Gemini 3.6 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

priceAug 13, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash (Jul 21) now shares the 3.7 intro rate

Jul 21 workhorse that inherited $0.75/$3.75 through year-end. Keep the row; 3.7 is the newer sibling.

Community Sentiment

Cast Your Matchup Vote

0 total votes

Community Discussions (0)

No comments posted on this matchup yet. Be the first to share an evaluation note!

Share card

The real PNG is generated at /compare/gemini-3-6-flash-vs-o3-mini/opengraph-image for crawlers.

PNG

CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE

Google

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Elo 1,506

LiveBench67.2%

SWE-bench70.8%

Speed198 tok/s

Output cost$3.75/1M

OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Elo 1,560

LiveBench72.4%

SWE-bench78.5%

Speed92 tok/s

Output cost$4.4/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Gemini 3.6 Flash or OpenAI: o3 Mini?: OpenAI: o3 Mini has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,560). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Gemini 3.6 Flash or OpenAI: o3 Mini?: OpenAI: o3 Mini leads SWE-bench at 78.5% vs 70.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Gemini 3.6 Flash output tokens are $3.75/1M versus $4.4/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Gemini 3.6 Flash or OpenAI: o3 Mini?: Gemini 3.6 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (92 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Gemini 3.6 Flash and OpenAI: o3 Mini Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Gemini 3.6 Flash matchups →|All OpenAI: o3 Mini matchups →

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash (previous gemini-flash)Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3.7 Flash (next gemini-flash)OpenAI: o3 Mini vs OpenAI o1-mini (previous gpt-mini)OpenAI: o3 Mini vs GPT-5 mini (next gpt-mini)Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking vs Gemini 3.6 Flash GPT-4.5 Orion vs OpenAI: o3 Mini

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs OpenAI: o3 Mini benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Gemini 3.6 Flash (5)vsOpenAI: o3 Mini (5)

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 5W (50%)Overall: Even matchupOpenAI: o3 Mini: 5W (50%)

← Gemini 3.6 FlashOpenAI: o3 Mini →

OpenAI: o3 Mini (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,506vs1,560

Coding Elo

1,514vs1,585

SWE-bench

70.8%vs78.5%

LiveBench

67.2%vs72.4%

GPQA Diamond

79.6%vs87.2%

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 0WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 5W

Gemini 3.6 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

198 tok/svs92 tok/s

Time to first token

92 msvs290 ms

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 2WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 0W

Gemini 3.6 Flash (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$3.75/1Mvs$4.4/1M

Input price

$0.75/1Mvs$1.1/1M

Context window

1Mvs200k

Gemini 3.6 Flash: 3WOpenAI: o3 Mini: 0W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsOpenAI: o3 Mini

Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).

High-volume chatGemini 3.6 Flash

Lower output list price ($3.75/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 3.6 Flash

Lower TTFT (92 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 3.6 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	OpenAI: o3 Mini	Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).
High-volume chat	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Lower output list price ($3.75/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Lower TTFT (92 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Gemini 3.6 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Gemini 3.6 Flash or OpenAI: o3 Mini?

OpenAI: o3 Mini has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,560). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Gemini 3.6 Flash or OpenAI: o3 Mini?

OpenAI: o3 Mini leads SWE-bench at 78.5% vs 70.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Gemini 3.6 Flash output tokens are $3.75/1M versus $4.4/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Gemini 3.6 Flash or OpenAI: o3 Mini?

Gemini 3.6 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (92 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Gemini 3.6 Flash and OpenAI: o3 Mini Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Gemini 3.6 Flash (Jul 21) now shares the 3.7 intro rate

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Gemini 3.6 Flash

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Gemini 3.6 Flash (Jul 21) now shares the 3.7 intro rate

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Gemini 3.6 Flash

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons